Lightening the load

I promise this is not one of those simpering "what I learned" posts, extolling the virtues of my lenten weeks of social media silence. No, no...certainly nothing like that. Well, maybe a little like that.

In a perfect world, I would come back here and tell that those weeks without twitter and facebook (and up until the end, blogging, too) helped me lose 20 pounds, gave me the inspiration to cure cancer, fixed my financial problems, and helped me solve the major riddles of the universe. Nope. Sorry.

What I did get from it mostly consisted of the afternoon I spent pruning my facebook friends list for people who wouldn't really notice I was gone. Or who don't really contribute much to my sphere of life in general and to whom I have no emotional attachments or memories. Funny how my list dropped from 300+ to a little over 100.

Baggage.

I did get a little insight, however, into how I use my own facebook and that was pretty eye-opening. Apparently, I assumed for these long months that facebook was a vehicle for connecting with others (family, friends, acquaintances) through shared bit$#ing and moaning. Little pithy observations laced with snark, or sad little "woe is Megan" moments that I obviously hoped would garner some sympathy love (or at least a "like" or two.) Back and forth, "wah wah wah."

Being without it for nearly six weeks was educational and looking back now, reminds me a little of my favorite Joyce Meyer's teachings about letting our words dictate our experience (instead of vice versa). Crying, complaining, and moping to anyone who will listen didn't brighten my day. Sharing my day to day struggles and frustrations really served nobody any good, but there I was. Wah wah wah.

So that was the start. I saw just how negative facebook can be. How I contributed to it, and how easily I'd get sucked into other people's drama superficially. ('Cause let's be honest...I might bother to type you a four-second note telling you to buck up, but I'm pretty sure that's where it ended. I probably didn't pray or bother to do something SUBSTANTIAL and tangible to really make things better. Sad, but true.)

On that note, I also saw how useless it really was on a daily basis. How little I contributed to interesting conversations or thought-provoking links that could actually help another person. A pick me up, a new perspective, a dash of good news. Anything other than "OMG I have a headache today" or "Boo hoo! Doctor's appointment tomorrow."

Yawn. Gag. On with it already...

So was the experience what I thought it would be? Not really. I thought the lack of social media would make me more in tune with my homelife. It worked a tiny bit, but that takes a concentrated effort of its own. What did become obvious was how little I take away, and contribute, to things like facebook.

Humbling, really.

So without further ado, I'll post a link to that awesome Joyce Meyer article I mentioned earlier, "You Can Win the Battle in Your Mind."

Call it paying my lesson learned forward. Maybe you'll get something from it. Maybe I'll be better about brightening up my social media usage now and then.

Maybe. :)