Elena Goes Offline--WHAT??

As some of you might already know, I decided to do a social media detox. Yes, I deleted my Instagram, Twitter, and EVEN Facebook. Some of you might be thinking, "How are you going to succeed with your photography business," or "How am I going to keep up with what she's doing?"

Well DON'T WORRY! I am not deleting my website. My website will contain all the pictures I take--which will be available for download--and regular updates on my blog, that way family and friends can keep up with what I am doing at college and abroad!

Now you might be wondering, "She's a millennial, why would she want to get rid of her social media??"

To be completely honest, social media is something that I've struggled with for a while. I can probably speak for a good portion of the young female population that social media does a lot more harm than good. To narrow it down for you all, I will give you three main reasons why I decided to go off the grid (well kinda--I still have this website).

1. Comparison

This one isn't surprising. I think we all can say that there's been a picture or two that we see and think, "If I only looked like that," or "I wish I could be there too." Instagram became super toxic for me because I based the value of myself in how many likes and comments I got on my pictures. Guys--I sometimes would post pictures just to see if a guy was looking at my posts (I would check to see if he liked it)...HOW CRAZY IS THAT? I decided I didn't want to receive validation for only posting the "best version" of myself on Instagram.

2. Feeling Excluded

Let me paint you a picture here--You're chillin' in your room, watching reruns of The Office, working on some homework (ehh, not really...but that's what you say if your mom asks). You pull out your phone, open up good ol' Instagram and see all your friends at this super fun party throwing #livingmybestlife #youwishyouwerehere #moresuperfunhashtags hashtags. How awesome do you feel? I know I get that feeling of jealousy in the pit of my stomach. Don't get me wrong, your friends aren't obligated to ask you to go with them to EVERYTHING, so it's not like you want to be mad at them. But social media has this weird way of making you feel like it's their fault. Guys--ten years ago nobody knew whether or not your friends were out without you. I cannot tell you how many times seeing things like this has made me feel super insecure in my relationships.

3. Time Waster

Does anyone have that app where you can track how much time they spend on your phone in a day? I've never actually downloaded it to see, but I know I easily spend 6+ hours everyday on my phone, mindlessly scrolling, liking, and reading things. There are so many better things I can be doing with my time, one of them being actually INTERACTING with REAL people. Woah, what a concept. There's so many times throughout the day when I'm going to class or just sitting by myself that I pull out my phone to make myself look busy. Why? To avoid conversations with REAL people. It's a force of habit, like whenever you're in an uncomfortable situation, just pull out the good ol' iPhone. God calls us to make relationship with people--but how do we accomplish that if our heads are always down in our phones?

So here I am, social media-less. I am going to be spending newfound free time diving deeper into the word of God and building new and old relationships. I want to love others the way Jesus calls us to. I don't want my only interaction with someone to be a like on their photo or a retweet of their tweet. I don't want surface level relationships, but instead the ones where we are vulnerable with each other. If you've stayed with me through this post so far, I would challenge you to do the same.

~God Bless~

I just felt really happy this day, so I wanted to end this post on a super positive, happy note :)