Our Latter-days prophet’s admonition
to take a seven-day social media fast had come to my attention, but I wasn’t going to act on it as his address
was during a youth fireside and I simply didn’t think I needed to do it (even though
the weeks prior to it had been some of my highest consumption of Facebook).
But my father-in-law, as he usually is very much in-tune
with the spirit, at the end of our family visit a few weeks back, sat us all
down and before we each left for our homes, he committed us to do just that - what the prophet had urged the young of our church to do - the seven-day social
media fast as well as setting a special time aside for the Lord each week for
the following three weeks.
After committing to do the fast, the first day I had to
decide how to do it. Ethan suggested I erased the app from my phone, which I pondered
doing so and maybe even have it permanently removed, but given the fact that I’m
working towards my own product business, I know I have to keep in the loop and be
proficient using the facebook app (which, btw, it had significant changes even
within a week); so instead I moved the Facebook app from the first page to the
very last, sitting by itself.
That helped a lot, just having it out of sight and out of
mind, but out of habit I still felt like checking statuses and updates all the
time in the first few days.
But here’s what I came out with as a result of my fast, also
the reasons I would encourage everyone to do so even if for just one week;
- I became more present, paying more attention and in a more natural manner to my girls
- Instead of engaging throughout the day in all these group conversations, and getting distracting notifications of comments or replies to my comments, I had more clarity and quietness in my mind
- I started listening to more podcasts, even meditating and reading more meaningful texts
- I realized the people who really care know what I’m up to even when not broadcasted to the world
- I realized those people are the ones that truly matter, they are the ones that I actually talk on the phone and in person (and sadly enough, there are abt 5 of them besides family, who I talk to on a regular basis offline, one lives back in Romania, 3 are dispersed around the states, and one is in my same city)
- And what was most shocking to me - it made me so far removed from all the noise of social media, that the simple act of posting what we’re doing ALL THE TIME started feeling weird, like I stopped seeing the purpose behind it (I know there are many people who have always felt that way, and have probably laughed at people like myself, but I’m just now seeing the light).
So, obviously I’m still on FB and Instagram. I even thought about
making it a two-times a week of an ordeal, almost like a chore, or a work assignment,
because no one will really miss me and I will end up getting a whole lot more
done in the meanwhile. But for right now, my FB app is still on the last page
of my phone, and I am probably checking it about 500% less than I used to.
All thanks to a living prophet who knows our needs and has
called us to take actions towards having a more fulfilled life. And just as
grateful I am to my father-in-law who was inspired to have us participate.
