How to Break Your Social Media Addiction
Addiction.
We use the word when we talk about drugs, alcohol, food, porn, shopping, and people. But I think it’s safe to say we can use it in regards to our social media-obsessed culture.
I went through a recent season of true social media addiction. I was checking my phone constantly. I worried about how my Instagram looked. I got upset when people unfollowed me. I spent more of my life looking at a screen than into the eyes of people I deeply love.
And so, I fasted.
I fasted from social media for three weeks and my life drastically changed. I felt lighter. I had moving conversations. I read a book. I broke bread with friends. I felt alive again and no one on Instagram or Facebook had a clue what I was doing! And guess what? It still counted. I still counted.
You count and matter to Jesus despite your social media following.
"Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows." Luke 12:7 (ESV)
A friend of mine once said social media is like a knife. Knives can be used to kill or they can be used to save lives in a surgery room in the form of a scalpel. We can use it for good and for God’s glory or we can use it to compare and prove ourselves to others.
Someone I wish was my friend (looking at you Lisa Whittle) talks a lot about being the boss of our social media instead of letting it boss us. And y’all, that’s vital.
How do we take the suck out of social media and break the addiction that’s affecting our minds? We set boundaries.
1. Set a time limit on your phone. My husband has the password to the Instagram time limit on my phone. I get one, intentional hour a day to use this app before it shuts off.
2. Fast from social media one day a week, at the least. Take longer breaks as often as you can.
3. Put social media in its rightful place in your life. Use it as a tool, not a weapon. Go to The Word before you go to the words on captions.
4. Stop dwelling on the attributes of others or yourself. Dwell on the attributes of God. Stop comparing yourself to other people’s curated lives.
We will no longer allow our minds to be bogged down and overwhelmed by social media addiction. We will soak our souls in Truth from God and find our identity in Him alone, not likes on the internet.
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