Spinning My Wheels on Facebook

Wasting time on social media is my drug of choice. If I am tired and want an escape, I scroll through my timeline. If I am anxious or obsessing about something, Facebook is my mindless escape. The thing is during the COVID-19 staying-at-home time, I am often overstressed or anxious about things. I don’t have a whole lot of time to myself and we are disconnected from family. The kids need to do school from home and Andy and I are still working. It’s a lot, so my need for a quick and easy escape is magnified.

The thing is, when I crave Facebook, I am looking for fun and grown-up interactions. I want to have time to see what my friends are up to and connect with the outside world and veg out a little. In reality, I often leave Facebook feeling anxiety for whatever internet fight I got into or about a new bit of political news or the latest spreading conspiracy theory. When I get distracted in a Facebook debate, it often spins in my head all day and leaves me more stressed and unfocused.

During COVID times, my Facebook usage was getting out of control. I also found that tracking debates about masks and COVID deniers and Confederate statues wasn’t the best way to care for myself when I needed a break from stress. Clearly Facebook wasn’t the best balm for my overstimulated soul. When I get sucked in to a spiral of Facebook surfing, it also sucks up my free time so that I don’t have time for the things that really do help me relax. I think I don’t have time to do art or meditate or write, but somehow I have plenty of time for hours on Facebook.

So, obviously, too much Facebook is a bad thing, but I also want to keep up with twins club, friends from church and other things that Facebook lets me do. I would try to cut down, but it wasn’t working well. What I did recently is unfollow every single person and page and group on Facebook. It makes it so that my Facebook timeline has no posts on it. I open Facebook and I see nothing. If I want to check on a friend or a group, I just type the name into the search box. I can then decide when I want to read about triathlon tips and when I want to discuss racial justice or interpreter ethics in my Facebook groups. After doing this, it’s really shown me which friends I want to follow and which people I don’t miss. It’s also made mindless scrolling on Facebook incredibly boring. I have slowly added back close family and friends to my following list but my timeline still has only a few people and no groups.

When you think about your ideal day, I’m sure that it doesn’t include compulsive screen time usage. Part of what adds color into our life is using time intentionally and making room for those things that reinvigorate us. Is there an element of your life that is out of balance? Can you steal time from a mindless activity that doesn’t feed your soul and use it in a way that can add more joy to your day?