40 Days: Social Media Free -- what I learned.

- I actually don't need to know every detail about everyone's life: nope, I don't need to know who's going to market to cook a delicious meal for their husband. Nope, I don't need to know what game you're going to. Nope, I don't need to know that your job totally sucked today. I didn't know any of these things about anyone for 40 days...and I'm still alive and still have great relationships with people.

- There's more ways to connect, than through social media channels: "I've missed you on Facebook, what's going on in your life?" -- text. "How are you?" -- phone call. "Let's grab lunch." -- face to face.

- I miss lots and lots of news, and I don't like it: earthquakes, tornadoes, engagements, birthdays, babies, new jobs, events, break ups, movies, elections, etc etc etc. So much happens...and I REALLY missed having information pushed to me, opposed to me going TO it. I definitely felt out of touch with people and the world, but I guess this is what it was like 20 years ago!

- There are 100 other things I could be doing with my time: social media is a bit addicting, it actually turned into a habit for me. I have an extra 30 seconds at a stop light? Oh, I'll check Instagram. I'm at dinner with friends and the conversation gets boring? Oh, I'll go on Facebook. There are so many other things I could be doing, other than seeing what everyone else is doing. However, what I realized is my phone is such a great source of entertainment, that I still wanted to be on my phone. So what did I do? Read my Bible app and check the weather. About 10 times a day. At least. Want to know the weather in Anchorage? Bemidji, MN? Pyongyang, NK? Denver, CO? I knew it all. For 40 days. I was like a walking weather channel.

I think the danger of social media is the dependency on everyone else's opinion about your life. It can dictate your life, your decisions, how you dress, where you go...all for the sake of telling the world wide web how great your life is (or in some people's cases, how horrible their life is).

I'm still a fan of social media, but definitely not as much as I was. I challenge anyone to give up social media for a time period, and not a week -- but multiple weeks. There's a bit of a detox period, and a bit of antsy-ness as you're coming to the end -- but I think it's way worth it.