How it Helped Me
I wasn’t planning on doing much actual writing on this blog anymore—I thought I’d stick to safe things like recipes and natural living. But here I am again sharing about a topic that affects most of us as moms—social media and other curated sharing apps.
I take a break from social media each year. When I took my break this year, it felt a little different. Although I have taken breaks each year for quite some time, I really wanted to take some extended time. This is what I found.
When I took my break, I learned about people’s lives in person. I got to hear emotion in their words and see the expressions on their faces when they had special or sad news. I celebrated with some people and heard the pain in others voices. I spent time taking courses about things I wanted to learn about. I realized how toxic instagram was becoming for me—a constant stream of differing opinions about this, that, and the other. I enjoyed my family. We traveled and I didn’t share any of it, except with our parents and a few close friends. We made special memories that weren’t curated for other people to view—it was just for our little family. I admired my children and my husband and thanked God for our sweet life.
I rested. I felt relief not to know about the latest tragedy. I felt peaceful. I finally started working on this blog more consistently. I felt more compassion. I felt less comparison. Less discontentment. I read my Bible—a lot, and heard very specific things from the Lord for our life. I probably became more enjoyable to be around. I feel this way every year that I take this break, but slowly make my way back on.
But this year, I’m changing some things. I’m placing even more limits. My top reason is I really feel like we are meant to impact the people in our everyday life—we are meant to have real conversations with people in real life—not over a computer screen. I know several people who don’t have social media and I admire them—being delightfully oblivious and all the time they must have. I know it can be used for good—and I find out about a lot of fun things from social media too—but too much sometimes.
Can I encourage you? Take a break. See how you feel, and then maybe set some limits. Start spending more time with people in real life…take up a new hobby…stare at your beautiful children. Our time is so precious friend. Don’t waste it. 🩷
-Nicole
