So much noise

I’ve known people who’ve done it. There are books written about it. It’s sounded intriguing to me for years, but I’ve never been able to take the plunge myself.

Have you ever considered taking a break from social media?

Lately I’ve been annoyed with all of the noise in the online world, especially on Facebook. Between ads and sponsored posts interrupting what I actually want to read from my friends, political and opinion posts that tear apart my Enneagram-9 I-see-all-points-from-all-sides brain, as well as here’s-how-I-spent-every-hour-of-my-day-(and-it’s-not-that-interesting)… lately I’ve been more overwhelmed by the junk than interested in the good things I find.

And it’s so addicting right? There’s just enough good stuff to make me think “on the next scroll, I’ll find an article or a post that will make my day better for sure.” Yet it rarely happens.

My screen protector on my phone (brand-new only 6 months ago) has a couple of giant cracks in it. And I’m not rough on my phone. But I haven’t replaced it yet because it actually sometimes stops me from scrolling.

How crazy is that? That I would leave a broken screen protector on my phone to help me break my addiction?

As the calendar turned to the end of February and beginning of March, I started thinking seriously about what it could look like to take a social media break for 4-6 weeks. Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent were coming up, and with many people choosing to fast from something for that time leading up to Easter, I thought maybe it was time to give it a try.

My brain pushed back SO HARD. How would I let my friends and family (including my parents and grandparents) know what our kids were up to? What if I wanted to ask friends for their opinions on something? How would I find out about weather and news events?

I stood strong, pushed back the other direction and decided to move forward with it, but with a couple of caveats:

1. I only gave up Facebook. I’ve kept Instagram. I’ve experienced much less “noise” there and more beauty and benefit. It would still be a place for me to make connections, share about life, and hear about others, but more curated and slow. Plus it gives a “You’re all caught up” when I reach posts I’ve already seen.
2. I took the FB app off my phone, but allow myself to login to a computer — ONLY if I need to post something on our church’s FB page.
3. I left FB Messenger enabled on my phone. Since it’s a separate app, people can still contact me that way if they need to.
4. I debated just letting my page fade into the background, but ended up making one final post before calling it quits. I listed a handful of the things I could post about in the coming weeks if I was around (like “thanks for the birthday wishes” 😉 ).

I’m about 10 days in, and overall I’m loving it.

The first week or so I was amazed by how often I would pickup my phone, check email, then automatically swipe to the next screen and hover my finger over where the blue F used to be. That addictive behavior honestly freaked me out a bit. I’m glad to say it’s gotten much better.

Instead of relying on “see first” posts by the National Weather Service, I just open my weather app, take a quick glance, and close it back up. Instead of hearing about news events from things my friends share, like coronavirus updates and the tornadoes in Nashville, I open my local news station app a couple of times a day.

The biggest thing I’m missing is the ability to crowd-source. I could have asked my friends at large “does anyone have a local recommendation for a child therapist?”, but instead texted a few specific people I knew would have good answers. I’m part of quite a few FB groups where I could ask things like “what are your favorite recipes using sourdough starter?” or “who has tried melatonin?” or “what do you think of this wall color?” Instead, I’ve utilized Google and also just trusted my gut. I don’t have to find the perfect answer (which often doesn’t exist anyway) before just trying something out.

According to Screentime stats on my phone, the week before Ash Wednesday I averaged 3 hours 20 minutes of screen time per day. The first week without FB it dropped by 25 minutes, and this past week my average has been 2 hours 30 minutes.

I’ve been picking up a book more often during my downtime. Instead of mindlessly scrolling while in the grocery checkout line I’ll actually look around or talk to my youngest. When I do open Instagram I’m looking for beauty and taking time to read captions, instead of scrolling quickly to find the next news event.

My brain already seems grateful for the break, though over the coming weeks we’ll see how/if my attention span and productivity are affected. I do feel less anxious, and find myself focusing my attention more on my own home than on the world at large.

I’ll be interested to see how (if at all) my Facebook and overall social media habits change after Easter.

Have you ever fasted from social media, or ever even considered it?