How into social media are you? If checking your social media accounts is part of your day, how much time to you think you spend scrolling? Interesting questions, right?
I just completed a 10-day fast from my personal social media accounts. And it was a bit of any eye-opening experience. And I survived! #justkidding #itreallywasntthatbad
So…how did this fast come about?
The night before I started my fast, when the president of our church, Russell M. Nelson, was speaking during the Women’s session of General Conference, he issued 4 invitations to all of the women of the church ages 8-108+. The first invitation was to do a 10-day fast from social media.
Yes.
TEN. Whole. Days.
Now, I didn’t think I spent that much time looking at social media, but 10 days caused me to pause for a few seconds. I really like catching up with friends and family through social media, and the inspirational things I see are pretty awesome too.
I started the next morning on October 7, which also happened to be my birthday. Once I hit “Share” on my Instagram post explaining my upcoming 10-day absence, I remembered it was my birthday, and I was going to miss seeing all the birthday love you get on your birthday on social media. But I trust the prophet, and I know that when I follow his counsel, I’ll be blessed. So into day 1 of 10 I went.
I must admit, the first couple of days were a bit harder than I thought. I love keeping up with family and friends, even though a lot of my family and friends were also doing the social media fast, but still…
I’m also a naturally very curious person, so I found myself wondering—a lot, “What’s going on with so-and-so or with this or that?” And I’d go to hit that icon on my phone, and then I’d remember, “Oh yeah…social media fast.”
Side note: As I was typing that last sentence last night, a commercial came on for The Today Show, and they’re doing a segment on an upcoming show about how social media affects teens and how they need to unplug.
Coincidence? I think not.
Anyway.
Throughout the 10 days, when I’d look through my notifications on Facebook for things I needed to take care of for work (part of my work responsibilities involve social media), I’d notice personal notifications, and for the first few days, it was hard not to automatically click on them. I realized that I often click on them and then get sucked into that social media vacuum. But as the days went by, it was easier to just skip over them.
Here’s one thing I thought about on day one: When you’re trying to replace one habit for another, you need to have something to put in the place of that habit you’re replacing. Stopping cold turkey, with no replacement, just doesn’t work. And since I always have to have a plan A, and a plan B, and a plan Z, I came up with a list (because I love lists!) of things I could do if I was tempted to open my social media (more about what I learned about that in a bit):
- Catch up on my FITNESS Journal reading (and let’s not even talk about the ACE magazine issues I haven’t read yet that are only online).
- Read my coaching book—You. Are. The. One. Each month we read a book in our coaching group at work, and I finished this month’s in a few days instead of scrambling to finish it before the end of the month!
- Read my book club book for the month—The Boys in the Boat: Still working on that one, but I’m enjoying it!
- Crochet: No babies are on the way, so I’ve been working on some new hot pads with leftover yarn I have from baby blankets.
- Writing. With my #octoberjanuary challenge, not only have I been writing 5 minutes a day, but much more—especially since I started my social media fast, and it’s been amazing! I’m actually ahead on blog posts now, which hasn’t happened in a very long time. And I’ve realized something that I’d forgotten about: When you do something regularly, it gets easier! #whoknew?
So…to answer the two questions President Nelson asked us to think about during and after our social media fast:
#1. Did I see a change in how I want to spend my time?
Yes. I did. I noticed that I was most tempted to click on that IG or FB icon when I was waiting someplace or when I only had a few minutes of downtime here and there in between things I was doing. Or when I was feeling anxious about something. Or at night, before going to bed. Instead of wondering about how and what everyone was doing, I was more focused on what I was doing.
#2. Did I see my priorities shifting?
Yes. Although I did miss catching up on what everyone was doing, I realized I was spending more time than I thought or than I need to scrolling through social media. I think, going forward, I need to set aside a certain amount of time each day to check my social media, and then leave it alone other than that. Maybe 5 minutes a couple of times a day. Or something like that—I need to put a plan in place. Because it is fun to catch up on family and friends, and there are some inspirational things on social media. I did miss those aspects during my social media fast.
Now that my social media fast is over, I’m going to try really hard to make sure I’m more aware of the time I do spend in social media and remember the list of things I can do instead of spending unnecessary time scrolling or doing other unproductive things. After all, my pile of books to read is continually getting taller, my Kindle app is pretty full of books that need reading, those mags—both paper and online—keep coming, and I still need some more new hot pads. 😉 And there’s always something I can write about. Plus so many other ways to spend my free time.
I’m thankful for this experience, as it was a bit eye-opening. It’s amazing how we can misjudge how much time we’re spending on something—even the best of things—when we’re not aware of it. Hopefully, I’ll now be more aware of how I’m spending my time no matter what I’m doing.
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