A Time Away From The World

Lessons I learned while taking a break from social media.

Author: Irakoze Gisèle

Now I know reading the title must be shocking! Haha

(I know), but I just wanted something a bit creative to build my story on. A time away from the World! Hum.

We normally know the world as our planet or pretty much the space where living and non living beings live, but it should not be a lie that in this period of rapid technology social media has also been a world itself. Where if someone is not using social media he/she is lost and so behind time.

I think Social media is not bad. In fact, I’d say that Social media has helped me achieve a lot of things including building my network, branding myself, getting work opportunities, etc...

I also believe that if one uses social media in proper way he/she can learn a lot and gain a lot.

However, social media has also a big negative influence. Social media has a lot of unnecessary information which might sometimes be scams and therefore if one is not careful they can be in trouble.

Not to mention all negative facts about social media but can we go back to what brought us here? (I know🤦‍♀️) Sometimes I am that weird person! (Excuse me)

Social media has gotten to a point of addicting me in a way I could go to sleep in the morning. We need to understand that most of the youth have been addicted to them too.

But after I had started having health problems like heavy headaches, and eye problems... I came to realize having my phone a lot of times is part of the major problem for all those things.

My relationship with God also was failing each and every day and to be honest! That was because all the time I had to spend devoting was spent chatting, watching unnecessary drama...

Then I took a decision to be off for a week. I know some would think they cannot manage a week away from social media or that is totally simple but see where this had gotten me?

I could not even spend a day not being on it! I disconnected all social media platforms I was using and started looking around what could take over the place social media had taken.

Can I tell you! The day seemed like a week. Because when someone is using social media, time flies and the day marks almost nothing at all (Too bad huh)

So I started reading books (Something I never enjoyed doing), started doing more home chores and learned more skillful things.

My relationship with God also improved. I got more time to spend with God through devotions and spiritual books and the week ended while I was not thinking about social media anymore.

I took 2 more weeks and I enjoyed them as well. I did a lot of things that I thought I didn't have time for before and also got more time to take care of myself, my family, and my friends.

This break from this world so called social media helped me realize that a lot of times we lose so much in ways we don't understand or cannot see. Sometimes we forget to control our brains so they end up controlling us.

This is not to discourage anyone in regard to our social media usage but we need to learn to control how we use it before we become addicted and fail to control it.

I afterwards adopted some habits that helped and still help me even today.

• First of all I convinced myself that Social media is a communication tool and information source not a home to spend time in.

• I also reminded myself that the more I use it, the more I lose. E.g: If I spend a half of my day on social media, I almost spend $5 depending sometimes on what I did. But if I spend just 5 hours or less I would be saving 4/5 of the money. But most especially not forgetting that time itself is money and priceless.

• I also adopted measures like a specific bed time and since I had made a decision it worked and even if I would be chatting a burning chat, I had to remind myself that it was time to rest.

Remember, social media is not bad or evil. It just depends on how we use it and how we avoid it to control us. Understanding this helps us to know what’s more worth and how we should prioritize things in our lives.