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We had a great vacation with my family in Minnesota a few weeks ago and it led me to some deeper thoughts about our life, distractions, and keeping it all in perspective.
I posted this thought to Instagram and I had a friend respond with, “To me it seems like your mobile life has eliminated many distractions. Would love to hear what things still creep in to displace your priorities!”
I’ll admit we have a more simple life than most people – there’s no soccer schedules, school programs, work parties or other miscellaneous events to juggle. I’m really grateful for this because while those things are definitely GOOD, I’m not sure they are BEST for us right now.
However, we do have other things that creep into our lives as distractions. Social media and Instagram are HUGE distractions for me. Just this week I had a friend unfollow everyone because she admitted she was too caught up in how many followers and how many likes she’d get on each post. I am really proud of her for working hard to eliminate that distraction from her life because she feels like its unhealthy for her.
Unfortunately, I’m totally guilty of placing too much importance on praise and recognition from others. I get caught up in what blog post I need to write for the week, how many likes a photo received, or what people are saying on Facebook. I find that instead of doing something productive, useful, or uplifting for a few minutes during down time, I pull out my phone and mindlessly cruise social media. Tell me I’m not the only one? I would LOVE to think that I’d work on memorizing a scripture, or read an actual BOOK, or take 10 minutes to read to my children. But I don’t.
As we were out paddle boarding on one of Minnesota’s numerous lakes, with my brothers, sister, and parents nearby Sam and I talked a lot about what we could be doing better for our family. Sure things are going well, but how could they be BETTER. We didn’t come up with anything revolutionary, but just small adjustments we think will keep us pointed in the right direction.
Top on the list was limiting the amount of time I spend on Facebook and Instagram and filling those moments with something more productive. We’ll see how it goes.
That is definitely my to distraction too, and one that I want to break. I think I justify it because social media is one of the ways I keep in touch with friends and family back home. And I always have my phone with me to take pictures. But really, I’m spending way too much time just surfing around and reading blogs. I’d love to hear more about your efforts to control this distraction.
I am guilty of spending to much time on social media. However, I find that as a stay at home mom that social media is also a way to help me feel connected to a broader and more diverse group of adults. I don’t have co-workers. I don’t have school mates. I have the parents of my kids’ friends, family and a few best friends. I think social media is a great way to fill the gap, give me some adult interaction, expand my community and also find a community of people who are interested in similar things as me so our common thread isn’t just that we live on the same street or our kids’ go to the same school… we actually have something in common!
I totally agree with helping me feel connected! I’ve definitely met some great people through social media. 😉 I think sometimes I give more attention to that than other things.
I get on too much or I end up reading too much probably 🙂 I feel like things like that are a lifeline sometimes. It is hard not to feel isolated with where I am right now in life. Glimpses into others lives(real or fiction) make me feel a little less alone. It seems like my friends are harder to pin down right now to visit with. I know to everything there is a season. I am working to enjoy this one but also looking forward to a different one at the same time. I do love to it when my husband and I go backpacking or camping and do not have a signal though 🙂 Forces our world to become really small and just about us.
Totally agree!