My 90 Day Social Media Fast

So, I know this sounds totally crazy that I would take a 90 day social media fast right? But just hear me out and if you have questions, PLEASE holla at me! I've had social media accounts since close to the beginning of its existence. (AOL messaging pre dates me lol) I've had almost every type of social media account you can think of including Tagged, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, What's App and Vine. The only one I didn't get in to was KIK and that was because when it launched I felt too old to own an account lol That totals up to over 10 years of engaging in social media and I never took a break until January of this year. I finished 2016 coming out of a long growing and stretching period. God really shook my entire life up for months and months on end but I knew that victory was coming in the year 2017. I decided to really take time in 2017 to let the Lord reveal Himself to me, to show me who He made me to be and to clean up and heal my heart.  I was ready to be who the Lord called me to be but I knew I had to make drastic changes to discover who that person was. So I decided to focus on the Lord and remove anything that took up more of my attention than He did. Some of those things were men and social media. 

I noticed that my presence on social media consumed my life. I constantly checked my accounts, aimlessly scrolled through posts I already read and found myself stalking lives and playing the comparison game. I knew that I had to get rid of the idol that social media had become so I, along with my two close friends decided to go on a social media fast. We planned to begin it on January 1st to begin the new year with a fresh start and we decided to go for 90 days because during that time our church would begin a church wide food fast so we incorporated our social media fast into our church wide fast.

After returning from our trip to Atlanta, we began our social media fast! The first week was extremely hard for me. As I previously stated, I decided to give every idol to the Lord which included men and social media. The dangerous thing about making anything besides the Lord an idol is that you will never be fulfilled. The Lord is the only thing that can totally satisfy and fulfill us and He made it that way on purpose. When I let go of the idols that I had made, I felt completely empty. I felt lost and confused because I had not let the Lord fulfill me. This was a very hard time for me but it pushed me closer to the Lord. It allowed me to spend way more time with Him and His Word and it allowed Him to heal my heart from the pain that I had been carrying. 

Now, I will not say that after the first week everything was easy. It was still difficult to break a pattern I had been so used to doing for years. Luckily I had my friends to lean on when times got rough. 

Towards the end of the fast I felt so much better. I realized that I was too dependant on social media. I was too dependant on checking my page for likes, stalking people's lives and totally consuming myself with my phone and I was able to see that once I stepped back and took a break. 

SO! Moral of the story is that I totally needed that break and my friends agree they needed it  as well. (To hear their side of the story, stay tuned for my vlog I will post soon) I encourage everyone to really analyze their life and social media pattern. I believe everyone should consider taking a break even if it's for one day. You never know what one day will do. 

I plan on taking more frequent breaks in the future, monitoring the time I spend on my phone and making sure that I align my view of myself with the Word of God so that I do not get stuck playing the comparison game.