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Fasting On Facebook: Taking A Break From Social Media

I took the weekend off of Facebook because I just needed a break. Today, I took a peek because a story I was writing made it necessary, and I discovered a few things.

1) There wasn’t very much that I missed.

2) No one was screaming and crying because I hadn’t posted.

3) Facebook can be a big, negative waste of time if you let it.

In a typical day, I probably look at Facebook hundreds of times. Some of the things I see when I look at my newsfeed are valuable, like photos of friends, or funny stories they’re telling or other things like that. Other things, like negativity, fake news and click bait are highly unnecessary and only serve to bring me down. I think many others would agree with me on that front.

While it is wonderful to stay connected with my friends and family 24/7, it is not so wonderful to be connected with a constant stream of dreariness.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect,” it says in Romans 12:2-3.

I’m not sure where Facebook falls in this category entirely – but I would imagine Christ would not want us to get caught up into the despair and sometimes hatred that can be shared as a part of the social media platform. Rather, Christ calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves, as in Luke 10:27.

In the past few months and weeks, I have caught myself getting caught up in those negative thoughts and cyclic pattern of darkness. I’m not sure if it’s all about Facebook, but I do think it has something to do with the events of the past year in this country. There’s been a lot of anger, hurt and upset that has been unleashed over the course of 2016, and it doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. Those wounds are fresh, and don’t appear to be healing.

In the next few days and maybe even weeks, I think I will be taking a break from Facebook just to clear my head and perhaps “fast” from the negativity for a while. But I do believe I will return — not to stoke the fire and spread the darkness, but rather to share positive and bright things. I’m not going to add to those wounds that have been dug so deep into our country, but perhaps I can try to help heal them.

After all, we were called to be the “light of the world” – why not start by lighting a few candles on Facebook?

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