Socials Sabbatical

It was time. I could sense myself getting overwhelmed in life. To the point that I’d turned to mindless scrolling to curb the overwhelming feelings I was having.

Sometimes when I have too much on my plate I can’t pick a starting point. Or, I start everything on my list and end up in bigger chaos. This past November, we had a lot going on with interviewing for future jobs post-seminary (my husband is a 4th year student). We were in a busy time of year with homeschooling and Jason’s class load being heavy, in addition to our outside meetings.

I just started to feel the pressure of the pile-on. So, I decided with Thanksgiving break, as we pulled out of the drive to visit family…my phone got put away. 

By my very nature, I am a social person. I’m constantly setting up get-togethers with our friend group to the point I’m surprised they haven’t muted me by now. 

I thought that being disconnected from social media would be a huge challenge…that I might experience some fear of missing out. I’d wonder what people were chatting about. I was pleasantly surprised when this turned out to be, not the case. It probably helped that I deleted both Facebook and Instagram from my phone completely.

Social Status

Being an influencer is all the rage these days. We all follow them to get their tips and tricks. We spend hours scrolling through content, or spend $hundreds trying new things.

Socials can be dangerous if we let them. They steal your time. What else could you do with the 2-hour nightly scroll? They steal your money, with all the gimmicks we try because we saw someone else using it. Where else could that money go? 

The biggest danger is that slowly, they can steal who you are. Change isn’t always bad. Some of the life implements may be to improve your health or change your diet. Some may be beneficial to who you are as a person. Others may lead you to try new things because it looks cool when they do it…wear new things, say new things, and so on. This is when one has to pay attention to the content they are following…where is it turning your heart? Are you staying true to who you are or are you slowly changing? 

Social Society 

Ironically our social society is dwindling in real life (IRL). We spend so much time on our phones. Do we even register that we grab it first thing when we wake up? We take it with us to places like the bathroom or the dinner table, unable to put it down for mere minutes at a time. 

When we gather with friends, how often are our phones out alongside us at our gathering? We can carry on full conversations with people while simultaneously scrolling our phones. How rich and fulfilling are those conversations? What message do we share with our friends when we give small short answers that say “I’m tracking” or “I’m listening”…but are we? Where are the days of gathering with friends for food, playing games, or having a bonfire? Do we remember what it’s like doing activities where you can sit and chat for hours, laugh, and truly enjoy the presence of your friends?…the days when you don’t even notice your phone is missing, or gasp if you even left it behind? 

40 Day Fast

I read a book during the fast to help keep me on track. The book is called The 40-Day Social Media Fast by Wendy Speake. It’s not broken into chapters like most books, but it does break down into days. You read a quip a day over the 40 days. It kind of aided as a reflection tool! I’d read them each night as I completed a day.

I’ve shared some one-liners below from a handful of the daily entries. These are lines that stuck out to me as I was reading. Each day had a few of these sprinkled throughout Wendy’s entries. For the sake of time, I’ve chosen just one to share.

Enticing Entries 
  • Day 1: Social Media is simply another spiritual battlefield.
  • Day 3: When we don’t choose to leave our temptation behind, we’re choosing to allow the temptation to remain. 
  • Day 5: Our phones, intended to connect us to people, become a barrier to the gospel when they are a barrier between us and others. 
  • Day 7: When you put down your phone, it’s easier to lift up your eyes.
  • Day 9: The less you’re owned by stuff, the more room you make for God. 
  • Day 11: I’ll leave you with the bible verse that started off Day 11’s Reading…

Those who Cling to Worthless Idols turn away from God’s love for them. 

Jonah 2:8

I think her book is worth the read. Below you’ll see some questions. These are the kind of questions the book calls us to think about. They are the things I thought about. This whole article is based on things I thought about. I was scrolling for 2 hours a night. I’d get in bed at 8 pm to read, or practice Spanish, but first…“I’ll just watch this one video”… 2 hours later, and a mindless scroll, I’d done nothing I set out to do. So here is a small glimpse into the book that helped me to take back control of how I spent my evenings. 

What is your phone to you?

Do you Idolize the things found within it? Do you idolize the phone itself?

Does it keep you from time with the Lord daily? 

Maybe it’s time to take a Sabbatical.
Maybe it’s time to pick up this book to help you through it.

People survived just fine before the cellular internet era.
Some of you who read this may even remember what that time was like.

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