Day 13: I Broke-up with Social Media
So, this past week (maybe it's been longer than that) I decided to break-up with Facebook. I have a few other apps - Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube that are also on my, "I need to take a break from you, list." Why did I do this? Well, there is a myriad of reasons, but the most of which was where my sanity is concerned. I'm not sure if you've had the unfortunate opportunity of seeing your newsfeed packed full of all the vile, bitter, hateful political rantings made be those who do not share the same viewpoints as you. I know many people lost "friends" over this period of time, I use quotation marks because true friends stick around. In fact, some of us have even had family members block us. Eh...whatever!!! But, even with all that angsty drama, there was a significantly more prominent reason I've taken the much-needed sabbatical.
Have you ever had the pleasure of being so proud of something, you couldn't wait to share it with someone? Not proud, then how about excited? Not excited, then how about frustrated, angry, unsure, happy...you get it, right? I took the hiatus for this fact; more so, because I was tired of reading the highlight reels. Oh, don't get me wrong, I am just as guilty, but when I would focus on the what and not the who it would create a feeling in me that I just didn't like. Don't misread me, I have so many friends and family members I am happy for and totally proud of. I do. In fact, there were some I wish I could have seen more of their smiling faces. However, truth be told, I found myself comparing who I was, and what we have, against what everyone else was/had. **ALERT** This is a huge No-No! The Lord tells us not to do this and the more I did, the more the Holy Spirit convicted me of it.
Therefore, I took the plunge and did it. I took the app off of my home screen (by the way, I did not know you cannot actually delete the app from your phone when it is pre-installed...seriously...wonder how much that cost FB?!) and in its place, I put Words With Friends. I can tell you, that first day, I must have grabbed my phone, some 100 times. Each time I would mindlessly click on the little icon that would lead me to ... a list of active scrabble-like games?! I hated that first day. It was hard. I survived. I did, however, score a lot of points and had a high weekly game total on the leaderboard. (Small things.) Then day two came and went, and three, and you get the picture at this point. Sure, I have hopped on a couple random times, just to take a peek-see, and about half way through the first minute of scrolling I am totally bored and questioning my motives.
I did post a meme a couple days ago - a forward from one of the first ones I happened upon in a random peek-see event. Oh, and I reposted something our pastor put on the church's page. Other than that, it really has been crickets from me. Now, you may be wondering why I don't just deactivate the page altogether. Well, it isn't quite so easy. You see, I share my page with my Mr. *GASP* we are those people! Yes, yes we are and who cares! The Mr. has a healthy relationship with the app, he simply takes it or leaves it. It would not be respectful of me to deactivate the account for my purposes only.
All of that said, I do miss the occasional verbal brawl - you know, the kind where adults shared ideas and concepts and discussed facts and weighed them against current situations, but there is little of that, so I'm not missing much. I still get the LulaRoe notifications from the three ladies I offer my hard-earned money up to in exchange for the most lovely, vibrant, in-your-face, I just can't live without it, prints. Those will be turned off too. Not that I don't love my LLR, but because it gives fuel I don't need, and also because I really don't need anymore. (Yes, that was a hard sentence to type!) -> note to any of my friends/family if you want to surprise me with anything, an LLR GC would be AMAZING - I'll get you the contact of my consultant(s).
Now, to the other three apps I touched on in the beginning. Instagram is one of those things I use mostly when I have a picture to post. Fortunately, those are few and far between these days. (For grins and giggles maybe I'll throw some on later...hehehe and then link them to FB. See what I did there?!) Pinterest and Youtube will be harder for me. I love finding things on Pinterest and adding them to one of my boards; I have 50 of them. I know. Pin much?! And youtube. Well, this is a recent joy I've found for anything outside of music. I have literally lost hours watching how-to videos. Man, there are some epically talented people in this world. Yep, you know where I could go with this one. It's time to check that one, too.
So, while this challenge wasn't much of a challenge, I did want to share with you about my social media break-up. If I could just throw my two-cents out here...I think more and more people should do this. In fact, I'd start with a boycott of Twitter...seems too many people enjoy the quick-witted nature of that one. BTW - I had an account a few years ago. I never could figure out how to make a tweet. It's been long gone...bye-bye birdie. Me thinks our CIC could stand a moment of the same thought process...just sayin'!
Have you ever had the pleasure of being so proud of something, you couldn't wait to share it with someone? Not proud, then how about excited? Not excited, then how about frustrated, angry, unsure, happy...you get it, right? I took the hiatus for this fact; more so, because I was tired of reading the highlight reels. Oh, don't get me wrong, I am just as guilty, but when I would focus on the what and not the who it would create a feeling in me that I just didn't like. Don't misread me, I have so many friends and family members I am happy for and totally proud of. I do. In fact, there were some I wish I could have seen more of their smiling faces. However, truth be told, I found myself comparing who I was, and what we have, against what everyone else was/had. **ALERT** This is a huge No-No! The Lord tells us not to do this and the more I did, the more the Holy Spirit convicted me of it.
Therefore, I took the plunge and did it. I took the app off of my home screen (by the way, I did not know you cannot actually delete the app from your phone when it is pre-installed...seriously...wonder how much that cost FB?!) and in its place, I put Words With Friends. I can tell you, that first day, I must have grabbed my phone, some 100 times. Each time I would mindlessly click on the little icon that would lead me to ... a list of active scrabble-like games?! I hated that first day. It was hard. I survived. I did, however, score a lot of points and had a high weekly game total on the leaderboard. (Small things.) Then day two came and went, and three, and you get the picture at this point. Sure, I have hopped on a couple random times, just to take a peek-see, and about half way through the first minute of scrolling I am totally bored and questioning my motives.
I did post a meme a couple days ago - a forward from one of the first ones I happened upon in a random peek-see event. Oh, and I reposted something our pastor put on the church's page. Other than that, it really has been crickets from me. Now, you may be wondering why I don't just deactivate the page altogether. Well, it isn't quite so easy. You see, I share my page with my Mr. *GASP* we are those people! Yes, yes we are and who cares! The Mr. has a healthy relationship with the app, he simply takes it or leaves it. It would not be respectful of me to deactivate the account for my purposes only.
All of that said, I do miss the occasional verbal brawl - you know, the kind where adults shared ideas and concepts and discussed facts and weighed them against current situations, but there is little of that, so I'm not missing much. I still get the LulaRoe notifications from the three ladies I offer my hard-earned money up to in exchange for the most lovely, vibrant, in-your-face, I just can't live without it, prints. Those will be turned off too. Not that I don't love my LLR, but because it gives fuel I don't need, and also because I really don't need anymore. (Yes, that was a hard sentence to type!) -> note to any of my friends/family if you want to surprise me with anything, an LLR GC would be AMAZING - I'll get you the contact of my consultant(s).
Now, to the other three apps I touched on in the beginning. Instagram is one of those things I use mostly when I have a picture to post. Fortunately, those are few and far between these days. (For grins and giggles maybe I'll throw some on later...hehehe and then link them to FB. See what I did there?!) Pinterest and Youtube will be harder for me. I love finding things on Pinterest and adding them to one of my boards; I have 50 of them. I know. Pin much?! And youtube. Well, this is a recent joy I've found for anything outside of music. I have literally lost hours watching how-to videos. Man, there are some epically talented people in this world. Yep, you know where I could go with this one. It's time to check that one, too.
So, while this challenge wasn't much of a challenge, I did want to share with you about my social media break-up. If I could just throw my two-cents out here...I think more and more people should do this. In fact, I'd start with a boycott of Twitter...seems too many people enjoy the quick-witted nature of that one. BTW - I had an account a few years ago. I never could figure out how to make a tweet. It's been long gone...bye-bye birdie. Me thinks our CIC could stand a moment of the same thought process...just sayin'!
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