I have a love hate relationship with social media.

On one hand, social media (especially Instagram) is helpful for keeping up with my writing friends, getting book recommendations, looking at pretty pictures or funny memes, and building a platform with hopes to be able to reach as many people as possible with the stories and articles God lets me write.

On the other hand, social media is often a time-sucking highlight reel where real relationships are not fostered so much viewed through a screen as well as an outlet for attention-seeking clamoring for recognition (especially for aspiring authors and others who “need” to build their platform for their career).

I see benefits and dangers alike in social media. Like most things, it’s good in moderation.

Instead of scrolling through social media, I’d rather…

1. Doodle in my bullet journal
2. Listen to an audiobook (preferably Dracula)
3. Curl my hair
4. Do something that will make me satisfyingly sore the next day
5. Reread The Chronicles of Narnia (especially The Horse and His Boy)
6. Make a card and write a note
7. Call my parents and other loved ones I miss
8. Go to a coffee shop where there are real people, not just people to “see” or “know” through a screen
9. Worship to some of my favorite songs
10. French press some coffee
11. Cook something from scratch
12. Read Psalm 145
13. Go for a walk–no matter the weather
14. Paint my nails
15. Lay on the floor, stare at the ceiling, and think instead of allaying my boredom or anxious thoughts with mere distraction
16. Turn my thinking into praying
17. Take some pictures and then edit them–not necessarily to post them somewhere, but to have them for me to enjoy
18. Write and send a letter to someone I don’t know personally who inspires me
19. Read Romans 8
20. Write a short story
21. Hang some pictures or poems on my walls
22. Make an aesthetic collage for one of my stories
23. Pray Psalm 119
24. Look at the sky to see the moon or the shape of the clouds or to feel the sun on my face
25. Reread the books that had a role in forming me into who I am today *stares at all the Nadine Brandes, Robin McKinley, and Tony Reinke books*
26. Watch a good movie with superior storytelling (hahahaha, like The Lion King, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight trilogy, etc.)
27. Listen to the sound of water put into notes by Claude Debussy in his piece of artistry called “Isle of Joy”
28. Snuggle with my cat
29. Recall to mind my favorite childhood memories
30. Sleep
31. Read Ephesians aloud
32. Reread Hinds’ Feet on High Places
33. Make scones
34. Walk through the library, especially the sections I don’t usually go to
35. Stare at Monet’s beach scenes or Casatt’s portraits of her sister or other lovely impressionistic art
36. Do a word study on a Greek or Hebrew word from the Bible
37. Read an article on Desiring God and not exit out of the tab right away but instead read it again and think about what it has to do with my life
38. Learn some origami
39. Reread Hebrews
40. Have a spontaneous karaoke or dance party
41. Do something for the sensation of it (e.g. – sprint down the road and feel the stitch in my side and the burn on the fringe of my lungs and the jarring impact of each footfall etc.)
42. Play piano or ukulele
43. Scratch around with my charcoal
44. Re-pot my succulents
45. Send a message or text to my friends far away
46. Journal about what’s been on my mind

Well, that’s the end of that. Lol, would you look at that. I get better and better at ending blog posts.

I want to enjoy moments of boredom–either to reclaim the lost art of being bored or to leverage my boredom into something good.

I don’t want to end up scrolling through social media right before I go to sleep or right when I wake up or when there’s a line in the store or when I’m alone in my house or when I don’t want to have to think.

Social media is not bad. It’s just that so many other things are better.

What sorts of things would you rather do than scroll through social media?

With love,

Rosalie

p.s. – I went and saw The Gray Havens in concert last Saturday. I can now die happy.

p.p.s. – My brother, Luke, who took me to the concert gave me a Gray Havens mug, shirt, and hat. So, yeah. That’s pretty swanky. When I die happy, bury me in my Gray Havens shirt and hat with my hands folded over my Gray Havens mug over my heart.