Last week I did the unthinkable—I stayed away from
social media. I only visited Facebook long enough to honor my commitment to an
authors’ network, wish my son Christian a Happy Birthday, and promote an event
that I knew Christian was excited about. I clicked on a couple of “tweetable” quotes
in blog posts that I liked, but other than that my Twitter account remained
silent. When my usual day for posting on my blog rolled around, I took a break
from that, too. Why?
Here are my honest reasons:
1) I
find that when I visit Facebook too often, I struggle with envy. There were
things that I wanted to be doing last week but couldn’t, so I decided that the
best way to avoid falling into a sulky mindset was to focus on what God had for
me each day instead of what He had for others.
2) I
have been feeling uncertain about my blog lately. What am I really trying to
say? Have I lost my focus? Did I ever have a focus? Do my weekly postings about
what God teaches me through my very ordinary everyday life offer anything of
substance?
3) I
really REALLY wanted to take a few uninterrupted days to work on a new fiction
project. Before I got too attached to the vision that was taking shape, I
needed to lock myself in my room with the characters and see if we got along
and if I wanted to hang out in their world for an extended period of time. Did
I care about their problems? Would anyone else care?
4) As
wonderful and useful as social media is, it’s distracting and addictive. I felt
like it was time to rein that in.
5) After
a few weeks that included a difficult editing project and an assignment that I
needed to finish quickly after getting behind on it, my mind felt cluttered. It
craved a mini “retreat” where I could devote time to writing something that
flowed from my own creativity.
I’m halfway into a new week and I don’t regret the
break at all. I mapped out a new novel, spent extra time with God, and
recognized some areas where I need to be more disciplined. I am re-entering the
social media world slowly. As a writer, I know it is a necessary part of my
day, but I also want to use my hours wisely, knowing there is so much more to
life than blogs, Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and even (I can’t believe I’m
saying this) writing.
I think I’ll pull away from social media more often.
Have you ever taken a break from technology or
social media? Why or why not? If you did take one, how did you benefit from it?
(This was cross-posted.)