What do you need to prioritize over your phone?

We all know that social media has taken over the “world” so to speak. The stats say 7 of 10 people are daily users. I thought that was low.

Nearly 22% of the world population has access to social media. No matter your age, Facebook and other platforms have found a way to come in and consume our days. I heard this week that the average employee is on their phone for personal reasons 500 minutes a week. I certainly hope that was incorrect. Some other insights according to social media today:

• Teens spend up to 9 hours a day on social platforms.
• The average person will spend approx. 2 hours (116 minutes, to be exact) on social media everyday, which translates to 5 years and 4 months over a lifetime.
• Current time on social media beats out time spent on eating, socializing and grooming.

That gets me to the point of this blog post:

I know there are a lot of stories out today pointing to all of the social/cultural challenges resulting from social media. The desire to have a life that is “Instagram-worthy,” and to have a “highlight reel” life like others… These are important issues and something we should all be aware of. My focus today is on how we forfeit our power when we get soaked in and spend our time in social media when we know that our life would be richer if we spent as much time in prayer.

Most people I know, of all religions/beliefs, find that prayer is useful and a “go to” when they need to better understand life, or seek heeling, etc. PRAYER (some call it meditation) clearly brings us to a higher level of awareness that we need so we can find peace and direction. We just need to put our energy into this important practice.

I got to thinking: “What if we all spent 30 minutes more this week praying for the guidance we need, those in our circle that could use a hand up? And at the same time, 30 minutes less focused on thumbing through Facebook, Insta, Snapchat, etc.?”

My hypotheses is that we would find 30 minutes isn’t enough to conquer all that we need and that we would begin to take notice of the value of our minutes and the power we each truly have if only we will take our time back.