Goodbye Social Media
Day 3 of my social media detox.
See also: Slower pace of life and less screens in general.
“Stepping away from the crowd feels radical in a world that equates busyness with worth. Yet it is here, in the quiet, where we reclaim what matters.”
-Erin Loechner
Imagine looking at your phone, and after blinking a few times, realizing you've been scrolling for an hour instead of just 5 minutes. Does this sound familiar? It's like driving and suddenly arriving at your destination without remembering the trip. Meanwhile, the kids are in the other room playing and enjoying life while I focus on getting likes from many online instead of being truly loved by a few at home.
“The goal is not perfection, but connection. Opting-out isn’t about doing less; it's about living more intentionally.” -Erin Loechner
It took reading the book “The Opt-Out Family” by Erin Loechner and “Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt to propel me to the decision to just quit it all this year. If you follow me on socials, you may have noticed that I dove into the world of influencing this summer. It was a fun season of creating, which I thoroughly enjoyed, but I started to see the negatives of social media in a new light. Like anything else, there can be so much good in that space, but there is also a dark side that will easily draw you in. My life started to feeling like events that could be documented to make money. Time away from my family to sell people things that they didn’t need so that I could have more money. I don’t know, it just felt icky. The constant comparison of why people are not following you, chasing the algorithm, hours and hours creating, it just was not worth it. What started out as good intentions to create another income stream, quickly became an obsession of trading my real life for the perception on social media and content creation.
Not only that, but I have three kids watching me.
“Mommy, you forgot your phone”, as I left the room for 5 minutes.
“Mommy, can you get off your phone?”
“Mommy, when can I get a phone?
Especially in these pre-teen years when everyone has a phone! We are the weird ones who won’t allow it, yet, we are obsessed with our own. Sure, it has valid uses, one would argue you HAVE to have one these days, but if I can take of social media, I am gaining hours and hours back to my life.
When we trade the highlight reel for the messy moments, we find beauty in what is real.” -Erin Loechner
So, what am I doing now that I have my life back? I will share that in my next post.
I am not sharing this in a way to bully you into doing the same. I obviously live different from what “normal” is for everyone else.”. See also, sheep farming and homeschooling. I am living proof that everyone can be convicted about different things. Social media became sinful for me, so I am trying to be obedient to remove it. That will not be the same for every person, but maybe my conviction will help you to ask yourself the hard questions about how much you are consuming, especially with little sponges watching our every move.
I MISS THE DAYS OF BLOGGING!
There, I said it. I miss it, and with no social media, this is going to be my creative outlet for the time. It feels like it is only for me, and a few people who are to read it. For the first time, I am realizing that not everything has to be a business. It can just be for me, and that’s okay.
<3 Emily
Photo: Three Rising Photography