Demolishing the Time-Suckers pt 2

Social media sites are time-sucking vampires that addict us to adorable baby animal videos.

YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Goodreads, Google+, Instagram, and a few hundred others exert a mystical allure over the human mind.

According to Jeanie's Foundation of Fictitious Reporting*, humans average 23 hours per day on social media. 

That amount increases to 23.5 hours for cats, who live to post selfies on Facebook, and upload videos of their buddies on YouTube.

*Jeanie Jacobson, Founder of Jeanie's Foundation of Fictitious Reporting. This agency exists to fabricate data with no basis in truth.

Social media has its plus points.

My daughter Patty joined Twitter to support me. Her bio actually reads, "Set this account up solely to follow mi madre and her writing endeavors."

Twitter isn't a problem for me. My Twitter account resembles an abandoned building inhabited by a lone chirping cricket.

My standard response to my new followers is, "Thanks for the follow. Please don't write anything else to me ever again because I don't know how to carry out a conversation with you in 140 characters or less."

Facebook is my time enemy. I plunge into the Facebook wormhole and emerge hours later with numb legs and a swirling brain.

I have a personal page. There I post goofy and irrelevant items.

Like most writers I have a professional page. On it I post (slightly) less goofy and irrelevant items.

Staying on track is a problem.

For instance, I attempted to post a quick blurb about my upcoming book, Fast Fixes for the Christian Pack-rat.

https://www.amazon.com/author/jeaniejacobson

Instead I spent 47 minutes "Liking" and sharing my friends' posts, commenting on prancing piglets, and watching video clips.

Social Media tip: 
"At the movies with my peeps."
translates to:
"#Hey burglars, great time to plunder my house. RT"  

Ecclesiastes 3:6 tells us there's

"...A time to keep and a time to throw away."

What's worth keeping, and what should be thrown out of our schedules?

Consider these three questions:

1. Is social media cutting into family time?

2. Is it interfering with work? 

   And most important,

3. Is it crowding out time with the Lord?

To cut down on social media distractions:

• Turn off notifications. 
• Check your sites at a set time rather than throughout the day.
• Give yourself time limits, and set an alert to insure you follow through.
• Refuse new invites.
• Disconnect from some sites. Spend time in the real world instead.

In my next posting I'll reveal my nemesis.
The Goliath I thought I had conquered-

Television.