What I learned from taking a 3 week break from Instagram
I’ve never been the person that despises social media. I’ve been so blessed to meet people local and across the country that are now a text away that I possibly would have never met had it not been for social media. I manage several different IG accounts for business and personal and honestly love seeing how it connects people. On my personal account I’ve always loved being able to share life through my eyes, sharing what the Lord is speaking to me about, encouraging others and seeing others do the same. The idea of taking a three week break never dawned on me until one day I began seeing just how my mind would race after watching other peoples lives unfold before me and I realized there was something there that needed to be addressed.
I texted one of my best friends Jeri one Sunday night and shared how I was feeling. She instantly wrote back saying she had been wanting to do the same thing. So my eager self said lets do it!!! TONIGHT. So we did. We deleted Instagram and Facebook off our phones that night.
Soooooo…what did we learn in the process?
You discover your heart motives in posting/scrolling
For me it went into some heart issues of wanting to PROVE myself. For others it can be trying to gain likes, showing off something new they got, or attempting to prove something to someone that follows them or the world in general. For some it becomes a source of gaining affirmation where they lack confidence or a voice in their own lives about their beauty, parenting, or success.
I’ll be honest you guys, I had a real come to Jesus within the first day of not having Instagram. I found myself barren before the Lord unable to prove myself. No one but God to speak anything over me. Guess what I discovered? His voice is the BEST voice to hear speak over me. [Kym]
You may suddenly have a lot of free time
Without Instagram or Facebook on my phone I couldn’t attend to the 100+ notifications I would get everyday. Instead I learned life still goes on and I really am not missing out if I don’t know about the newest IG superstars closet sale next town over. [Kym]
I didn’t know what to do with my hands the first few days. It only took a week before I began to fill spare time with journaling, having deeper conversations with friends, having longer conversations with strangers, and conquering my to-do lists with ease. It’s not as hard as I thought it would be and instead it proved to be very refreshing and relaxing. [Jeri]
You’re given an opportunity to enter into INTENTIONAL living.
Without having those apps on my phone there was no way to check in on how everyone else is living their lives. Instead the focus was on me. In a really healthy way. Partnered with the season of life that I am in, choosing to set aside social media made space for some of the sweetest times I have ever had with the Lord over the last 10 years. Not even kidding. Choosing to live intentionally in my day has now become my rhythm of life. Checking my phone is about #5 on my list of things I do in the morning as opposed to #1. Some days I don’t even check. [Kym]
Social media may not actually be encouraging/inspiring you like you thought it was.
I do benefit from Instagram, but not in the ways I thought. The scrolling through my feed to kill time during the day or in between a work meeting or until my daughter goes down for her next nap contributes nothing to me. I was wishing pieces of my life away and when I eliminated Instagram my days felt longer and I felt more rested. If anything all the mindless scrolling did for me was show me the next outfit I want to buy or added another house project to the list. So really, it was adding more work to my life instead of providing to be the relaxing, fun, escape I thought it was. [Jeri]
Life after Instagram break…
When I get back on, I’m not going to mindlessly scroll to kill time anymore, I’m unfollowing accounts that breed discontentment for me in my current season of life, and I’m logging on with intention to see my favorite people and read posts from people that encourage and inspire other things than clothing or home or makeup improvement. [Jeri]
Now that the break is over I re-downloaded IG again. I stay logged into my business accounts at all times. But typically log out of my personal ig account (@lifewithkymberlyjanelle) each day. All my notifications are off for instagram and I have yet to re-download Facebook. At this point I don’t see myself downloading fb on my phone anytime soon. When I post things on my personal IG account I hop on to post and hop right off. For now its what works for me. Easing back into social media was best for me. When you go from not knowing whats going on in other peoples lives to all of a sudden a fire hydrant of posts it can be overwhelming. Ease back in slowly. The biggest thing I’ve noticed what I post now is quality vs quantity. And I no longer feel the need to “keep up” with anyone else. I’m no longer worried about what others are wearing, what their kids have, or what their houses look like in comparison to mine. [Kym]
Suggestions for doing a social media break?
JUST DO IT. Set a goal and stick to it. It’s not as hard as it seems IF you are choosing to be intentional in your life and focus on everything else in your life. If you sit around and focus on what you would be doing its gonna be miserable. And you guys, its just social media. The world keeps moving with or without it. If you’re a complete social media addict and need some support ask a friend to do it with you! [Kym]
So now I wanna know…
Have you ever taken a social media break? How long? Who takes regular social media breaks? I am definitely thinking this is something I will do at least yearly. To just re-focus and re-align.
While this break was very spur of the moment the timing was so, so perfect in my life.
[Because I use social media for business as well as personal I did post several times on social media through apps that were ready to go. Because I know there will be ‘that’ person that says but, you posted!! Yep, I did. Thanks to social media apps that do it for me ;)]
