The Purposeful Wife: Life Unplugged {Lessons from My Social Media Fast}

Hello all! After two weeks without facebook, twitter, or blogs/blogging; I have returned- feeling refreshed and ready to get back into my online groove.

This social media fast was an interesting experiment for me. I was afraid of finding out that I really did have a horrible addiction to social media. I was afraid that stepping away would be harder than it should.

It wasn't nearly as hard as I expected. My eyes were opened to some really good things the internet brings to my life (unobserved before the fast), but at the end of the day I was also fine to function joyfully without it.

Here's a few of the lessons I learned:

My life is rewarding, fulfilling, busy and meaningful without social media. I have a sweet little girl who delights and entertains me daily. I have a wonderful husband who loves me, challenges me, and supports me. The Lord has blessed us with a beautiful apartment that I enjoy being in and am quite busy taking care of! We have good local friends, a great church family, and countless blessings to enjoy. Life is full, good, and rich- with or without the internet.

Social media is a great way for stay-at-home moms to connect with other ladies. For the first time in my career as a SAHM, I felt slightly lonely during the day. This void made me realize that online interaction is a great encouragement in my role as a SAHM. Because I'm reading and writing and interacting with other like-minded ladies throughout my day, I am encouraged and inspired to be a better mom, homemaker, and wife. This is one of the biggest reasons that I am excited to be back!

Photo By Mike Licht

A person can only do so much. As usual, I was over-ambitious in my goals for my time away from the computer. I had hoped to tackle three major projects: 1) final Christmas preparations, 2) a complete deep clean and overhaul organization of our home, and 3) extra writing.

After a week of floundering in all three areas and not accomplishing much in any of them, I realized that I needed to narrow my focus. I picked one task and spent the second week devoted to it. It was better after that, but I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I could of if I had done this in the beginning!

Between caring for children, cleaning house, laundry, ironing, and cooking, we women already have quite a bit on our plates. Cutting out one area (in my case, social media) does not give you liberty to tack three extra major projects onto your agenda! That's just crazy ;).

I didn't miss much. Personally, I was glad to be off of facebook and twitter the day after the elections ;). I'm sure that the rantings that went up that day probably weren't worth my time and emotional energy! This week I'll be reading the back log of my favorite blogs and checking in on good friends via facebook....then I'll know what I need to know and won't worry about the rest. The world kept spinning without me, and it is perfectly okay that I missed some of it.

Being off line doesn't make you more spiritual or solve all of your problems. Even without social media, I couldn't possibly accomplish everything I wanted to get done in a day. And though I wasn't tempted to rush through my prayer time because I needed to put up a post while S was napping, I was tempted by the organizational projects and other "to dos" calling my name. It was still a struggle to quiet my heart and focus. This is an area of my life that needs attention and discipline, with or without the internet!

All in all, I am glad to be back. How have you been over the last couple of weeks? I look forward to reconnecting!