Enthusiastically, Dawn

I have already shared my One Word for 2024 and a series of posts about my One Word 2023, but I wanted to touch upon the most precious lesson and gift I have received from my Listening Year, 2023.

This past Summer, despite being a prolific sharer on multiple social media platforms, I deleted Instagram and Facebook from my phone and logged out of these accounts. Why? To maximize my ability to listen well, both to myself and others. But most of all to hear God clearest, above all without distraction. My conclusion?

No regrets. I can see a marked improvement in multiple places in my life. I am also much less “edgy”. I mention that because I have observed an odd sense of underlying edginess in myself (maybe in others too) with social media use. It is subtle but present. If everyone around you has the same inclination, it’s barely noticeable. Remove yourself from the behavior and it becomes obvious the way (hear me out with this) a person who drinks too much and spends time with those who drink too much, then stops, comes around the same people, and sees them in a different light. One person stops and sees. Who really sees? The one who has walked away from the behavior-altering intoxicant.

Social Media is distracting, deluding, and beguiling. Some think it is a tool, harmless. Well, I am not here to discuss the neurophysical aspects of its use whether positive or negative, or potentially both. I will only say life for me IS better without it. This is why I am strongly considering cutting the strings completely by eliminating both X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube.

Additionally, e-mail is a useful tool, but it is also subject to the mighty algorithm kings who patrol planet Earth via the internet for world domination! Ugh. I find myself on one level thinking “Brilliant, stealthy way to the human brain” and simultaneously appalled at the level of manipulation we, as human beings, are slowly becoming comfortable with daily.

I will only be maintaining my writing platform with WordPress for the time being. This is my one toe in the water. The rest of my body, mind, and soul will be staying on dry land. The waters have become too shark-infested and murky. I have no desire to be part of the problem at this point. The problem of everyone talking and nobody listening. The time David Byrne foresaw in many ways, and Andy Warhol predicted. Too many talking Heads wanting their 15 Minutes of Fame. But for many, it’s all just a shame. And shameful.

Here is an ironic twist, I know some of you have no idea why this is such a big deal. Some of you try not to use Social Media at all. Or if so, you think you use it minimally. Don’t be deceived, there is no such thing as free. There is a long-reaching arm that wants access to your brain- and it is not The Divine Arm doing the reaching!

One of my AH-Ha moments came when I went onto YouTube and started to get multiple videos in my feed about people who were or had already deleted their social media accounts. So, they are making videos on the second-largest social media platform in the world to share their thoughts about leaving social media. HELLOOOOOOOOOO.

Please stop the world, I want to get off! Something is dreadfully wrong. It’s not supposed to be this way. I can still remember life before Social Media! I liked it better.

Lately, I have been realizing how much less stuff I really need to know. I mean, God is on His throne, looking down at us, who are so busy Messaging, Facebooking, and searching Google (for more things we really don’t need to know, savvy?) to what end? Our own misery?

Has the rise of social media use increased our capacity for understanding each other better, loving one another more, or communicating more clearly?

When the downside of Social Media use outweighs the benefit, one has to decide which side of the road they stand on. How much is Social Media affecting your thinking, perceptions, and views? These questions are good starting points. Is my use of Social Media influencing how I look at myself? Others? God? Is this impact neutral, or can I see potential negative implications? Do I have a feeling of urgency or edginess around what I share on Social Media? Is there any area of my life that suffers because of my SM use? Is there someone I am unavailable to because I am divided with my attention? Am I able to forget my phone or do I habitually pick it up to check it?

I don’t miss the cat videos, because I am too busy enjoying my cats. I don’t miss knowing everyone’s business because, honestly, unless you tell me – it really is not my business to know. I especially don’t miss the multiple advertisements and insidious marketing mechanisms and ploys. Side -Note, my impulse spending is down. My desire for the next best thing in my feed is curtailed; although that beast is a hard one to put down completely – plus e-mail still is under siege!

The hardest thing I think is there is a small percentage of lower activity on sharing my blog posts- I am truly at the mercy of my readership now. Blog traffic when I write is excellent. But post-sharing is harder now.

But God is leading me on a new, untravelled path…at least untravelled by me. It’s the one where I trust Him completely for the things I can’t see. Whether that’s on Social Media or the belief that I won’t be seen because I am no longer using it. It’s trusting the words I write to find their path to the people He desires. It’s about that being enough. Because it always was enough. But I forgot for a little while.

We forget how different our ways and God’s ways really are. Not a little different. But radical.ly, wildly, impossibly different. Like supernaturally impregnating a virgin radical. Like sending your only kid to a certain death for a thankless people radical. Like stepping from Eternity’s kitchen to come down to the living room of life here on earth as a man radical. Who can comprehend a God like this?

Listening has led me back to the path only I can see when I walk behind my Radical Master…not ahead of Him. Listening, my One Word for 2023 has led me well. I thought I should tell youthe biggest reasons why.

If you made it to the end of this post, I want to thank you for reading. You can find out more about my writing here: The Journal Enthusiast– The Journal Enthusiast account remains on Instagram along with #200DayJournal Prompts. You won’t find me there though. I’ll be hanging out with my cats, writing out Christmas cards, planning the New Year, and prayerfully pondering my next words with my Maker.