My Weird Imagination
I have always wondered what my funeral would be like. Of course, I won’t actually see it with my own eyes, but I still play a scenario of the experience in my head. I imagine that they will have a projector in the front of some church auditorium, and on the screen, they will be scrolling through my Facebook page and other social media.
“Look at how many people she friended during her lifetime.” or “This is the post that had the most likes while she was living,” they will say with heavy hearts.
Then they will move on to my Pinterest account. I picture my husband walking up to the front with a paper in hand.
“Megan had 64 Pinterest boards,” he will say with tears in his eyes. “And here are all of the crafts that she never got a chance to complete.”
This seems a little crazy, right? Why would this strange, made-up scenario from my weird imagination ever happen?
Reality Check
I guess this thought came upon me one day when I was on my phone. My daughter was playing happily by herself, and then she decided to crawl over and see what I was up to. She tried to get my attention while I was still in a trance…watching stories on Instagram. It took me a while to pull myself out of it. Then I thought to myself, “Why did that take so long?” How much time was there between my daughter crawling over to me and the time I ACTUALLY put my phone down? I was so upset at myself, and I decided that I needed a reality check.
The Bible says this in Matthew 6:19-21 (NASB):
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Do I treasure my phone? No. I really don’t. This was the reality check that I needed. My phone is not a treasure, my daughter’s beautiful soul is.
Friend or Foe?
Something else that helped me with my reality check was to look at my social media as a tool. That’s really what it is. It’s something that is helpful in communicating with others. Putting together an event for multiple people? Done. Posting a picture of your daughter so that all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. can see it all at once? You betcha. You signed up to make a dessert for potluck? Pinned it.
When we stop using social media as a tool, we start falling into an illusion. Believe it or not, social media is not reality. To answer my question above…friend or foe? It depends (everyone’s favorite answer). How will you use it? As a staple or a tool?
If you feel like you are constantly looking at your phone screen, or scrolling through on your computer too much, I want to challenge you to take a step back and look at where you are storing your treasure. Maybe you need to set a phone curfew for yourself (I’ve done it, that’s how deep I was), or maybe you need a detox day where you only use your phone if someone calls you (like the good ole days!). Just remember what your priorities are.
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Yep i use social media as a tool too. I use it to keep in contact with family and for my blog. other than that theres no point of me having it.
Excellent. I think looking at it as a tool is the best way to use social media. From time to time I have to fast from it to refocus on the important people in my life. And most of them aren’t on the Instagram feed!
Since I blog, I have to say “friend.” But I do need to watch it around my kids. They need my time.
We only show people what we want to share therefore Social Media can’t be a reality. Although, people dont always see it that way.
I can often feel overburdened by social media as well! It is a great outreach tool, but can quickly lead you down many rabbit holes if you aren’t careful. I have started trying to limit its use to maybe an hour a day where I am working to share good things and build my business.
I absolutely agree with what you said! A trance….that’s a good way to describe what happens to us when we are engrossed in our social media (or really anything, netflix, etc.). I’ve seen that with my kids…too much screen time changes attitudes (for the worst around here). We are seriously limiting screen time and that includes me with social media and blogging.
Eye opening post and true of so many of us, if we’re honest. Thx for this!
The How-to Guru
[…] as I really do enjoy social media. One of our awesome contributors Megan, wrote about how social media can be a tool and I love love love her perspective on that! And earlier this year I wrote about how I was trying […]