I love social media, I really do. I may just love it a bit too much, in fact. I write this blog. I try to keep FaceBook relatively updated with big life things. I occasionally check Twitter. I run two Instagram accounts, and I waste countless hours on Pinterest and YouTube— depending on your definition of “waste.” The point is: I am such a stereotypical, first-world, teenage girl, and I am totally okay with that.
Sometimes though, it gets to be too much. There’s only so much time I have to spend on the virtual world. There’s a point of needing to take a step back and live life, soaking in every moment as it happens. Connecting with people via the internet is awesome and such a neat part of living in the 21st century. There’s something to be said for personal connections though. Nothing can truly replace forming a relationship with a person you can see face-to-face and do life with. It’s fellowship, and it’s what we were created for. We need it to thrive.
With all of this weighing on my mind lately, I’ve undertaken a social media detox. In an effort to spend less time absorbed in the pixelated world, I’ve been going through and doing lots of unfriending, unfollowing, and unsubscribing. The sad part of this is that in doing so, I find myself wondering if I’m offending someone by unfollowing them, hurting feelings by unfriending. The thing about it though is that I shouldn’t have to have that worry. It’s my life. It’s my time. It’s the influences and information I’m taking in. I have a right to be choosy about who I spend my time keeping up with.
It’s not that I don’t care about people; I do. For considering myself an introvert, I am super outgoing. I love people, and I love knowing what’s going on in their lives. (Currently planning on making a career out of it, so I sure hope I enjoy it.) I love connecting and keeping up. I love being plugged in, and if I had all the time in the world, I’d keep up with everyone. Time is finite though, and once it slips away there’s no getting it back.
How we use the time we have been given is up to us. I don’t know about y’all, but I want to use my time well. I want to enjoy. I want to explore. I want to experience. I want to be present. I want to live. Some of that includes the internet and social media, but a lot of it does not. We all walk a thin line between experiencing life and sharing life on social media, and we must decide for ourselves how much of each we’d like to do. God gives us free will; it is up to us. And recently, I’ve felt a need to detox. I need to reconnect with myself. I need to tap back into my goals and dreams. I need to spend more time with the people I love (before I’m 800 miles away and FaceTime is the next best thing available), and I need to spend more time with the God I love.
Since I can’t pull more time for these things out of thin air, something had to give. So I’ve cleaned up my FaceBook friends. I’ve unsubscribed from the YouTube channels whose videos I rarely take the time to watch. I’ve unfollowed the Pinners and boards I don’t get much out of, and I’ve let go of some Instagram accounts.
Time is so precious. I’m trying to stay aware of how I’m spending mine, and I hope you all will too.
This really made me think about my own habits. I think that personally I have been spending too much time on social media and not enjoying time with people physically. I think I will try and take a small detox as well! Thanks for the inspiration !
I have struggled myself with finding the balance between social media and real life. I do value social media though. It has brought so many incredible, like-minded people into my life, and I am so glad I have the opportunity to reach out to those who I would have otherwise never met. There is a line though between enjoying social media, and becoming attached to it, so I am thrilled to see you are self-aware enough to take a step back and give your time to other things. I truly hope you see a benefit to it all!