Why We Need to Reform Our Ideas About Social Media

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

I was sitting in my comfy chair, glued to my phone. My husband sat down and asked me what I was doing.

"Unfollowing some people I follow on Instagram", I replied.

When he asked me why, I explained that I shouldn't be following more people than follow me, because it's a blogger no-no.

"How would you feel if people did that to you?" was the response I received from him.

I tried to come up with something, but I immediately knew he was right. I was reducing my blog- my ministry- to followers on Instagram. I was putting higher stats above other people's feelings, and "looking popular" above supporting others in the same way I want to be supported.

Somehow, blogging about Jesus turned into hashtags, re-tweets, pins, and followers.

Now, since I want to make my blog my future career, I do have to take certain steps to make that happen. I have to be wise in my actions and I do need to grow my social media. But there are good ways to do that and bad ways.

If I follow someone on social media and I just really don't enjoy their posts, I think it is perfectly fine to unfollow them. Social media is not my life, nor should it be anyone else's. We are not obligated to follow people who consistently post things we don't like. However, when we are deleting people to make ourselves look better, we are officially stepping out of blogging community and stepping into blogging selfishness.



Many of you are probably thinking that this doesn't matter. It is, after all, just social media. But the thing is, it does matter. Not because social media is super important, but because the heart of the matter is.

As a Christian Lifestyle Blogger, my job is not only to blog, but to be Christlike. Christlikeness should encompass all of the Christian life, not just the big, "important" parts. Believe me, I want to grow my blog. I want to make this little space of the internet my own. I want to bless others, share Christ, and make this dream my business. But even in business, in goals, and in dreams, we have the duty and privileged to put others before ourselves.

And that's why this social media revelation matters to me. I want even Instagram to reflect God. To be faithful- even in the smallest of things.

38 comments

  1. I did the same though. The reason was because i used to follow random people from youtuber comedian, beauty instagramer, or anyone anywhere I found in the internet. But i don't think following them is usefull for my writing. Hmm may I say that Im trying to focus myself to the vision I have.. and im trying to limit my social media for good.

    And that's a good point you have..
    As a Christian Lifestyle Blogger, my job is not only to blog, but to be Christlike.
    I couldn't agree more with that.

    Thanks for sharing Kristin 😊

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    1. Good for you! That is very important to focus your blog to what you want the mission to be.
      And thank you :) I am trying.

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  2. Thanks for sharing this Kristin! I just wrote a blog post about the battle of social media as well. Social media can obviously take over our lives especially when done for a living, but I'm glad you've found a balance. Here's more on what Topaz and Sapphire stands for when it comes to social media: http://topazandsapphire.com/the-battle-of-social-media/

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    1. Yes, it is definitely a hard balance, but one that it is important to find :)

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  3. I appreciate your honesty in this. It can be so hard to get caught up in the blogger "to do" and expectation list. I've unfollowed people in the past and felt bad about it before as well. I've recently started thinking about my own approach to social media. I'm quitting doing large loop giveaways...I used to do loop giveaways with 40 bloggers. I feel they are a pathetic call for followers and attention. Although I'll miss the hike in new followers, they aren't TRUE engaged followers anyways.

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    1. Thank you for your honesty too! It is so hard to find a balance that is pleasing to us, because we want instant, large results and sometimes getting followers is harder when you use a "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" method, but I think it is/will be worth it :)

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  4. Yes to this! I try to follow people I'm actually interested in, not just to get a "follow" back. And I know it hurts when I see people unfollow me so I try not to do that either, unless it's someone just really posting content that doesn't interest me at all.

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  5. Oh my gosh, this is so true! I your honesty is awesome! We definitely have all been there, eager to grow our blog following, unfollowing people who don't follow us back, etc. Except we don't think of them as people, we think of them as numbers in our # of followers. Perhaps if we remind ourselves that it's people we're unfollowing!

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  6. Wow - YES! This so true and important

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  7. This is such a great post! I think it's totally true that we need to be intentionally keeping our social media God-honoring!

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  8. Instagram becomes very overwhelming for me. I stopped following a majority of accounts of people I do not know or have at least connected with on blogs because it was too much in my feed everyday and I could never see all of it. I follow most people I know from real life, but then they double post to facebook so I often see the same photos twice. I wanted to just hide the instagram app from showing up on facebook, but then that is the only way friends from high school and college often post photos.

    My solution has been to try to follow people I am genuinely interested in after I have realized that I really do connect with their material. I feel it helps me prevent from hurting feelings potentially too.

    Good post!

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    1. That is so true! It really is overwhelming at times. That is a good thought on how to do it!

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  9. Love your thoughts on this - it's something I'm struggling with. For a long time I kept who I followed small and then I all of sudden I'm following so many it's overwhelming! Trying to figure out how to manage it well as Instagram is my absolute favorite social media platform.

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  10. I loved this! Thanks for sharing and encouraging us to be Godly even in seemingly-small matters.

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  11. Thank you for your honest post. I do not have instagram, but I love your caring attitude and vision to follow Jesus' way in every thing.

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  12. This is a tough balance to strike! Wanting to appear popular versus wanting to be genuine to who you are. I'm glad you've found some resolution for that for yourself.

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  13. LOVE how you say at the end- I want everything, even my instagram to reflect God and to be faithful even in the small things! That is the prayer of my heart with my social media!! Thank you for sharing!!!

    Blessings, Rebecca :)

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    1. Thank you, Rebecca! I appreciate that a lot. And thank you for reading!

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  14. This is a great reminder and can be applied to many areas of life. Do unto others is always something that we need to be reminded of, no matter the situation. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I agree, Cara! Almost anything could stand to have this principle applied to it! We're always learning!

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  15. Oh my goodness YES. This is so spot on!!! I love what you said: As a Christian Lifestyle Blogger, my job is not only to blog, but to be Christlike.

    I love that you realize that everything we do even our hobbies are supposed to be for Christ. I wish other bloggers understood this truth too!

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    1. I wish that too, Katie! Unfortunately, there are a lot of people (even good Christian people) who don't share those feelings. Thank you so much for reading and for your encouraging comment!

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  16. I love this! I went through a major unfollowing spree a few weeks back and i thought "eh I enjoy this person but I'm 99% sure they don't even notice me so maybe I shouldn't bother." but that's so wrong! They inspired me and I loved their posts about being a mother and Christian...so why should it matter if they know who I am?

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    1. Exactly! I went through a similar phase too, so I completely understand your feelings! Good for you for changing that, though!

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  17. I love this! It is so easy, unfortunately, to forget that there are people behind each Twitter, Facebook, etc. name ... I found your words here really thoughtful and sensitive. - Trish

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    1. Thank you so much, Trish! I appreciate that! I love having you as a reader/commentor :) You are very thoughtful!

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  18. This is such an honest post! I feel bad when unfollowing someone so I made a mental note of just unfollowing someone if I genuinely don't relate to them instead of the numbers.

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    1. That's awesome! Good for you! I try to follow that rule of thumb too. Unless they are 1.) offensive or 2.) I just can't relate/don't like any of their posts, I keep following!

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  19. I get overwhelmed sometimes by what I'm "supposed to do" as a blogger especially since everyone has such different ideas! I do find it hard to follow a ton of people on IG because then I miss out on most of their posts because I don't have time to scroll through that many.

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  20. I love this! You are so right and back around the same time I had a big revelation about how fake I was being with growing my Instagram. I had an app to tell me who exactly was following my and who decided to unfollow me. It didn't make me happy and I was constantly checking it. I realised that I had to stop and now I'm going to focus on growing as organically as I can. If I improve my content and be more real, hopefully the connections and relationships come.

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