On breaking up with social media (kind of).

I did this today...

& In reality, it's been something that I've been wanting to do since I got home from my mission.

(I downloaded the app only to delete it from my iPhone a month or so later)

But, I would find excuses like, 

"but how will I keep in contact with the people from my mission? 

or my family in Mexico? 

or people whose numbers I no longer have?"

.

.

. 

& wouldn't you know it, Facebook is really REALLY clever, 

because once you push, "deactivate account" they pull out the big guns 

& give you profile pictures of the very people I mentioned above and say, 

"but so-and-so will really miss you, & 

don't forget about this person they'll miss you too!" 

I've been slowly breaking up with social media...

When I got home, two of my closest friends tried explaining Snapchat to me and I found the whole concept really ridiculous. 

"Wait, so you send a picture only to have it delete itself 3 seconds later? How is that fun? Why not just send someone a picture via text."

but, I caved in to peer pressure, and got one.

It was fun, for a bit till I kept getting "selfies" with no kind of cool factor, and "food" pictures, and endless quick nature landscape videos. 

& then there were the times where a certain boy would send me snapchats that were simply black screens with text as a kind of pseudo way of texting.

really!?

I could only take so much before I deleted the app.

I haven't regretted it once.

I stumbled upon this blog post (I worked with one of the girls at the Y) a couple of months ago and it reminded me of a research paper I had written for an English class my last year of undergrad. I was/am fascinated by the pull social media has on us (human beings as a whole). I've tried to wrap my head around how it became a "thing." 

& then today I read this brilliant piece from Forbes in which the author compares social media to fast-food consumption and it just got me thinking, "so,why haven't I disconnected from FaceBook yet?"

Truth be told, I've always secretly admired those who don't have a FaceBook account. Like my friends Jen and Steve. They were always so inspiring to me! I guess it was because it was for me a sign of independence from the world.

I don't think FaceBook and other social media is inherently evil in nature. I think it becomes what we make of it, and I just wasn't using it in the most beneficial way. 

I did a little experiment  after reading the Forbes article and did a google search for "FaceBook depression" and found a whole slew of articles about the subject via the Huffington Post (i love them!) and probably spent more time than I should have (I'm supposed to be watching lectures for law school) reading them. 

Something resonated with me. 

Everything I read echoed the concerns of a prophet who had spoken about the very ills mentioned more than 24 years before...

"Pride is a sin that can readily be seen in others but is rarely admitted in ourselves. Most of us consider pride to be a sin of those on the top, such as the rich and the learned, looking down at the rest of us. There is, however, a far more common ailment among us — and that is pride from the bottom looking up. It is manifest in so many ways, such as faultfinding, gossiping, backbiting, murmuring, living beyond our means, envying coveting, withholding gratitude and praise that might lift another, and being unforgiving and jealous."

& so, I decided I'd add FaceBook to the list of social media boyfriends I've broken up with... at least for the time being. Maybe in the future, we'll get back together... but, really all the reasons I thought I should keep it (wedding invites, tejas/louisiana friends, high school friends) made me realize that I can try a lot harder to keep in REAL touch with people.

I'm still keeping Pinterest and Instagram though & of course this blog: my little outlet on the internet.

& speaking of Pinterest, I leave you with this thought I saw the other day...

with ♥,

L.