Three More Reasons I am Glad I Ditched Facebook

Three More Facebook

On Wednesday I told two reasons I am glad of the decision to quit Facebook. Today I will roll out the last three reasons why I think this was a good decision for me.

1. Judgmental reactions are avoided. 

Many times a person would post a picture on Facebook and I would immediately send out my judgmental antennae labeling exhibit A as too revealing, infomercial material, or fake to the hilt. Judgmentalism is a subtle sin that Christians can overlook easily in light of the  more offensive,  in your face sins like swearing or underage drinking or the like. However, judgmental and pious attitudes are equally sinful as the aforementioned.  Cutting out Facebook equated cutting down on judgmental attitudes that held everyone around me to my own and often unobtainable standards.

2. Freedom to live without constant need for affirmation.

Often times, I would post a picture, statement, article, or blog post and have no response from friends. When this happened I would worry that I had said or done something wrong, that people were tired of listening to my voice, or that I wasn’t accepted or liked. Without putting myself out there for the friend world to respond to I feel freedom to be myself and invest my voice into the people within my sphere of influence in face to face relationships and within this community at This Temporary Home. You show up to read my writing without any sense of compulsion other than because you want to. Thank you is not enough, but all that I have to offer. So…thank you!

3. Regaining a measure of privacy. 

It is my experience in our world of social media and the blogosphere that people can know very much about you without ever talking with you. I am really not sure how comfortable I am with that. On the one hand it is great to share in what God is teaching me or what adorable thing my children are doing at their current age, but on the other hand, I loose sight of who in fact is reading that information when I share it with over one-thousand friends. In ditching Facebook, I have regained a sense of my children’s privacy and my own. Not everyone needs to know what I am doing or thinking or struggling with on a daily, or update-by-update basis.

Regaining private moments and marking them as private makes them more special and gives me stories to tell and share as I recall them. I have no idea how putting our kids out there for so many people to see will affect them in the long run. I want to guard these precious children I have been entrusted with and for me that started with Facebook and has lead to cutting down significantly even with pictures I post on This Temporary Home.

What about you? Have you considered dropping one form of social media? Have you already done so? What are some of the benefits or lessons that you have learned? 

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Two Reasons I Am Glad I Ditched Facebook

 

Two Reasons Facebook

I decided to take a break from Facebook the beginning of this year. It was a decision that I had grappled with for some time. I excused my forbearing with Facebook because it was and is a great way to gain readers for This Temporary Home. I held onto that social media outlet for the sheer reason that it promoted traffic to the blog and perhaps provided a glimmer of light and substance on the Facebook market.

Fast forward several months and I am more convinced than ever that I made the right choice when I listened to the still small voice of the Father asking me to trust Him and let the stat counter for the blog fall where it may.

That being said,  my goal is to provide encouragement for those of you who may be sensing it is time to take a hiatus or a permanent departure from Facebook or other social media that you currently use. Some people, like my husband for example, are not driven to check the latest status updates or page patrol. But others, like myself, waste time and emotions on digital portrayals of people I know but would otherwise not keep up with in real life. Or, if I do communicate with them in real life, then I can send a text message, email, share a cup of coffee, or make a good old-fashioned phone call to catch up.

Here are two reasons why I am glad I ditched Facebook:

1. Reduced use of one form of social media seemed to contribute to overall decline in time spent on other social media outlets.

I continue to use some forms of social media. However, I found that by eliminating Facebook I dramatically decreased my time spent mindlessly surfing the other social media outlets that I continue to use. I do not find myself checking the remaining social media with the fervency as before.

2. The twin monsters of envy and  jealousy have drastically quietened themselves.

Envy and jealousy are two of the sins that Jerry Bridges refers to as subtle sins. I’ve written about them on numerous occasions because they pose a problem for me as a Christian woman and for most women in general. Since quitting Facebook, I have no idea what other families did this weekend and therefore less temptation to be jealous or envious that while others were out snorkeling in the Florida Keys, I was at home scrubbing toilets and cleaning dishes. I know about my friends adventures via real life conversations and chances are extremely high that I will celebrate with and for them.

I found it too frequently the case that I would hear about an amazing day at the beach or some such tale and then become jealous that I was stuck in the mundane that day while reading that post.  Facebook ran interference with my contentment.

Join me on Friday for three more benefits of quitting Facebook. 

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