I’ve had a love hate relationship with social networking for awhile now. I’ve sworn it off a few times before, only to hop right back on a few days later. I just couldn’t seem to stay away. In fact, it seems like every time I’ve been away, I come back and binge on it - further deepening my addiction to it.

I love blogs. I’ve been blogging for five+ years (started back on Blogger before moving to hosting my own). I’ve been a daily blog reader for even longer. I’ve been twittering for over a year now. Been on Facebook for what seems like forever, and did the MySpace thing before that. I’ve even got a few YouTube channels that I’ve followed pretty closely.

To be honest, a lot of this has been really helpful. I’ve been exposed to a lot of great resources that I would have otherwise missed. I’ve made connections with people that have lasted for years - people I’ve yet to shake hands with face to face, but would still call a friend. I’ve reconnected with people from high school and college - thanks mostly to Facebook. There’s a lot of good that has come from social media in my life.

But there’s always a flip side. And right now, I’ve decided I need a break. Here’s what I’ve been noticing about myself and social media that I don’t like:

• My attention span has gotten much shorter.
• I find myself getting restless when I try to do the things that are most important to me - read, prayer, study, and meditate. I’ve developed a need for constant input.
• My ability to focus on one task with intensity and consistency has dropped - I seem to always be trying to do two things at once.
• I tend to be a bit compulsive, and find myself checking my social media portals WAY too much. (I’d tell how often, but it’s pretty embarrassing…)
• I’m not good at shutting it down when I should. It bleeds over into most of my waking hours - thanks in particular to the iPhone. (Why just stand in line at the store when you can update your status at the same time, right?)
• It’s feeds my pride and inferiority complexes at the same time. Pride, because I am continually putting myself out there, oftentimes in an image-driven kind of way. Inferiority, because I find myself continually comparing my life and ministry to the dozens of other people I follow.