Social Media

Lately, I’ve been overwhelmed. And by lately, I mean this whole school year.

Last semester, I spent so much of my down time scrolling through Instagram and Facebook, being sucked into the vortex of comparison.

I began to look at the “lives” of people around me and was frustrated with how my life compared. I didn’t go berry picking with friends, I didn’t have a significant other to post about, I didn’t do anything interesting enough to post, and I didn’t feel like my life was complete.

I became consumed with comparing myself to others. I saw the girl I looked up to get engaged and post several beautiful pictures from that. I watched girls posting pictures of themselves with huge groups of friends, laughing. I saw picture after picture of people enjoying their lives and posting their happiness for the world to see.

Or so I thought.

I began to look at my own Instagram account and saw that I only posted the highlights of my life. I only posted where I looked best, where I looked the happiest, and what I knew people who followed me would like.

Gosh. What a slave we are to Social Media. 

We put on masks in our everyday life, but social media makes this even easier.

Posting our best photos, our most thought-out captions, and our heartfelt statuses is not a sin. The intention behind it most likely is.

I posted photos in the hopes that I would get a lot of likes, that the people who weren’t in my life would see that I was better off without them, that maybe that “so ’n’ so” would see the picture and like it, that I could show off the cool places I had visited, and that I could show off how many friends I had.

But I was lying through posting pictures out of my own pride.

I was not happy last semester, I felt alone, and I wasn’t living life freely; I was a slave to my phone.

I took a month away from social media. I deleted it from my phone, refused to get on it, and chose to spend that month focused on my identity in Christ rather than what the numbers meant. What a difference it made.

When that month was up, I re-downloaded Instagram and Facebook, excited to get back on.

With each post I saw or made, the more my heart broke.

I was overwhelmed by it all, the way my heart was torn between my desire to post a picture to be immediately affirmed and the way I wanted to fully believe what I knew to be true, that Christ was more than enough.

To anyone who has made it this far in this post, feeling guilty or otherwise, please know that the amount of likes you get on social media does not define you.

You are set apart, valued, cherished, redeemed, beautiful, loved, chosen, forgiven, adored, and delighted in.

These are all values we have as daughters of the King. We do not have to question how he feels about us, as He loves us as we are. He knows we are sinners, but because we are dressed in Christ’s righteousness alone, we are forgiven. Trust that. Rest in that.

Please know that I am not condemning people who use social media at all. I know it’s fun and can be used for good! However, for myself, it has proven to be toxic. The spiral of comparison has been extremely easy to get sucked into just by logging in to my Instagram or Facebook.

Social media has proven to be a “highlight reel” of people’s lives. It only shows the good parts, refusing to show the hurt, depression, or fear that is hiding behind the picture. You don’t know the lengths to which that person has to go in order to post that picture. You are not any better or any worse based on your likes. Your value does not change with each like you do or don't get. The Lord already knows you completely and loves you still. Nothing you do can make Him love you more or less.

We all have a camera roll full of pictures, most of which we will never post, because we're too embarrassed. Here's one of me:

We don't post these because we are too afraid of what others will say about us or to us. That should not matter at all. Other's opinions do not change our value.

Galatians 1:10 says “Am I now trying to win the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ”. Why do we work so hard to get affirmation from those around us, when we can just turn to the Lord and know how He sees us, and rest in that?

Jim Elliot said “Let not your longing slay the appetite of your living”. Goodness. So much truth.

Do not let our longing to be in someone else’s shoes based on their Instagram posts slay the appetite of our living. There are great things about us and our life right now that we need to be enjoying. If we were to log out of Instagram, put down our phones, and enjoy the moments we are in, life would look different.

During the month of May, I am logging out of Instagram and Facebook. It has been toxic for me and I need another break from it. If you feel similarly to how I do, do not hesitate to reach out and we can walk through this together.

Log out.

 Experience freedom.

Rest in Christ.