I’m too stubborn to quit much of anything; however, I am wise enough to discern that sometimes there are moments to cease what you are attempting, reflect on where things are going, and assess a best strategy for moving forward. As a Gen Xer navigating the digital age, I am finding myself Pressing Pause more and more frequently in efforts to engage in the Deep Work of intentionally considering what is worth my time and effort. And one area that seems to require a Sabbath for me, if I truly desire to live a flourishing life, is social media.
Quitting Social Media is not an endeavor that I take lightly, and the more I engage with colleagues on the topic of technology in our culture, the more burdened I feel for the necessity to model healthy, flourishing habits for our students, but then the ever prevailing question arises: What does healthy engagement with the digital world mean? As with other dimensions of well-being, we are all vulnerable in various ways to different issues; however, navigating the digital world is not a concern we can ignore, as I share in Wary Not Worry. It is a matter that requires conscious consideration.
Considering the pros and cons of returning to social media after an extended absence at the end of the calendar year, I felt a prompting to continue this Sabbath, at least until after the Christianity in the Academy Conference in February, where the topic was artificial intelligence. The correlations between my panel’s reading of Non-Computable You and learning about the algorithms behind social media platforms, I decided to cease my return to these applications for a longer period, perhaps all of 2023. And, of course, a January article from Jeff Goins entitled Why I Quit Social Media along with reading Geri Scazzero’s book The Emotionally Healthy Woman, seemed to be leading me further into this conscious consideration.
Goins, an author and speaker, outlines in his article, ten reasons for Quitting Social Media which include the following rationalizations that I can relate to: “It didn’t make me feel good…It stole my time…The constant context switching removed me from whatever moment that was calling for my attention—whether it was work, family, or personal time…It made me jealous…It’s not the real world…Social media, from my perspective, seems to be a very condensed aspect of a particular part of human nature with a huge magnifying glass over only a handful of people’s lives…I don’t need it…My real friends can call or text me.” Goins is articulating what I was experiencing, in that what appeared on my feed was being selected by an algorithm, of which I have little control. I was not seeing what my personal friends are posting, it was becoming more ads and newsfeeds of content I do not need in my life.
Adding to Goins’ approach to Quitting Social Media for the practical benefits to the emotional dimension of well-being, Scazzero offers the perspective which connects to the spiritual dimension of Quitting, “The Emotionally Healthy Woman is a book about following Jesus and summoning the courage to quit anything that does not belong to his kingdom or fall under his rule. This is not all you need to grow into a spiritually/emotionally mature adult, but one thing is sure: you cannot get there without it.” Pete Scazzero, the author’s husband, shares that this form of Quitting is about choosing strength to know when to draw proper boundaries in your life. He adds, “Biblical quitting goes hand in hand with choosing. When we quit those things that are damaging to our souls or the souls of others, we are freed up to choose other ways of being and relating that are rooted in love and lead to life.” Pete ends his foreward to Geri’s writing with the following: “We don’t make the decision to quit just once; each ‘Quit’ is a lifelong journey.”
This might not be the most scientific approach to seeing how the digital world is influencing my life, but Quitting Social Media is one area in which I do have control over the influence I allow it to have in my life. If taking an extended break allows me to live a flourishing life, to become an emotionally healthy woman, then why wouldn’t I experiment? Scazzero offers several areas in her book where Quitting might be necessary, even if it’s not social media for you. Perhaps some of these other areas will resonate more with you, I’ll let you decide.
Are there areas in your life that Quitting might be a healthier alternative than engaging in habits that lead away from a flourishing life? When choosing to live a flourishing life, where could you release some unhealthy activities today? Have you attempted a similar experiment to Quitting Social Media? Would you consider sharing that experience in the comments below? Perhaps your thoughts will provide wisdom and discernment for someone else.
References:
Cloud, H. & Townsend, J. (1992). Boundaries: When to say yes, when to say no, to take control of your life. Zondervan.
Goins, J. (2023, January 9). Why I quit social media: It’s not that big of a deal. Retrieved from https://jeffgoins.substack.com/p/why-i-quit-social-media
Marks, R. (2022). Non-computable you: What you do that artificial intelligence never will. [Kindle version]. Discovery Institute.
Scazzero, G. (2019). The emotionally healthy woman: Eight things you have to quit to change your life. Zondervan.
Flourishing @ Life 
Soooo good! More people need to read this!
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Quitting social media can definitely be an extremely effective practice. While I do think there are benefits and positive uses for social media, I often find myself spending much more time on it than I intend. Sometimes mindless scrolling can turn an intended 10 minutes into an hour without even realizing it. I also agree that it never leaves you feeling good afterwards. When I spend long periods of time on social media, I always think about what I could have done with the time I just wasted. Quitting social media is a great way to get your priorities back in order and refresh your life.
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This was a great Read! Although, quitting social media is nearly impossible in this day and age. Everybody has an iPhone or a computer or some type of television in their household so they’re always connected to the media. There are negative and positive attributes that come with social media. It comes down to how you use it and if you use it to your advantage or to waste time looking at other peoples lives, or simply just watching videos. A lot of friends and family members that I personally now use social media to their advantage. For example, companies pay them to advertise their merchandise 10 gauge more people to buy it.
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I agree, and I think that quitting social media will help you live a more flourishing life. As a college student, there are so many distractions and pressures already, outside of the digital world. People use social media to escape reality, which is really just a time waster since it is not reality. I think Gen Z could be more in touch with reality if they quit social media. These days, that is the only way people communicate. Also since social media is not reality, most people you communicate with are not really your friends on there. In the article it said that your “real” friends can text or call you, which I agree is true. I think that social media is not good altogether, and more people should quit using it.
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I totally agree with this. Social media is a huge distraction, especially for college students. That is the only way that this generation talks to each other. Some people talk through social media but if you see them in person they won’t speak to you. Social media is getting worse through the years and I believe that it would be better if people quit using it. I am not saying there are not positives in it but I believe if we reduced the amount of time spent on social media, it would make a huge difference as well.
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I agree the quitting social media has huge benefits, although i feel in this day in age you literally have to have social media in order to learn and grow in this generation. Social medial is how we receive news and communicate with our friends and family. I feel like quitting social media in our generation would have less benefits than the generations before us due to the fact that we grew and are growing up through social media. Anything we go through in life we look to social media to guide us through because that’s how we were brought up to do, we will as social media before we ask the person standings right next to us. In contrast I do think quitting social media would help things like people being antisocial and having a lack of people to hang out with in the real world.
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I absolutely love this blog post. I think this brings up such a valid and prevalent point that our generation struggles with on the daily. Personally, I tend to spend too much time on social media when I could be utilizing my time much more efficiently. Something that I heard in a TED talk was that people that are growing up in this century just don’t know how to be bored anymore. Instead of allowing yourself to feel the nothingness of a mundane day, kids have Tiktok and Instagram to fill that void. Because of this, whenever they do not have their technology to satisfy them, they freak out and feel a sense of emptiness, which is so disheartening. It is especially scary that we as women love to fill our time with social media, even though it makes us feel worse about ourselves and play the comparison game. It is incredibly vital to guard our hearts in this time to things that can easily be made our idols, instead of God being our go-to time-filler.
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This blog is interesting to me because I’m on my phone so much all over social media. The blog really talks about some relatable things and how it is not healthy to be on social media so much. There is a sense of realization of how much time it really takes away. Flourishing is a feeling talked about after taking the social media break and I think that feeling is something most feel when they quit social media and that makes me want to take my own break from it in order to become more productive for myself.
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I do agree that quitting social media would solve many problems. However, I feel as thought quitting social media is nearly impossible for me, and maybe even others. I know I can live without social media, however how do I keep up with people without it. The world is changing and is not like times use to be without social media. So to say “drop the phone and read a newspaper” would be hard considering newspaper buisnesses have also considered going digital. It is sad to see this generations younger kids grow up in such a time of technology. I wish they had it easier and much more simple.
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I completely agree with this blog post. I think quitting social media is something that can be very beneficial to a person’s social life and mental health. Personally, quitting social media or even just dialing back on the time I spend on it is something that I have considered for a while. I have many friends that have done this and benefitted tremendously. I loved how Goins said it “stole his time.” This is so true and it really made me think about how much time I am wasting on scrolling through social media. The time that I spend on social media could be spent on things that are much more beneficial to me. I always complain about not having enough time in my day to get stuff done, but taking a break from social media could add a whole hour to my day. I do think I could flourish more in my life by either quitting or taking a break from social media and I love that the post mentioned to just simply try it. The reward I could get from quitting social media is much greater than the small risk that comes with leaving social media. I have tried in the past to take breaks from social media but it has almost always resulted in me downloading the apps back a few days later. This has made me want to take breaks from it less because I haven’t been as successful but this blog encouraged me to keep trying and to be intentional to look at how my time is spent and how I might can benefit from spending less time on it.
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I really enjoyed reading this blog. It is so relatable for me. There have been so many times that I told myself, “Today I am going to quit social media!”. But in reality, it is harder than it seems. All my friends are on the other side of the world, and I want to know what they are doing. Also, social media is an easy way to reach out to people. In the blog you wrote “Real friends can text me”. That is definitely true but social media makes it a lot easier.
A few months ago I realised that I was not just using Social Media to look at what my friends and family have been up to, but that I got lost in the algorithm. I was just scrolling, watching unnecessary video I did not want to watch, but I could not stop doing it. I decided to unfollow all the unnecessary accounts I follow, but it just comes up in ‘recommended’ now. Social media is more dangerous than I thought, and it controls us in a way that we do not even realize. Very good blog about this and I love this insight!
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