5 Warning Signs You Need a Social Media Break
Have you ever felt like you were half way doing everything? You were in the kitchen, but your mind was answering the work email. Or maybe your kid walked in the room, but you were looking down at your phone and missed the tears in their eyes. Well, friends this was me as of late. I was feeling so tired and scattered. I knew I needed a little break from socail media. I hadbeen preaching to my children about social media distraction and comparison, but turns out I needed to be preaching to myself. Geez, I hate when God does that.
If you feel this, you are not alone. Here are 5 warning signs that it’s time to take a break from social media.
1- You feel weary in your mind and body. Our minds were not created to take in so much information. The continual feed of information creates weariness. We don’t realize the amount of mental and physical energy it takes to take in so much information and process it emotionally. Laying in bed worried about someone’s home in California, that you have never even met is causing you unnecessary stress and exhaustion.
2- You feel irritated at everyone and everything. In your feed, a friend gets a new puppy. Instead of being happy for them, you comment how they are always getting something new. Or it’s seeing another friends recent success at work and feeling resentment.
3- You have compassion fatigue. I do believe there is too much pain in the world today. But there always has been. I don’t mean to make light of the pain it’s just that I’m not sure how much we can withstand. There is compassion fatigue. As Christians we are called to lead a life of love which means we have compassion for others. When I am weary from too much pain, my compassion for others goes very low.
4- You are spending more time with the people on the screen than the people in your real life. Whew-this one hits hard. Go check that screen time app on your phone.. I’ll be right here. Craziness right?! Once I took a break I started noticing things in my kids I had been missing. They were actually coming in the room to talk with me. Had I been missing it staring down on my phone? I was picking up on non-verbal cues in my conversations that I had been missing.
5- The phone is with you all the time. Watching a movie, scrolling. Watching a show, scrolling. Going potty, scrolling. Waiting in line, scrolling. Where is the space for God in all that? Furthermore, that’s frankly exhausting. Our minds need white space to process and to rest. If your phone is with you all the time, it’s really hard to stay off of it.
Even if it’s just for a day or a weekend, a break will be just what your heart and mind needed.
Love, B
