Stepping away from Facebook: How I did it

Last month, I wrote about my sphere of concern and my sphere of influence and my desire to make these align.

I wanted to touch base and let you know how I am doing with this goal in my life.

The BIGGEST thing that I have made it a goal to change was my Facebook usage. I really am not on any other forms of social media regularly. I have a Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter account, but I rarely use any of them.

I vowed to stop going to people.com (because seriously -- what is the point?) and also vowed to stay off of all news outlets unless something has happened in the world that my husband said I need to know about.

I understand some people may feel like I am putting my head in the sand. And I really don't care. I really feel that all I need to do is show Christ's love.

But Facebook was a problem for me. For some people, they can just decide to get off of Facebook, however, that was not an option for me due to the fact that I use Facebook quite a bit for our farm and homeschool and especially for the Schoolhouse Review Crew that I write for. I also use messenger to communicate with a lot of people that I sell eggs to or work with at church or in our homeschool group.

So how could I step away from Facebook and not really step away? I think I actually found some very good ideas due to brainstorming with a number of people. And I wanted to share those here.

1. Firstly I removed the Facebook "app" from my iPhone. Yes, you can technically still get onto facebook.com from the browser on your phone, but I'm not tempted with that.
2. I added the "Facebook Groups" app to my iPhone. This allows me check in on my groups but not get on Facebook. 
3. I added "Facebook Messenger" to my iPhone. This allows me to continue to send messages to and from friends which is a huge thing that I do on Facebook. 
4. I removed anyone from my Facebook feed that was negative in anyway. Anyone who posted things that caused me any anxiety or stress is removed. Note that I did not remove them as a friend. I simply "hid them" on my feed. They do not know that they are hidden, and I can always unhide them at a later date. This actually includes people who are posting things that I agree with. However, the things they are posting make me jump into a line of thinking (especially politically) that causes me stress. 
5. Because when you open up Facebook on a desktop computer to send people messages, you automatically see your feed, I purposefully picked a few positive places to show up at the top of my feed. (If you go to someone's page or a group's page, you can choose to "always see this first" in your feed.) This means that if I do scroll my feed at all, it is all scriptures and devotions, and really happy stuff. And it gives me a few seconds to remember my rule and stop scrolling!
6. I have decided not to post any personal updates on my Facebook Feed directly. Instead, I do my Blog. I do link from my Blog. But not going and just quickly saying something keeps me off as well.

Okay so that is what is working for me. I have decided that I want to "think on what is lovely." I want to be positive. I want to be focused on what I believe is my job: to share Christ's LOVE with everyone. That is my job. And that is what I truly feel called to do.

I am "prone" to anxiety and depression. I should probably say I am "slightly prone." I am a deep feeler, and I want people to be happy and enjoy each other and love each other. I have to be purposeful in not complicating my life more than I need to. 

I want peace. I want happiness. I want joy. I want Christ. 

I feel like I am making good strides to narrow my "sphere of concern." 

I'll keep you posted!