During the month of July, I took a two and half week break from Instagram. I guess it was a fast of sorts – an intentional stepping away. It wasn’t super planned in advance. Sometime around the end of June, I felt this longing to be disciplined about something – to give something up I knew would be rather difficult for me – simply to exercise self-control and see what fruit the Lord could produce through it. We were about to travel to Florida, and I knew I would want to post pictures. My sister was getting married at the end of the month, and I knew I would want to post photos then. There was roughly a two and a half week window between those two trips, and I decided I would give up social media during that time.
I didn’t announce that I was doing it. I didn’t tell a single person other than Micah (and I only told him because it randomly came up in our conversation after I had already started). I hesitate even to blog about it after the fact… The Bible says, “When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others (Matthew 6:16).” I have seen lots of people I greatly respect take extended fasts from social media. Often they announce it beforehand that they will “gone” from their various social media platforms for a week, a month, or an extended season. I get this to some extent. Many of these men and women have amazing online ministries or thriving businesses that rely heavily on social media for marketing or communication. To take a break from social media without a warning is a little bit like not calling in when you’re going to miss work. But I also question if most of us really need to announce a social media fast. I felt humbly reminded that social media would spin on without me and felt pretty convicted I didn’t need to proclaim my absence in advance. And that leads me to…
#1: Social media kept spinning. Or scrolling. Or whatever it is social media does. I missed things. There might be people who got engaged or announced a pregnancy or who had babies in my absence… and I simply don’t know about it. I’m sure I will soon enough. Life will go on. Literally… their baby will grow and grow and I will likely eventually see photographic proof that it’s happening.
#2: I’m actually kind of thankful Instagram messed with its algorithm. Like most people, when Instagram announced it would start messing with our feeds, putting pictures out of order and displaying only some posts, I was slightly annoyed. Mainly because I thrive on structure and routine. I have been breastfeeding the better part of the last three years, and Instagram was my activity of choice when nursing (moms who read actual books while nursing… I applaud you, but I never figured out how to do that with such giant children to maneuver). Each feeding I would scroll in my feed back to the last photo from my previous nursing session. Every photo was there in chronological order. I always felt “caught up.” Now Instagram is a weird place where photos are out of order. I think they are still toying with the algorithm, so somedays I notice it more than others. But since Instagram took away the ability to see “every” post, it forces me to accept the fact that I’m going miss posts. Don’t go on Instagram for a day? Who cares. I wouldn’t have seen everything anyway. The algorithm change was a reminder that we actually have no control over the social media platforms we use (and in the spiritual realm… they are not as important as the time we allot to them).
#3: I am following even fewer people than ever before. I don’t follow a lot of people on social media. When the number I follow on Instagram approaches 200, I start to feel anxious. That’s just too many pictures each day. Sometime on Facebook, I delete people on their birthdays… It sounds cruel, but I learned this trick from a friend. If I notice it’s your birthday on Facebook and you aren’t someone I would even feel comfortable saying “happy birthday” to online, I delete you as a friend. Chances are we were acquaintances a decade ago and there is no real communication happening in our online connection. A few days after my social media fast, I was back on Instagram getting all too easily lost in the scroll. I realized if I just follow fewer people then fewer pictures will pop up in my feed. I took my already moderate list of people I follow and got it down to the 150s. Now even if I’m tempted to pick up my phone and scroll when I could be doing something more meaningful, there are few new posts to look at and I’m quickly reminded I could be doing something more important with my time.
#4: I missed Instagram. The motto I heard from everyone else taking these Instagram breaks was that they hardly missed it at all, because they were so busy living “real life” and being creative in their extra time. Although it got easier by the second week, I definitely missed checking in throughout my fast. I’ve decided that Instagram is grace for moms. My “real life” is cleaning up after two little kids all day, and Instagram is a welcome, uplifting pause from the housework. A few nights into the fast, I was doing dishes after dinner, trying to ignore my phone on the kitchen counter. Sure, I probably got my kitchen cleaned five minutes faster than I would have if I had checked social media on my phone, but it had been a long day, Micah was playing with the girls in the living room, and checking in on Instagram felt like a happy break in the midst dish duty. I’ve kind of surrendered to the fact that dinner prep, eating, and clean up will take 2-3 hours at this stage of life, so Instagram is a bit of grace as the water boils or the dishes soak. I missed having that pause throughout the day in those little seconds or minutes that couldn’t really be filled with a more substantial activity like reading or writing.
5. Social media is good. I should technically say here that social media is neutral – a tool that can be used for good and evil purposes. But in my life, I believe the Father has used social media to bring about great good in my life and His Kingdom. I have made best friends through blogging and Instagram. We found our current church through Instagram. We are at camp this week, and I’m sharing about the messages and the ministry via social media. Some people step away from social media for a while and realize they need to remove it from their lives altogether. If that is the conviction of the Holy Spirit, then that is a wise and obedient choice. For me, I stepped away and realized social media is a grace in my life and an instrument God allows me to use to share messages from His word and build relationships that honor His Kingdom.
I am happy to have social media back in my life. But the Bible suggests it is sometimes healthy to give up good things for a short while – food, sex for married couples, etc. Social media is good, yet it was also good to give it up for a season. I will probably do so again in the future to keep my attention focused on the Lord, not the notifications and filters on my iPhone. Then I will welcome my phone back into my eager fingers and pray I may use just a few social media platforms with restraint and wisdom, ultimately for God’s glory.
So good!