Disconnecting

I recently made the decision to deactivate my Facebook for a little bit. Sadly enough, this wasn't an easy decision. I like to know what's going on with people. I enjoy seeing pictures, reading articles, and keeping up with my friends and family around the world. But sometimes, social media can be VERY overwhelming. I deactivated my account for 3 reasons. 

1. Things were getting ugly. 

This political season seems to be bringing out the absolute worst in everyone. Everyday, I would get on Facebook and see comments from people I know and love that were incredibly hateful and mean. Let me be clear, people can have differing opinions. And contrary to what I'm seeing on Facebook, you can debate these opinions without being hateful to people. It was getting hard for me to reconcile the fact I know some of the people have a relationship with Jesus Christ yet they were acting so hateful and downright mean. Then I started getting angry. I was angry that people were being so mean and I started to look at those people differently. Instead of seeing their profile picture and being reminded of how awesome they were, I was looking at their profile picture and remembering what awful thing they said on someone's post. I felt my heart becoming hardened towards certain people and that was not okay with me. I caught myself being more argumentative towards certain people and that was not okay with me either. 

So now I'm just completely avoiding it all together. Is this the most healthy response? Probably not. But it's what I need to do in order for me to salvage relationships and stay sane (and kind) for the time being. 

2. Privacy

I'm not talking about being scared that someone will read my post and come and murder me. Although, that would be no bueno. When I say privacy, I mean the intimate details of my life. The older I get, the less and less I want every single person on my Facebook to know exactly what's happening in my life. Not every single person has earned the right to know every detail of my life. *I also totally see the irony in me saying this on my blog where I do share the happenings of my life.* It's not that I'm hiding anything in my life. But if someone truly cared what was happening with me, they would ask. It just seems that on Facebook recently, people are asking the wrong questions. Instead of asking why I've become so "liberal" or if I've "found the one yet" (the answer is still no, thank you very much) why not ask me how my job at the shelter is going? Or what I'm learning in classes? Or what God is specifically doing in my life right at this moment. I would LOVE to tell you about any of those things because those things are worth talking about. God has actually done some really cool things in my life lately and I would love to share them. Let be real, we all love the cat videos and fun pictures, but are they really that important? What happened to taking the time to intentionally ask someone how their life is going? Friends, if you truly care about someone, ask them how their life is going! Don't just scroll past their status and pictures. Take the time to call/text/email them and see how things are going. 

3. Time

Don't worry, I'm not going to be one of those people that humbly (but not really humbly at all), says "Oh my gosh, I just wish I had the extra time to waste on Facebook!" The only reason people say that is to make other people feel bad. When I use time as a reason to deactivate my account, I mean the time I was wasting. I would sit there for 30 minutes sometimes and scroll endlessly through posts. That's just silly! I'm not saying that I was going to go do something amazing during that time. But I could be reading a book, interacting with other people, or just doing literally anything productive. 


At the end of the day, I want to keep my mind fresh, my heart kind, gentle, and focused on Christ, and my actions and words reflecting my belief in Him. By staying on Facebook, I'm not sure that would've happened, unfortunately. For some reason, people think that Facebook is the only form of communication and if I leave Facebook, they'll never hear from me again. Not the case. If you have my phone number, feel free to text or call me. If not, my email is erin.albin1@gmail.com and I would love to talk about my life, your life, and just about anything else!