When do you know it’s time? For a social media break, that is.
I often see posts (especially in the last few weeks!) from friends announcing their departure from social media, either permanent or temporary. I find myself wondering – what was the straw that broke the camel’s back? What was the tipping point? Was it hurt? Was it judgment? Was it anger? Was it self-preservation? I might visit their page to try to figure it out. Was it the virus? Was it the election? Was it a family member? Was it a nasty stranger they’ve since blocked? I’m a little nosy, but mostly just wanting to understand. Wanting to understand YOU as a person. What makes you tick. What you’re passionate about. How you give and receive love. How you handle yourself when you’re under (cyber)attack. Because YOU are my friend. You matter to me. And I know I can always love better.
All that to say, I’ve been thinking I could use a little break of my own, and I’d like to share why! Nothing happened, I didn’t get in a fight, you won’t find a highly opinionated, splashy debate on my feed from a few days back. It’s just… time. And if YOU’RE feeling like it’s “just time,” and you’re not sure why – maybe we have something in common.
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I know it’s time when I catch myself scrolling and scrolling mindlessly. My brain says, “That’s enough now,” but my fingers cannot. stop. scrolling.
I know it’s time when I’m relying on social media (posts, shared articles, links) as my primary source of news.
I know it’s time when I feel compelled to read comments of comments on strangers’ posts, watching other people argue as some kind of “entertainment.”
I know it’s time when I PERSONALLY feel compelled to argue with strangers.I know it’s time when I am posting content out of some weird sense of obligation, and not joy, creativity, or spontaneity.
I know it’s time when my sweet girl is going through some stuff and needs more of me.
I know it’s time when it’s the end of October in an election year.
I know it’s time when my heart just says it’s time.
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Unpopular opinion, but I don’t hate social media. I adore it. I consider it a blessing. I glean joy and gratitude from it. Maybe I just have a feed full of remarkably positive people (well, I KNOW that’s true 
), but my standard, my baseline for social media time is warm fuzzy feelings.
When I’m starting to get anything else but warm fuzzy feelings… OR when those online fuzzy feelings are competing with real life fuzzy feelings… then it’s time.
It’s OK to take a break and have a reason.
It’s OK to take a break as a reaction.
It’s also OK to take a break for no reason.
It’s also OK to take a break because your heart says it’s time.
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Thy Will Be Done 