Playful Rooted

Hello friends! Been a while. 🙂

So you know that feeling when you have a decision to make, and you can’t decide what to do, but then you finally make the decision and you KNOW in your heart that it’s the right one?

Well… I’m breaking up with social media, and I know it’s the right decision! Cue the hallelujah chorus.

For the past 18 months, I’ve only actively used Instagram (I used Facebook sporadically before that, but never Twitter or any other social media platforms), so technically that’s the only thing I have left to walk away from now. And while it’s a little bittersweet because I truly will miss some aspects of it, I’m SO excited to be moving away from social media and back to blogging instead!

Here’s why I’m giving social media the old heave-ho:

• Information overload. So many things have just been blowing up lately. COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, human trafficking, and the list goes on. I’m the type of person who wants to know everything, and there is truly so much valuable content out there, so I end up following a dozen new accounts a day and trying to consume and learn from all the information they publish. It’s exhausting. I’m exhausted. It’s so important to me to be educated, but it’s also REALLY important to prioritize my mental health, especially with these little people relying on me. So I’m taking care of myself by setting some boundaries. I’m doing what I can to protect the vulnerable community from COVID. I’m supporting Black-owned businesses in multiple categories. I’m donating monthly to organizations that rescue and rehabilitate victims of human trafficking. And that, right now, is enough. Boundary set.

• Censorship prevails (but look what remains). Basically all social media platforms have proven recently that they can delete anything they don’t agree with almost immediately. This alone makes me really uncomfortable (because free speech and all–or are we really okay with living in The Handmaid’s Tale??), but the tipping point? They can ban literally anything they want to, yet there are still tons and tons of active child pornography and pedophilia accounts out there. What does that say?? I’m simply refusing to participate. Boy, bye.

• Thoughtless commenting. Social media makes it extremely easy for followers to comment immediately and without really thinking it through. Last week, I posted a picture to my Instagram stories with some information that I thought might be helpful to others. I received a rude comment that had nothing to do with the information I was sharing and instead insulted my appearance (which honestly really hurt my feelings because #postpartum #hormones). Yes, of course people could leave hurtful comments here on the blog too, but it takes a little more effort to do that, so my hope is that the bit of extra time and energy required will prevent things like that from happening. (I need to point out though that for the most part, the messages I received were always kind and respectful and lovely, and I will really miss that!)

• Unfocused intentions. In January, I stopped sharing photos of my children’s faces to social media to protect their privacy and anonymity as they grow up in this weird world. And while I still do take tons of photos of their faces, I’ve also been taking some pictures of the backs of their heads so that I could continue to document our days on Instagram. I realized my phone was filling up with a bunch of pictures that I didn’t even want to look back on. By just cutting social media out of our lives, I’m giving myself the gift of focus. I’ll take photos just for me (and use my DSLR instead of my iPhone more often!) and find other ways to document our days.

Which brings me to….well, welcome back to my blog!

OkayFINE, so I have written exactly zero posts since I wrote Sawyer’s birth story last year. But I’m really excited to sit down and start writing again. Switching from social media to blogging feels SO good. So, so good. I’m honestly really sentimental for the days when blogging was king, way before Instagram became what it is now. Do you guys remember? Instagram existed, but everyone just posted photos of, like, apples at the grocery store with a fuzzy black and white filter. I feel like things were so different then. Although life was already starting to move really quickly, it wasn’t as overwhelming as it feels now. You could probably pick any time in history and say the exact same thing, but it’s crazy how much has changed in just five or so years. Now, you’re supposed to have a beautiful, intentional, curated Instagram feed. It feels good to just walk right away from that atmosphere and take my kiddos with me.

My purpose on social media, what I really loved about it, was connecting with and helping people. That’s always 100% been my heart and my intention and my personality, long before Instagram existed. Sharing things I like or that I’ve found or learned, giving people tips or providing details on my own experiences in a way that can help others – yeah, that’s what fuels my fire. I’ve shared pretty open-bookedly about natural living, faith reconstruction, my struggles with pregnancy and conception and miscarriage and postpartum, living with anxiety, travel, parenting, and all kinds of other topics, always interspersed with random house projects, product reviews, and pictures of my kids and my garden. And although I am happily leaving social media behind, I’m encouraged that I can still help people through this tiny corner of the internet. I have a lot more control over what goes on here, and I also have a lot less immediate access to insights I shouldn’t care about. I’ve never been an analytics person (except when that was part of my job, a whole lifetime ago!), but Instagram makes it all too easy to see which of your followers have viewed your stories or videos. Gross. Don’t we all have much better things to do with our precious time? Answer: yes.

My plan right now is just to take note of the things I would normally be sharing on Instagram throughout the day and then figure out a way to document some of them here. Some posts, some photos, maybe some videos. We’ll see! I don’t have a strategy except to keep persisting in sharing and helping and writing and hopefully connecting with others. If you’re here, say “hey” if you have a sec! And thanks for reading! Chat to you soon, pals. ❤