24-Hour Social Media Challenge

No social media?! *Gasp*

I’m sorry for the dramatic opening of this post, but I wanted to ask you some important questions: what would a day without social media look like for you? Do you think you could make it 24 hours?

Social media takes up a great deal of our time. When you are bored, you probably spend your free hours scrolling through Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, Twitter, or SnapChat. Sometimes, you do this mindlessly. While these apps are important information and communication tools, I believe that we should all take some time away from our phones so that we can experience the world around us.

It is important to enjoy activities or hobbies outside the time we use. I love running, and this does take up a good portion of my week when I add up time with the team, time running, and time recovering or stretching. I also enjoy writing poetry and reading poetry books. I love hiking and hanging out with my friends too. There is a beautiful world out there, and God wants us to enjoy it!

Now, I’m not saying cut your social media completely off, but what I am saying is that you should manage your usage. In the earlier months of covid and when everything was shut down in my home state, I turned to my phone as a source of entertainment. I downloaded an app that could track how long I spent on each app as well as the cumulative time spent on my phone. Needless to say, I was not too happy with just how much time I used it. Around the beginning of summer in May, I tried to limit my social media time and use my phone more as a communication tool to keep up with my family and friends who were hard to see with social distancing measures in place.

I want to pose a little challenge to you, my fellow reader. I challenge you to not use social media (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) for 24 hours. You can use your email, text messaging, and calling like normal since these are integral parts of our day. I’ve done it before, and I can tell you that it can make a world of difference. When I focus on my faith and those around me, I feel so whole. I found that I was not missing out on anything.