Hello there! I want to begin with a disclaimer: what I am about to share is my own journey with the Holy Spirit regarding social media. Nowhere in this article is there a stated or implied ‘YOU should do the same’. If my words about my journey happen to spark conviction in your heart, that is between you and the Lord.
For a long while now, I have been pondering what to do about social media. Do I stay on or do I leave completely? It should not be such a difficult decision, yet it is, and recently, I learned why that might be.
Many months ago, I felt the pull to lay down both Instagram and Pinterest, both of which I had used liberally. I had taken classes and been coached on how to use social media, especially IG and Pinterest, to grow my following and business. Pinterest kinda worked, but I never got in the IG groove and never experienced growth of my business or following, at least not enough to continue putting ALL THAT WORK into them. So, I said, ‘enough’ and I was at peace with it. I decided that Facebook was where my ‘tribe’ lived and that would be my platform going forth.
In the last few months, the ‘do I stay on Facebook’ question has risen in my heart and I began praying about what to do. I asked God to show me His desire for me and make it plain to this oh-so-stubborn-I’ll-do-it-my-way girl so I would know how to be obedient to Him.
I’m going to toss out some honesty here and say that a great deal of my staying on, thus far, was telling myself that ‘I need to be on social media in order to advertise my financial coaching business. It is crucial to have a social media presence.’ Staying on social media has been a lot about Leah feeling like she is doing ‘enough’. Hey, it’s the Enneagram 1 in me trying to be good enough, big enough, successful enough. Yet, the truth is that God is way bigger than social media and He can grow my business without social media, if He has a mind to do so.
Recently, God placed some resources in my hands that, I believe, are part of His answer to my ‘do I go, do I stay’ prayer, and I will be quoting extensively from those resources to help explain my decision to leave social media. Dallas Willard famously said,
“Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
This rang quite true for me because as an Enneagram 1, aka Type A, I am always seeking to do more, more quickly, so that I can be the best and most productive I can be. It’s exhausting.
Hurry and busyness are Siamese twins. The busier I am, the more hurried I am. The busier and more hurried I am, the less time I am likely to take for deep spiritual things. In his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Portland pastor, podcaster, and author John Mark Comer said this about busyness and hurry:
Satan doesn’t show up as a demon with a pitchfork and gravelly smoker voice or as Will Ferrell with an electric guitar and fire on Saturday Night Live. He’s far more intelligent than we give him credit for. Today, you’re far more likely to run into the enemy in the form of an alert on our phone while you’re reading your Bible or a multiday Netflix binge or a full-on dopamine addiction to Instagram or a Saturday morning at the office or another soccer game on a Sunday or commitment after commitment after commitment in a life of speed.
Comer goes on to say, “People are just too busy to live emotionally healthy and spiritually rich and vibrant lives.” Wowsa!!
I had to ask myself what am I spending my time on? Well, there is eating, sleeping, exercising, my quiet time, conversations/activities with my family, coaching, social media. The first six are non-negotiable, so I looked at social media.
Tristan Harris, was a design ethicist and product philosopher for Google out of Silicon Valley, but left and started a non-profit organization that encourages responsible social media use and also encourages software designers to really think about what they are doing in creating these platforms because right now ‘everything is being intentionally designed for distraction and addiction’. Driving that point home for me was a quote from Sean Parker, who was the first president of Facebook, my chosen social media platform. In an interview with Axios, Parker admitted the following (emphases are mine):
God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains. The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them,…was all about: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you…more likes and comments. It’s a social-validation feedback loop…exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people — understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.
Social media platforms are boldly and unapologetically creating addicts, and we (all who use the platforms, myself included) are like sheep. We just follow their plan and click and like and post. An addiction is an attraction or compulsion that pulls a person toward it in such a way that they are almost powerless to resist (Leah’s definition). By that definition, there are billions of social media addicts in the world today. Oh, it is a ‘socially acceptable’ addiction, but an addiction to the scroll, the like, the posting, the arguments, nonetheless. I feel a bit like we are being played for fools by these social media companies.
At this point, I could either live in denial about how social media impacts me or I could choose to take a long look at my social media use and whether it was a blessing, a distraction, or, heavens above, an idol in my life. Anything or anyone that consumes more of my time and attention than Jesus is an idol. Jesus was clear that we cannot serve God and man/manmade things, therefore I had some soul searching to do and a decision to make.
At the end of the day, I believe God is saying, ‘It’s time, Leah, to get rid of the distraction of social media so you can focus more clearly on Me, on your family, your real-life friends, and on the mission and work I have given you.’ To that end, I will be deactivating my social media profiles very soon and I feel complete peace about the decision.
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