Social Media is Down Today & I Feel Super Free?! Thoughts on Social Media Culture Right Now

YOU GUYS omg. I have been wanting to sit down and write a blog post for days now and today is the perfect opportunity, because… Instagram, FB, and WhatsApp are all totally down and I have a feeling a lot of us don’t know what to do with ourselves. 😂

It’s funny because I had an IG post all queued up to go this morning in my drafts folder on Instagram from my weekend in Sedona. I took the weekend off of social media which was complete heaven, and I was feeling pretty ambivalent about coming back to it. I had that weird feeling over the weekend of just being repelled by looking at Instagram… I wasn’t feeling it at all. That goes for messages, scrolling, posting, all of it.

But today I was ready and excited to post and share from the weekend. We went to my cousin’s wedding over the weekend and it was so beautiful, and we got lots of cute photos of this rapidly growing baby bump. I might as well share some below because who knows when social will be back on for me to post it there. 😉

And now it’s 3:15pm, and as the day has gone on I have started to feel really free without feeling bound to check my social media. It’s different for me than it is for a lot of you reading probably, because going on Instagram is never just fun leisure time for me, it’s always fun and interesting but it’s also work. I have to be so on. I get customer service questions, health related questions, podcast inquiries, I want to make sure I repost everyone, I have to remember to post all of my commitments and discount codes, you know — it’s not like the work is HARD labor but it’s just my work, so all of the usual feelings come along with that. Inspiration, passion, joy, stress, overwhelm, creativity, ideas, jumbled thoughts, the emotions that come along with the occasional super mean comment or cyber bully. The list goes on.

I decided to take today as a sign to work on some things I have been putting off for a long while, namely something I mentioned in my recent SOLO episode on the podcast!! Any guesses? A hint for you… it has to do with writing, and it has nothing to do with my life. Guesses below! I want to hear!

And the truth is, I have been able to get into the deepest work flow ever with my writing without the constant interruption of checking social media. I am not by any means saying that I don’t want social media to come back — what I am saying is that it’s a good reminder that I have control over my time, and breaking the social media addiction and scrolling/checking habit will be huge in my productivity and joy moving forward. It’s definitely part of the “next phase of TBB,” something I have been talking about for quite some time now.

It’s also funny because I have taken much more time off of IG intentionally than just these several hours that it’s been down today, but there is something so much different about social media making that decision for me rather than me making the decision intentionally. It brings up a lot of questions for me… and maybe it’s bringing them up for you too so I’ll share them below:

– if social media were to go away tomorrow, how would that make me feel? What would I do?! How would I stay connected with my community? How can I put some tools in place to make sure my community can remain connected to me if social media did in fact go away?

– does it really feel good to me to have the bulk of my career reliant on a platform that I have no control over?

– for what reason is the app down today? Of course it’s internal issues and a server error etc… but is there something else at play here? If so, is this [Facebook, Instagram] really a company I feel great about running my business on?

– what would I do with my time if there was no social media? If that makes me feel good, how can I do more of that now?!

– how is this internet issue related to what’s going on in the world right now, in the cosmos, and in astrology? There are so many fascinating things happening right now from today’s New Moon to huge astrological shifts happening on earth. It gives you a LOT to think about.

Ultimately, while I wish I could connect with all of you guys on Instagram today I am so grateful for this experience because it reminds me how important this BLOG hub is for our community! I used to write on the blog every day, but when I started micro-blogging on Instagram several years ago & also podcasting every week, the blog posts started to dwindle. Also, I am not the most routine or structured person so every “weekly routine” I have tried to maintain with blog posts has never really panned out longterm. 😂

This morning when I was journaling I wrote down about 10-15 ideas for upcoming blog posts — about everything from health to veganism to pregnancy to juicing to more intimate personal life updates. This is such a good reminder for me to return to the blog, and continuously draw my community (you guys!) to the blog, because I have so much more control over what happens in this space than I do on social media platforms.

Also there is a larger issue at play with social media platforms and I am just going to come out and say it. The censorship is out of control. I realized recently that the more I started to like and comment on posts that were not in agreement with mainstream rhetoric about certain things going on in the world right now, the more I started to watch my own engagement go down. This has been happening over the last year or two, but even in the matter of the last few weeks alone I have watched it take an especially huge dip. I don’t speak about many controversial topics on my Instagram itself because it doesn’t feel like an energetically safe space for me to do so, but I feel here on my own platform (this blog) I can say a lot more. And in due time when it feels right, I am sure I will.

Anyway, no matter WHAT you believe… the censorship is out of freaking control. I saw someone post about a DYSON VACCUM on their IG stories, and their post got flagged with a link to the CDC talking about va**cines because IG didn’t recognize the difference between that word and the word vacuum. 😵‍💫 Not to mention, I am sure you have all seen what’s happening with the “natural immunity” hashtag. Don’t even get me started. Talking about health and wellness will always be my passion, so that’s not going anywhere from me. 🙂

Again, no matter what you believe, don’t you find this a little bit funky!?! I want to live in a world where freedom of speech is respected. Freedom in general. And maybe the way I am feeling today is that without the stress of what to say/what not to say on social media, I am feeling a little or a lot bit more free.

ALSO, I want to add this note. I am so extremely grateful for social media. This is not a post bashing on social media at all. I cannot believe all of the gifts social media has brought into my life — namely, all of you. I love our community so much. What I don’t love are some of the many ways that it has changed over the years and made it harder and harder to connect in an authentic way — that’s all. 🙂

Let me know how you are feeling. 🙂 & also, I hope you are getting to fill your day with some extra things that light you up without the time that would normally be spent scrolling, posting, interacting on there!!

P.S. Blog comments will be so of utmost importance on this post because there is nowhere else for us to discuss, haha!! LMK it alllll below!! ILY!! Also leave post requests because I am coming in hot with the new posts, that is for sure. 🙂