Four Lessons From Our Social-Media-Slow-Down

Social media detox, Facebook fast, Instagram break...have you ever done it? It's all the rage!

Holly and I haven't been completely off the grid, but we have definitely shifted into low gear the last couple of months. At first, it was because of ALL.THE.THINGS. Kids finishing the school year, moms finishing the school year, vacation-planning, book-editing, oh, and working and wifing and parenting. The time we had was spent doing the things that needed doing.

But then, something interesting happened. We kinda didn't miss it. Don't get me wrong, we love our people. FIERCELY LOVE! So, during the quasi-break, when we would jump back into the interwebs, we focused on them. We posted some stuff. We commented and liked some stuff. But we found we weren't as addicted to the stuff.

Here are some of the things we discovered whilst reducing our scrolling time:

1. More time for other things we enjoy - like family time, relaxing, friends time, reading, and obviously more writing. We still captured the memories with pictures but we were selective about the ones we shared. Life's moments seemed a bit more sweet and meaningful when we decided to be immersed in them.
2. Less procrastination - spiraling into endless feeds as a way to ignore laundering the whole house, parenting the wild teens, writing all the words, and other necessary jobs, was a bad habit and just delayed the inevitable. We felt better just getting all the $#%@ done. And being more intentional about our social media visits was stabilizing. Say it with me...MODERATION.
3. More productive use of our limited time - less time on FB and Instagram and Twitter meant more time writing and editing and planning. We're getting ready to submit to some awesome agents we met at our last workshop so this was so helpful. (More to come on our progress soon.)
4. Less green - anyone ever feel a tad bit envious of all the amazing things in your feed? No? Well, then you can skip this point. But if yes, then this is for you. You, we, pretty much everyone around us, we're all amazingly blessed. Being present in your blessings and ingesting less of what the world tells you your life should look like, helps you know that truth. Really know it.

As writers, it's important for us to engage with the cyber-sphere so we will never fully withdraw from social media, nor do we want to. The world is full of interesting people doing interesting things, and we are all those people. Mindfulness and balance have helped us learn how to navigate these worlds in a healthy, helpful, harmonious way.

Have you ever taken a break? Do you want to? We'd love to know what you think.

Oh, and we missed you too! xoxoxo

{J & H}

Photo cred: Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash