There is so much that we are missing because social media is the one ruling our hearts. Here are 7 things you could be missing because of your social media habits.
A couple of months ago something hit me. Not a physical hit but a thought, one that stopped me as I ran errands. Somehow I was forgetting to live my life. I had stopped appreciating the small things, stopped feeling, stopped laughing, stopped taking random photos just because. I had stopped living my life. It was as though I was watching from the outside.
I stopped enjoying this life that God has blessed me with.
It sounds trivial. You may say that isn’t you, but I am willing to bet that at some point or other it is. I am willing to say that there is a lot in the last year that has robbed us of joy and our ability to not just go through the motions. However, I think it started before 2020. Last year just brought it to light for many of us. We have lacked something crucial for far too long.
We have lacked joy, mental space, good mental health, thriving relationships, sturdy self-worth, and fulfilling rest.
We have placed something on the altar of our hearts and it has robbed us of all of these beautiful things. It has left us on the outside looking in at our lives.
Social media has derailed us from truly living.
If you walk into a restaurant as you pass tables there are more faces pointed at screens than conversations taking place. People spend more time getting ready to make a video or photo for the online world than they do to get to know their neighbor right next to them. If it is not worthy of sharing then there is no point in doing it.
There is so much that we are missing because social media is the one ruling our hearts. Here are 7 things you could be missing because of your social media habits.
Photo Credit: © Unsplash
1. Mental Space
Do you remember laying on the ground as a child, just staring into the blue sky, guessing what the clouds looked like? I could lay for hours there as a child making up stories of the crocodile cloud chasing the donut cloud. It was freeing. There was no worry or thoughts of things to do, it was free mental space. In an age of consumption we are filling every bit of space we have with information. Mental space gives us room to relax, to breathe, and release stress.
When boredom strikes, rather than sitting with it we scroll through our phones. I see it in my kids, I see it in me, the inability to clear our mental space.
2. Silence
Silence can be frightening. It is often when things are quiet that the thoughts we fear most creep to the surface. Maybe silence reminds where we are still lacking or are missing something. But God uses silence to point us to Him. He uses the stillness to show us His presence.
If we are constantly moving, constantly watching something, or scrolling online we are far from stillness. We are drowning out the voice of God.
3. Relationships
Marriages, friendships, business relationships, siblings, parent-child relationships all suffer at the hands of a social media world. Why? Because they keep us from knowing how to communicate, it locks our eyes on things that pull us away, and it kills eye contact.
Look around, our relationships are being sacrificed on this altar. Our children who are saturated in a social media world cannot even carry on intelligent conversations. We would rather look at our phones at the dinner table than engage with our children. We would rather be on our phones than building intimacy in our marriages.
Our relationships are worth more than any square photo we can “heart” online.
4. Distraction
Have you ever sat down and created a to-do list only to find a few minutes in you have picked up your phone and started checking online? Maybe you get the list made but never complete it because something of lesser value has sucked you in.
Our phones and social media drive us to distraction. We see the lives others are living, we examine how they perform tasks, what their list looks like, and we fail to complete our own.
5. Mental Health
I could write a great deal right here about what social media does to our mental health. The feelings that overwhelm when we pull up our phones and start to scroll. In the current cultural climate, social media is toxic. It is riddled with cancel culture, ridicule, unrelenting anger, no compassion, or grace. Opening social media on my phone immediately triggers a great deal of anxiety.
We do not need every voice online speaking over us, or driving fear deep into our hearts. It is not of God and it is a good indicator it is time to walk away from your phone.
6. Self-Worth
Social media teaches us it is no longer okay to be who you are, stand for what you believe in, or even share something unstaged or not filtered. It creates a place that is filled with conformity and altered reality. What we see in square photos will never tell the full story of someone else’s life.
The drive to be seen and liked will become like a drug that robs us of our souls.
I sat in a coffee shop one afternoon and watched a teen girl dancing in front of her camera phone right outside the window. She tried several times to get it just right. She had to look a certain way, and be a certain way in order for people to take notice and love her video. I guarantee there is more to her than dance moves, there is a heart that longs to be loved and known in a way that she will never find in a social media world.
7. Joy
Do you remember simple things that used to bring you joy? Ice cream afternoons with your kids, laughing together over silly jokes at dinner, driving down the road with the windows down on a beautiful day. Not one of these things requires social media. We can do them simply because they bring us joy, not because we want to share them.
I think this is what we have lost most. Our joy. We have allowed the negativity of the world, and the demands of social media to kill our joy.
That day in the car in the middle of checking off endless tasks I paused to block the apps that are taking from my life. I breathed deeply, turned up the music, and remembered what it felt like to really live. I remember there is joy in soaking up the little things. No longer would I allow the demands of social media and my phone to dictate how I live.
What about you? Is it time to turn it off, walk away, breathe again, and live again? Take the step and find the joy of what it means to truly be alive.
Photo Credit: © Courtney Clayton/Unsplash
Michelle Rabon is helping women be disciples who make disciples. Michelle has her MDiv in Ministry to Women from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and is currently serving as Women’s Ministry Director in her local church. She is also the author of Holy Mess. When she is not writing or teaching, she enjoys reading, being close to the ocean, and drinking a lot of coffee. You can connect with Michelle at www.michellerabon.com
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