21 days ago I stepped back from social media, mostly just hoping for some quiet. I didn’t have a big goal beyond that. I just wanted room to hear something other than noise.
Looking back now, I think it worked better than I expected it to.
The biggest shift was how present I found myself being. With Aria, with my students, with friends — I wasn’t half there anymore, one eye on a screen waiting to see what I missed. I was just there. It’s a little embarrassing how different that feels once you notice it, like I didn’t fully realize how much attention I’d been quietly handing over to my phone until I stopped.
My hand still reached for my phone out of habit, especially early on, but instead of opening Instagram I started opening my Bible app. That wasn’t something I planned, it just became the thing that filled the space where scrolling used to be. And it turns out reading scripture in those little in-between moments — waiting in line, waiting for water to boil, whatever — adds up to a lot more than I expected.
I also just talked to people more. Actual conversations, not comment threads. When you’re not tempted to go down a rabbit hole of everyone else’s highlight reel, you end up looking up and talking to the person actually in front of you instead.
I won’t pretend the whole 21 days was some steady upward climb. Some days it was easy, some days I genuinely missed the noise. But overall, this was exactly the reset I needed heading into the school year — more present, more grounded, more tuned into God instead of talked over by everything else.
I don’t know yet what going back to social media looks like, or if I even want to go back the same way I left. But I’m glad I did this.
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