Social Media

I really like Facebook...probably too much. Every time I open that app there are minutes sucked out of my day that I wish I hadn't lost. There are posts that I am genuinely glad to have read, but there are more still that take up mental energy I'm pretty sure I could use to accomplish something infinitely better. Then there is Twitter, Pinterest, and the many other networks I get invitations for but have refused to join. Can we live without social media? The obvious answer is yes, I mean it is pretty non-essential to our physical well being...but what about our emotional and social lives?  

I did the Loving Well study by Beth Moore a few years ago, and she states that culturally we are all spread about a mile wide but only a quarter of an inch deep. That statement resonates with me so much! Am I the only one that feels this way?  I truly believe I know a lot about people (via Facebook newsfeed), but how many people do I really know? I would so much rather be a mile deep and less wide! Where do I start? Does anyone have time to be my (real) friend?! I sound pretty pathetic! Truth is, I do have a couple of close friends that I commune with regularly, but even time with them is shorter than I'd like.  In part, I can attribute that to the season of life I am living in...with so many little loves just the daily care of them dictates much of my time. I long to have more community. I long to have relationships with others that presents as full sentences, not as punctuation marks. 

In Beth Moore's (love her!) newest book she also suggests that a large part of the insecurity women feel is due to media. I'm shouting "Amen!" to that one! I struggle with insecurity without social media, but then when I log on and see one Pinterest project after another that good mommies do with their kids, or see in my Facebook newsfeed that someone is celebrating the potty training success of their one year old (when I just accomplished that with my three year old), or I see a picture on Twitter of the all-natural-homemade-meal-cut-into-cute-shapes another person is providing for their child's lunch (while mine had cheese, apples and pretzels) it all translates into a big fat "I'm a failure" moment. WOW!

So, enough for now, but these are my ramblings about social media, as well as why I am considering banning them from my future forever! I actually tried that and felt very uninformed about life in general...is that normal? Anyone else give this a go? Thoughts???