Day 7: Limited Time for Social Media.

Seven days into Lent and our seventh Lenten resolution is “Limited time of Social Media.” Social media has become almost a basic need in the 21st century; it has become a norm and a habit that we seem to find a lot of difficulty doing away with.

One philosopher actually said, “Social media has brought us closer to people far from us and at the same time made us distant from the people close to us.” This is actually true to a larger extent. The same applies to our faith: we spend much more time on it (Social Media) than we spend in prayer. We have reduced the time we intimately converse with God because we have dedicated the remaining time to our mobile phones or electronic gadgets.

In a home of about eight people; mother, father, and the kids, you find that during evening hours, most especially after supper (a time that about twenty years ago would have been put to proper use for prayer), that time is no longer designated for family prayer. Each one is always too focused on their phones in such a way that they become so addicted to them that we cannot even develop the idea of prayer. One wakes up in the morning and has no idea of how the other family members slept at night, and yet they could be well informed about the status of someone staying 200 miles away.

Back then, one would wake up in the morning and the first thing that came to mind was saying the morning prayers, but that culture is slowly fading away in most homes. Someone simply wakes up to check if there is a message sent on their phone. It’s the order of the day. One becomes entirely too busy on something that doesn’t build their relationship with God. It is one of the strategies the devil has employed against us: making us too busy doing relatively nothing so that we forget about God.

Dispose of your phone in some moments and speak to God as you listen to Him as well. Allow Him to talk to you in the silence of your heart: “Be still and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10, NABRE). Increase the time you spend in prayer and reduce the time you spend on social media.

During this Lenten period, make it an obligation, a task, and an assignment to build not only your relationship with God but also with the people close to you. Connect with them, pray together, and strengthen your bond with them. Allow God to increase as you decrease, “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30, NABRE). Create some time to read the Bible; allow His words to transform you and make you a better person today. Installing the Bible on your phone wouldn’t be the best piece of advice I would give you, for it is easy to get carried away into something else other than reading the Bible from the phone. You can easily be tempted to open WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, or even Facebook messages. So I would suggest one buys a physical Bible, draws up a suitable arrangement, and designates specific time to read it; at least on a daily basis. Create some time for Adoration: go and sit before the Blessed Sacrament and allow Jesus to talk to you. Cry and open up to Him as you are there; “But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you” (Matthew 6:6, NABRE).

Reflect on this resolution with a lot of attentiveness: How much time do I spend on social media compared to prayer? How often do I talk to God and people close to me, or do I spend most of that time conversing with people so distant from me? We need not only to make these resolutions but to put them into practice. How much time am I willing to reserve for God every day for these remaining days until Easter? Is Easter going to find me spiritually mature, or will it find me when I’ve gone back ten steps backward in regard to my faith? Well, ponder on that and answer them rightfully.

Let us pray:Lord Jesus, I have been carried away by the passions and pleasures that I get from my phone, which has made me so weak and lazy in prayer. I do feel like my relationship with You has become a bit shaky because of the little time and attention that I give You. I have become so much more addicted to my phone that I don’t even have time for those close to me and for You. As I follow this particular resolution, may You help me to grow spiritually and rejuvenate the faith I once had. May I be drawn more into prayer than to my phone. Send me Your Holy Spirit to guide me in my spiritual struggles and to shrug off this addiction to my phone. May I celebrate Easter as a transformed and transfigured person filled with faith and love for prayer. Jesus, I trust in You.