A few weeks ago I was watching Youtube, like I do every morning and I was listening to one of my favorite Youtubers, Kimmy over at She's In Her Apron, as she explained how she was going to be taking a 10 day fast from social media. It had been a challenge made through her church. Well at the end of the video she challenged her watchers to do the same. At first I thought there is no way I can actually stay away from social media that long, but I figured why not at least try.
The very next day I deleted Facebook from my cell phone (Which I still haven't added back and don't plan to!). It was the first feel-good moment of the challenge. I didn't have to hear it ding anymore letting me know that someone comment on some post and I didn't have to run to check it right away. To me this made the biggest difference starting out. Second, I promised myself that I would stay away from social media. I would do this challenge and I would finish it.
The first day was really hard, let me tell you. I actually missed those ding sounds at first, the second day it was still a little hard, but by the third day, I realized something. It wasn't as hard to stay away, I had tons of time to work on my blog, to spend with my kids, to clean my house, to do so many things that I had been putting off. Just because I wasn't scrolling on social media for five to ten minutes every few hours, I had time to do the things that I wanted to do.
We waste so much time scrolling and trying to figure out what other people are up to that we put off the things that we want to do or the things that bring us joy. At least that's what I figured out that I had been doing. I also realized how draining it was scrolling through social media, all the sad stories that brought me down while reading them or all the sad news people post on social media. All these things would make me sad and make me want to scroll more to find something happy.
After 10 days, I honestly realized that I don't need to be on social media as much as I was. I would rather spend that time playing with my kids or doing things around my house that I enjoy. It also gave me more time to read, which is something I love! All in all, this challenge was amazing and really opened my eyes to what damage social media can really do to your day and time. Now I only allow myself to get onto Facebook twice a day or every other day and only for about 15 minutes a day.
My challenge for you, take the 10-day social media ban challenge!
See what it was done for you, then, of course, come back and let me know how it goes. I would love to know what you spent your extra time on.
