Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash
The sheer amount of noise in the world is astronomical.
I recognize I am probably not your “average” person when it comes to how much all of this bothers me. For the most part, people seem to be well informed about the effects of social media and screen usage, and yet almost everyone I know does not seem to mind. Or maybe we have all just accepted this as the new normal.
I need to hold myself accountable to what I am seeing, what I believe, and what I can actually do about it.
As for you, I pray you take your daily practices before the Lord, and if after time and prayer with Him you hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” I love that for you.
As for me, I cannot even think straight anymore.
I am pretty sure social media is making me angry.
And I am not talking about the horrendous news cycle or the vitriol constantly being shoved in front of us. I mean I am just angry. Irritated. Distracted. Half the time for no apparent reason.
Sometimes I wonder if what keeps me tethered, despite the fact that I actually despise social media in general, is the hope that I will somehow regain some of that initial love for “being able to stay connected.”
But if I am being honest, it is shallow.
SO incredibly shallow.
Knowing what people are doing on any given day is not the same as knowing what people are going through on any given day.
Those are not the same thing.
I can know where you went to dinner, what your kid wore to school, what book you are reading, what you bought at Target, and where you went on vacation without knowing a single meaningful thing about your life.
How are you really doing?
What are you carrying?
How can I pray for you?
How can I care for you?
That is connection.
And do not even get me started on spending time with people you love while their faces are stuck in their phones.
Like, hello. Do you see me? I am right here. In this room. With you.
Do you need to be scrolling right now? Is there something more interesting happening on that screen?
I am convinced I am going to be the kind of old lady who just says unhinged things because, like I said, on the whole this makes me angry.
It has not only stolen my focus. It has captured the attention of people I love.
I try to be intentional about connecting with my real life friends only to have some of that time co-opted by a screen. And before I get too self righteous about everyone else, I have to acknowledge that I have allowed the same little rectangle to steal plenty of my own attention too.
So, I am done.
No really. I am done.
As I have shared before, I pulled away from Instagram over the past several months. I kept the app on my phone through the end of August, mostly so friends could still DM me reels and we could have a laugh. Then Monday night, I literally threw my phone across the room and deleted the app. I cannot do it anymore.
Our attention spans are jacked. We are constantly consuming, constantly scrolling, constantly being offered something else to look at, think about, react to, buy, fear, want, or be angry about.
And I keep coming back to Paul’s words in Ephesians.
“Making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:16
I do not want to make a rule where scripture does not make one. This is not “Christians should delete Instagram.” It is not even “phones are bad.”
It is me recognizing that my hours are precious.
And I do not want them stolen by an algorithm.
The start of the school year is always a natural time for me to evaluate my schedule and think about how I am spending my days. And as I have shared, the next three to five years for me look a lot like this...
Studying. Writing. Coming up for air and sustenance. Repeat.
There is a lot I want to learn. A lot I want to write. People I want to care for well. People I love and want to actually be with.
I want to learn to be present and intentional with all of it.
So this is me taking inventory.
And friends, I would urge you to do the same. Not because your answer needs to look like mine, but because your hours are precious too.
What are you giving them to?
If you know me in real life, think about that the next time we are together. Let us put the phones away. Let us actually be together.
And if you do not know me in real life, the charge is the same.
Be present.
Order your days, or someone else will order them for you.
SO very well said! And impactful. I feel all of that my friend.