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In this episode you will learn:

• How and why God whispers to us

• What risk and faith had to do with my social media unplug

• The science behind WHY social media is ruining your short-term memory

Episode length: 13:13

Transcript             

God Unplugged Me From Social Media in 3 Stages

Sometimes God whispers. And in today’s podcast, I want to show you how God whispered to me about my social media habits. This was not an area of sin in my life, it was simply an area where I did not feel fulfilled. But it took me listening to God’s whispers to help change that.

If you are not sure when God whispers to you, I hope you enjoy today’s podcast. I’m going to show you how God’s whispers were risky yet faith-filled as I began to unplug from social media.

Hello. My name is Angela Meer and I am the Head Dreamer here at the podcast God-Sized Dreams in Bite-Sized Chunks. If you have been looking for a way to make your life count, build your dreams in practical ways, and develop the skills you need to go the long haul, you’ve found the right place. I’m here to guide you with humor, inspiration, and authenticity. Welcome to God-Sized Dreams in Bite-Sized Chunks.

            As always thank you for tuning in and if this is especially impactful for you, please comment on our blog or review us in the podcast so that others can find these practical wisdom-filled strategies to help them excel in their walk with God.

            I want to share with you a story that I hope will inspire you to begin to utilize the fruit of self-control in new ways that will affect your day-to-day life. When I first began to feel impressed by God to improve my time management it was because my use of social media was getting out of control. Perhaps you can relate. I would spend hours scrolling, commenting, and engaging with people on social media and realize later that tons of time were being eaten up, and that there was an emptiness that came with the activity.

At first, I thought it was because I had to curate my friends and preferences so I would only see uplifting things. So I set about creating boundaries around my content,  removing likes from certain pages, and eliminating acquaintances that did not bring a positive or uplifting presence onto the social media pages.

For a few days, that seemed to work, until I began feeling the same way after scrolling sessions. I hope that this is something you can relate to! New reports say that upwards of 85 percent of Zoomer Generation are no longer on social media because of its toxicity and emptiness. I can fully understand why! But as I began to examine my habits a little closer, I found that God led me to fast social media: first for three days, then a month, and finally, after the month had concluded I realized I no longer wanted it in my life. God never asked me to leave; I just no longer felt any joy in it. To some degree, I realized that I had addicted myself to a way of quote end quote “connecting” with people which wasn’t a connection at all.

I’m going to stop right now because I’m feeling Jesus say something in the Spirit. Listen, you guys, it’s okay to feel conviction. It’s okay to feel that Jesus has something better for you so that you can exist in a place of His goodness, rather than self-imposed rules of culture says we connect with the family of God. If this is convicting you, then keep listening, because I have hope to offer.

I too was feeling conviction. It wasn’t God screaming at me to stop sinning; I’ve been there before and I know that type of correction. This was different. It was like Jesus was wanting to show me the MORE of His abundance (…but I have come that you may have life, and life more abundantly” John 10:10) and life and He knew that scrolling was draining me. He was offering me an invitation and to be honest it took a lot of risks, faith, and trust to see what His invitation offered me.

So I took the first step, not realizing that I was on a journey.

The first step was this: God asked me to stay off social media for one day. During that day, I needed to use my phone for calls or texts only. No apps, no social media.

The first struggle came as soon as I woke up. My alarm was on my phone and while reaching for my phone to turn off the alarm, several notifications came up. I struggled to ignore them. And they bothered me through my entire morning routine. I realized about an hour through my morning that the notifications had bothered me so much that I was barely involved in my devotions with the Lord. In fact, my prayers were incredibly shallow because all I could think about were those notifications going unanswered.

I then left for work. The day He asked me to do this, I was teaching the class. I teach an adult ministry school and there were 17 students that day. I called the class to start and realized that in the first moments of waiting for them to take their seats, I was tempted again to grab my phone, rather than make eye contact with the students and acknowledge their presence in class. When this thought passed my mind, it really bothered me. I then decided to put my phone away.

Perhaps because I was without my own phone that day, my powers of observation greatly increased. I noticed that every break that a quarter of the class used their phones or media to disengage from being social. I noticed that having conversations were difficult to sustain for some because their phone was beeping at them. Myself, I found it very uncomfortable to not have something to hide behind.

Those hours in the morning of my first day without social media were potent enough for me to begin to explore the idea of distancing myself from social media further.

We are going to take a quick break but when we return, I’ll share the surprising two stages that came after the first time I yielded to God’s whispers about social media.

Ashley from Arizona writes, Daily Grow helped me value structure in the Word.” Barbara from Oregon shares, “The guided journals are some of the best I’ve found, and I’ve been journaling for thirty years.” Hi, I’m Angela from Daily Grow. I created Daily Grow out of the problems I was facing when going after my God-Sized Dreams. I needed an encouraging devotional that would inspire me to take action, but I also needed space to explore my feelings and needs. Finally, a daily planner that gave me habit trackers and ways to maintain good habits. I put Daily Grow together as a devotional, guided journal, and daily planner all-in-one, and what it became was our all-in-one devoplannal. Now it’s helping women across the world pursue their God-Sized Dreams in Bite-Sized Chunks as well. And I know it will help you. Daily Grow Bible studies and personal time with God are exploding all over the place. Join us and get your God-dreams moving toward fulfillment and more. Find us at DailyGrow.org. That’s DailyGrow.org. See you there!

Welcome back!

But then God introduced the next stage for me, and again, it felt like an invitation, rather than a dictate. I knew that He had something very special for me in the process. I trusted and risked again.

In stage two, God asked me to eliminate all notifications of every app on my phone. In other words, there were no pings or beeps happening at all throughout my day. The only time that I was to use social media, was an hour in the evening. At that time I could look at my notifications from within the social media account itself.

As you can imagine, this was another drastic change. I found that my desire to immediately reach for my phone in the morning and scroll while laying in bed was a huge temptation. So I made a change.

I bought an actual alarm clock (with nature sounds!) and put my phone into the pocket at the edge of my bedsheet. For a few days, it was weird to wake up to nature sounds and not just reach for my phone. But soon I realized it carried an immediate benefit: my morning time with God was not being colored in any way by the things I had read on social media. This meant:

·       Any news articles for the day were no longer top of mind, but I was free to pray and to read as the Holy Spirit guided me, not as social media had guided me

·       Fears or worries that friends had expressed on social media were not top of mind, but I was free to explore my own feelings and thoughts with guided journaling in my Daily Grow devoplannal

·       Comparison, should, or should nots and every type of envy, insecurity, or judgment that social media had created in me was gone; instead I could wait and see what GOD wanted to create in me, and trust Him for His good paths within me for the day

As you can imagine, this felt like I had been freed from my own forms of self-bondage. After doing this for only a month, the one hour I spent in the evenings began to feel emotionally draining, and I began to spend less and less time present on social media.

Stage three then came as no surprise. Last December, God asked me to step away for an entire month free of social media. I posted a Christmas greeting that let people know that I wouldn’t be on social media that month, but would be with family, baking, and enjoying the holiday. Then I signed off for a month. Incidentally, when I came back on in January, that post had received a ton of likes. Others felt inspired to do it themselves. Many others applauded it in comments.

I wish I could tell you that it was easy for me that month; it was however still difficult, and I finally eliminated the apps from my phone because I realized that my finger would just go there in a moment of boredom.

And boredom was what first became my biggest issue that month. Instead of baking or hanging with my family, I was sulking from not being on social media! I’m laughing at it now, but that’s the reality! But after two days of sulking, I decided to change gears. I ended up:

·       Decorating my house for Christmas early

·       Having incredible quality time with my husband

·       Experimenting with new recipes for Christmas

·       Brainstorming some new ideas that were forming

·       And finding myself at the gym more

In other words, I spent December actually living! I was DOING things that gave me joy, and expanding my gifts for the kingdom as well. I read more, I hung out with others more, and my mood greatly improved.

I didn’t come back to social media on January 1. I came back on January 16. I had been gone for 6 weeks and I realized at that time that I didn’t miss it. I posted a nice letter on my social media account and said goodbye.

There are still times I jump on there, and there are still times I HAVE to jump on there. But for the most part, I stay gone. And here are the longer-term benefits I’ve discovered:

·       I have better memory, short-term memory especially (this has been proven to be true by researchers btw)

·       I have stronger, deeper connections with others now

·       I feel more still, or at peace within myself now

·       I can hear the Lord more clearly

This isn’t the full list, but it is a good sample of the benefits I’ve found. At the end of the day, I just feel better because I’m living life, rather than reading about others’ lives. And my relationship with the Lord has greatly expanded because I’m not having to push out thoughts of the million things that social media wants me to do: I’m pursuing what God wants me to do.

This may be a bit radical for you. And I admit, I thought it was radical at first too. I think that was why taking the elimination of social media in stages, rather than cold turkey, allows you to increasingly feel the benefits of a scroll-free life.

And maybe, for you, all you need in your life is more self-control over your social media scrolling. Perhaps then, take this as an ala carte menu, take ideas from my elimination diet, and make it yours! But do try, at least one of these ideas! See what benefits come to you as re-prioritize the importance of social media in your life!

As always thank you for tuning in and if this is especially impactful for you, please comment on our blog or review us in the podcast so that others can find these practical wisdom-filled strategies to help them excel in their walk with God.

What about you?

What tips and tricks are you willing to consider for your own social media habits?