For the past 3 years now, I have given up social media for Lent. Every year seems to get harder and harder. I was relieved to turn it all off this year. Snapchat updated just days before and I had no idea how to use it so I needed and excuse to delete it. “We are going to lose our snap streak, that’s the most important part of this relationship,” my boyfriend jokingly teases me. I laughed at him and told him he needed to re-evaluate our relationship if a snap streak is what is most important to him. But that is true, and while he was joking and a snap streak isn’t the most important part of our relationship, too many people in this world, too many people in relationships and friend groups and organizations, rely too much on social media. My sorority has a Facebook group for everything we need to know every week for events, fundraisers, meetings, etc. and I would go check my sorority page and find myself scrolling through Facebook by accident. It was just an instinct. It was instinct for me to click on my social media apps when I was bored. And being logged out of them was a barrier. Logging in was the next step that stopped me from scrolling through social media.
My spring break fell during Lent, as it always does. I went to visit a high school friend in Florida. She was also on spring break and we did a little road trip down to Fort Lauderdale. Sitting in the car for hours with nothing to really do on my phone makes being logged out harder and harder. And her and I stopped to stay with two sorority sisters of hers for the night and as we sat in the living room after dinner, all 3 of them were on their phones. They were staring at their phones and I was staring at them. I never realized how much time people spend on their phones until I had nothing to do on mine. I never realized how lonely it can be even though you are surrounded by people. I felt so out of the loop. Lost. I missed news and my friend’s posts. I missed out on snapchats and showing people where I was and what I was doing. I had to take pictures and videos the “old fashion way” and not through a snapchat filter.
