“What a perfect ending to a frantic week,” I said to God in my prayers one December night.
And it had been a good night. As soon as my son’s Friday evening basketball game ended, my four kids and I loaded into my SUV. We stopped for take-out and arrived home for pajamas and our first Christmas movie of the season. It was a night of nothing that we all needed after a jam-packed week of late-night, after-school activities. It was bliss for each of us.
Have you ever had those nights? Where you choose to stay home, and it feels wonderful?
But the next morning I made the grave mistake of opening social media. Front and center on the feed were pictures of loved ones enjoying our small-town Christmas parade that had taken place the previous night. While our family was enjoying our night at home, our friends were taking selfies with parade floats.
I found my perspective shifting. Perhaps our night hadn’t been so perfect. My thoughts started rolling down the runway of self-doubt: maybe I should have stopped by the parade. Am I a bad mom for choosing a family night on the couch over a night of community? Was our night really that great? Had I deprived my children of a seasonal benchmark? Had I ruined our kick-off to the Christmas season?
It all sounds silly and overly dramatic. Yet, my internal dialogue was exploding with these questions. Seconds before I’d been smiling at the memory of a restful night at home, but now- looking into the virtual lives of others – contentment was being overpowered by discontent and self-doubt. All before my first cup of coffee!
Social media can do that to us, can’t it? Not only do we deal with “FOMO” (fear of missing out), jealousy, and a host of other issues, viewing social media can give us a case of the “KIMO”. This regret of “knowing I missed out” causes even the most emotionally mature of us to sigh in disappointment that we can’t be in two places at once and can cause us to always second-guess our past choices.
“KIMO” can be exhausting. It can rob us of enjoying our own great moments.
This was an eye-opening experience on how social media affects my mood. You see, this was the first time I had checked my social media in several days. I’d been trying to take a hiatus from the platforms to make better use of my time and to see if social media really was impacting my mental health.
The verdict was clear: social media does affect my mental health. Social media is, by design, addictive and can lead to anxiety and depression. My own quick self-study showed me that it can cause me to doubt my own decisions and doubt my own contentment.
Discontent is not part of the life God desires for us to have as His followers. Our life will be most abundant when we follow His precepts. This includes taking steps to guard our hearts against anything that causes discontent to take up residence in our minds.
How can we guard our hearts against discontent in a digital world? Here are a few suggestions:
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