After 2 months of being Facebook and Instagram FREE, here are the things I find I do and do not miss.

What I DO miss:

• Seeing all of the updates, silly or serious, from my friends and family to know how or what they’re doing.
• Getting ideas from seeing what other people are learning or doing in their homes, schooling, parenting, reading, church, and work.
• Asking questions to get others’ opinions, insights, suggestions. I love asking questions, so this has been something I have greatly missed.
• I do miss being inspired and encouraged by others’ updates, as well as purposing to inspire and encourage others.

What I DO NOT miss:

• Political tension
• Surveys
• Wasting time when I could be productive
• The addiction that comes with social media
• Caring about what others think
• Feeling frustrated when others are critical
• Finding myself being more judgmental than I care to admit (there truly is freedom from not knowing everything about everyone all of the time … ignorance truly is bliss)
• How I stared at my Facebook page more than my own children’s Faces (real life “faces”, imagine that)
• Feeling like I’m never doing enough as I compare my life to what I see in others’ FB lives
• Having an opinion about everything I saw on Facebook
• Getting quickly sucked in to scroll and scroll and scroll
• Having a sore neck from looking down at my phone so much
• Joining and leaving various groups … so much to keep track of in the News Feed
• Following link after link after link which was another reason for getting sucked into Facebook and Instagram
• Blocking people because I got so annoyed and frustrated with their whining, complaining, negativity, or arrogance
• Having yet another thing to check when I got a new notification
• Feeling compelled to respond to people, because it is the right and polite thing to do
• Trying to keep up on all of the “latest”
• Feeling guilty I didn’t wish people happy birthday when I saw it was their birthday
• Finding so many things I wanted (but didn’t need) to buy on the local “garage sale” pages
• Getting invited to so many local events and feeling lame for not going to them

As you can see, the lists are quite lopsided.

Overall, I currently find myself more content, less stressed, and just all around better. I am much more relaxed, in general. I am connecting more intentionally with people instead of relying on Facebook to give me the feeling (illusion?) of being connected.

I had absolutely no idea how much social media controlled my every day, until I cut the chains. My eyes were opened wide: freedom.

Even though I do miss a few aspects of it, I do not regret stepping away from social media … not for a single second.

To God be the Glory!