Do you struggle with social media? You are not alone! Keep reading to find out whether deleting social media is right for you. This is how I am living without social media – one month at a time.
This is not my first time deleting social media without notice.
Every couple of years, I get the strongest itch to delete my social media accounts and walk away hands free.
Maybe you can relate? You get this overwhelming feeling that you need to put some distance between your life and hundreds of others.
I’ve wrestled with my struggle with social media from the beginning. Always finding reasons to crawl back but never feeling settled when I do.
This year, I feel heavy on my heart just to lean into my conviction that social media is not a good fit for me.
Social media is designed to steal our focus and our joy. Harsh but we all know it’s true, right?
The highs on social media are high but the lows are low. And if you find yourself in between, like I always do, you just feel a whole bunch of missing out and like you are never enough. A constant battle of the soul.
So why, I ask myself, do I keep coming back to something that makes me question myself and this one beautiful life I have been given to live? Why have I allowed it to have so much power in my life and waste so much of my time?
These are all rhetorical questions. Perhaps they are questions you have asked yourself, too. I do not have any clear answers. Step by step, I hope to discover for myself what it will look like to live a life social media free.
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to delete social media, I hope these monthly recaps meet you right where you are.
Deleting Social Media
Month One Recap – January
I decided to delete my social media accounts one month ago on January 1, 2023.
I wasn’t surprised to find myself back at that place, deleting social media, because every couple of years I feel the need to step away.
The last time I deleted social media, I stayed away for 6 months. I’m setting my sights on a year this time. Maybe indefinitely – but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves!
As always, my method of egress tends to be to disappear with as few people noticing as possible. AKA my friends already know and the rest don’t really care.
That’s how easy it is to go from being “on” social media to “off”.
Okay. Not.
The easy part is deleting social media. The hard part is staying away.
Because social media is addicting. Suddenly your source of information is cut off. You realize how many people rely on social media to give their news and updates. Now you are one the outside – no longer “privy” to the information that once came easily with the touch of a button.
This makes you question whether you should stay on there “just to stay connected”. Because you’re probably overreacting. It’s not that hard to stay on social media.
But no matter how many times you’ve been successful in convincing yourself to stay, you still end up here. You still end up wanting to be free from it.
So making the decision to walk away?
Honestly, it feels good.
It feels good to be walking towards a life of less distraction, less comparison and less consumerism.
Because what you don’t see, you don’t think about. What you don’t see, you don’t buy. What you don’t see, you don’t wish you had.
That to me is worth missing out. That to me sounds like freedom.
What i wasn’t expecting
What I wasn’t expecting was how much there would be for me to face without the distraction of social media. When I wasn’t thinking about everyone else’s life – I was forced to check in on my own.
This past month has been one of the hardest months I’ve experienced emotionally. I’ve really had to do a deep dive into my innermost thoughts.
But I’m glad for it. I don’t know if I would have been proactive to look into these areas that needing tending to if I hadn’t delete my social media.
I believe everything happens for a reason and that the Lord was stirring this decision for quite some time.
He is asking me to do some work on my heart right now. And even though it hasn’t been easy – I’m so looking forward to what He has to teach me.
So, one month down? I’m feeling raw but like I’m right where I need to be!
I’ll be sure to meet you back here for next month’s recap.
Bring it on, February!
Ps. Interested to know where my blog journey began? Check out this post!
