Almost 2 weeks ago……
I don’t want it to sound like I’m doing something REVOLUTIONARY, but I need a change. Today I have started making preparations to deactivate my social media accounts (not all of them really- Facebook and Instagram mostly).
I’ve actually been thinking about this for a while. A couple of things have continued to lead me in this continued direction, though. I listened to When Less Becomes More by Emily Ley on audiobook. At first, I thought I would be listening to another book on decluttering my physical environment, but it turned out that it was about clearing out more clutter than just the physical stuff.
Also, I read the bible study by Jennie Allen titled, Get Out of Your Head. In that study, she talks about the comparisons we make with those ‘perfect’ people out there in social media land. Minutes after waking, reaching for your phone, and tuning into social media, we have already begun our day on the wrong foot by comparing ourselves to others.
Who was it that said comparison is the thief of Joy? I believe it. Sometimes it hard enough hanging onto my joy without outside influences. When I take a few seconds to scroll I’m bombarded with the perfection of other lives I cannot obtain and it leads me to dissatisfaction with my own self.
Then I watched something ‘everyone’ had been ‘talking’ about- Netflix’s Social Dilemma. Now I can add a layer of paranoia is my already issues regarding social media. I already had this idea in the back of my mind to some extent. My social media ‘feeds’ me what it wants me to see- OR what it thinks I want to see, so that I can remain hooked to it. Well, that theory seems to pan out for me because I spend too much time on social media following what others are doing instead of me going out and doing.
So, I have been thinking about this change. Can I stay away from social media without deactivating my accounts? I started experimenting with myself. I moved my social media icons off my phone ‘desktop’. I don’t know what the proper definition is, but I moved them so they weren’t visually speaking, so accessible. It requires an extra step for me to access them. Has it been helpful? I’m not really sure- I only eliminated one step in getting to them. In times of boredom, for the last SEVERAL years (maybe 10- 12), I scroll FB. I want to curb this, or maybe even eliminate it. I don’t think moving my icons will change this behavior.
I don’t believe social media inherently bad (or good). I think the problem for me is that I cannot control what I will see. If I check out a book at the library on butterflies, then I can expect I will be reading about butterflies. If I hop onto social media I can see just about ANYTHING. For example today I got a nice dose of people hoping the president dies of Covid due to karma. This is not what I want to feed my soul. It makes me so sad. Not even in a judgemental blah, blah, blah way. It just makes me feel bad. And I don’t want to feel this way.
Health is not just about what you put into your body by way of your mouth, by food and drink. It is also what you consume by way of your eyes and ears. I may not have control over all things that come my way, but I have control over some things and I intend to use that control.
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