Before I left on our two-week trip to visit family and friends and the places we grew up, as well as some new places, I decided to make the trip a social media free experience for myself, but also as a gift to my family and friends. It’s so easy to share things we’re experiencing as they’re happening, or even later in the day, because our apps and our phones are so accessible. I made them inaccessible for this trip and deleted them from my phone. I went “old school” and decided I wouldn’t share photos or stories on social media until I returned; like the old days when you’d have someone over for a slideshow or bring your stack of developed photos out to share.

I wasn’t sure how it would feel or what I’d gain from this experience, I just knew I was being nudged (hard) by God to do it. I’ve been begging for presence and to pay attention to where my feet are, and God made it clear this was a place to start.

Blissfully Unplugged in the Pacific Ocean

After coming back, recovering from jet lag, and posting about my trip to family and friends, I have some takeaways I want to share with y’all. In no particular order, here are 7 takeaways from my unplugged vacation.

1.  I was more present. This seems obvious, I know, but here’s the thing: it was a lasting sense of deeper presence. I didn’t have desire to be on my phone much, at all. And the only apps I removed were Instagram and Facebook. I wasn’t thinking about how I might share what was happening as it was happening. I wasn’t thinking about anyone except the people I was with, each day. And it felt really good.

2.  My healing ramped up. I’ve been dealing with chronic wounds after a surgery last fall that I’ve struggled to heal. Correlation is not causation, but it is interesting my healing dramatically improved in the two weeks I took off social media. There are other factors (I’ll talk about in another post) but I thought this was worth noting because social media often causes me stress. Whether it’s seeing how others are responding to current events or worrying how others will perceive me, I experience stress. And stress I no good for healing.

3.  Specific people felt special. There were a few people who’d asked for updates or pictures, when it felt right. When I’d send them a few pictures from the days prior with a little note in a text, they felt really special. And they are! When we post everything to everyone, then no one in our life is included in a special way. But the reality is, some people are closer and show up more in my life and they deserve to get special sneak peeks, timely updates, and details I would never share on social media. And it makes them feel really good. In a world where we’re all “special” enough to know what gets posted on social media (which often isn’t real or the whole story), it’s nice to know every once in a while I’m actually someone you want to share the real stuff, the whole story with.

4.  My people felt special. They had my attention. I was in a better mood. I was present. I was having fun. I wasn’t distracted. All these things amount to me being better able to give my husband and my son (neither of whom have social media) my time. Our time, in this day and age especially, may be our most precious and valuable asset. I showed the two people I love most, the two people it’s most important to build relationship with, my time. I showed them they matter more to me than whatever and whoever is on my phone. And that felt really good to all of us. Coming off this trip we feel stronger as a family unit.

5.  I miss being off my phone in the car. I love to travel and especially love road tripping. We had several days of driving either in areas that are new to us or we haven’t been through in a while. Some days our drives were 20-30 minutes and other days they were in three-to-four-hour chunks of driving. I was off my phone for all of them, except maybe to pull it out to take a picture or look up traffic. I remembered how much I love to watch the world go by out the window, and how much I miss when I’m looking down. It made me committed to putting my phone away when I’m riding in the car, no matter where we’re going or where we are, there’s a world to see, and things to watch, and I don’t want to miss it. I’m going to start paying more attention to where my wheels are.

6.  I didn’t share some things I probably would have – and I’m glad. As I took pictures or we went on adventures, I did think, oh, I’ll post this or that about what we just did. But when I sat down to post, several days after we got home, I decided not to share some of those details. I decided not to share some of those photos. I’d shared them with close friends and family already. I’d had time to reflect and sit with those experiences. With time and space, I realized I didn’t need anything social media could offer me from sharing some of the specifics and details. It made me realize taking time and having space between an experience and posting about it is really healthy for me. Our culture is currently all about immediacy and this revealed to me how unhealthy that is for me (maybe you too?) and that I aim to be a rebel on this (and many other) cultural topics.

7.  It’s time to change my behavior with social media. Upon my return I’ve really adapted how I’m using social media. I’d left saying I wanted to change my relationship with it, but now I recognize it’s me who needs to change; a change in behavior is exactly it. I’m using it on my phone less, and only really on my computer (kind of like the “old days” when I’d only be on Facebook at work!) to read messages, see others’ posts, and catch up. I’ll put it on my phone for some functionality, and then immediately remove it when I’m done with the task. Not use an app to silence it or lock me out of it – I’m keeping social media deleted off my phone. And it feels really good. But honestly, not as good as it felt to be fully unplugged on my trip. So, I think I’ll be unplugging from social media more and more. I don’t want to get rid of it completely because I think it can be a useful tool for connection, information, and encouragement. But I have to be in charge of my behavior with it, not the other way around.

I have one more post in the works about our trip, and then I’ll be heading back into our normal homeschool content and updates on heading into this new year of learning! But as homeschoolers, learning is life and life involves travel and vacations, so it all matters here. 

Originally posted 7/16/24 on old website