DISCONNECTED.

DIS•CON•NECT•ED.

/ ˌ diskə ' nektəd/

adjective

having a connection broken.

I know I’m not the only one who feels like this internet/social media driven world is getting to be a little too much like Orwell’s 1984, or "Big Brother". I mean, we check our phones at the thought of an alert. We share our highlights and crazy times with all our friends and followers. We can’t enjoy our current reality or the joy of service because we’re so stuck on capturing it for our feeds and profiles. Yeah, Facebook is fun, Instagram is cool, and YouTube is great – but the question remains: what would happen if we decided to disconnect?

Well, I’ll share with you a secret of mine that I started doing my freshman year of high school: deleting all my social media apps during seasons of my life where I feel overwhelmed or stressed. Now as I typed that I realized I don’t like the word stressed, so instead I’ll use under pressure. (I also found that moving the apps on different pages from what they normally are decreases the frequency in which you visit it). This usually happens when I need to really focus (like for midterms or finals). And not the focus that we all claim to have when we study for 25 minutes, and scroll on social media for the next two hours. But REALLY focus on things that matter more to me than a good caption for my Insta: focusing on God, family/friends, self-care, academics, etc.

I have found that I have a lot of time in the day. Like, 24 hours is a long time y’all, and we can get a lot of things done within those hours. And not only get a lot done, but take some time to rest and recharge from a busy day – or you know, take a break. These social media breaks have produced a level of self-control that I could not have achieved with those apps on my phone (lol the confessions of a millennial). Not only that, but the things that the media always talks about (that we claim not to indulge in (because it’s probably subconscious)) is decreased: comparison, low self-esteem, dependency, noisiness, and uncontrollable distractedness to name a few.

Now, I’m no protester of social media. I love a good Instagram feed, and a great vlog on YouTube. But I also know the effects of social media overload (thank you ENG 201!). All I’m saying is, it’s okay to take a break sometimes. It’s okay to take control over a medium that is so pervasive it can easily take over you. It’s okay, to enjoy the moment without capturing it.

It’s okay, to be disconnected.

Peace +GLOW Always,

“Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.”

-Colossians 3:2 NLT

*All images from @illustration315 on Instagram and Facebook

#detoxdecember #mindset