5 Tips for Stewarding Your Social Media
Today I want to share 5 tips on stewarding social media that have been helpful in my life.
We all know that social media is for most of us a regular part of our lifestyle in some form or fashion. Maybe you use Facebook to stay in contact with friends or watch YouTube videos to learn new skills. Maybe you wake up and immediately check your Instagram feed or find yourself scrolling through reels, Tweets or Pinterest content on a regular basis.
Social media is great in many ways, but it definitely has its downfalls. So, how do we steward our time on social media in a healthy way?
1. Partner with the Holy Spirit
Our eyes and ears are like gates to our heart. Therefore, we must be diligent to guard our heart from ungodly influences (Prov. 4:23). A great way to do this is to develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit and learn to be sensitive to His leading and conviction.
Now, we all make mistakes. This isn’t about legalism. Instead, this is learning to honor God with our content consumption to keep ourselves unspotted by the world. So, when I’ve fallen short and spent too much time binging YouTube videos or watched content with ungodly words or themes, I’ve simply acknowledged my sin before the Lord, asked Him to forgive and cleanse me and then moved on like it never happened.
God convicts us, not condemns us. He convicts us so we can change and become better. He has our best interest at heart. Conviction is for our benefit.
We should be a wise gatekeeper in partnership with the Holy Spirit to filter whose voices we are listening to and who we grant access to influence us.
I also suggest being proactive in prayer if you are seeking godly mentors or community. Make it a point to ask God to lead you in who He wants you to follow and be influenced by instead of only searching everything yourself. Involve Him in your social media like you would a friend!
2. Limit Your Good Influences
This lesson took me many years to understand. It’s tempting to follow and subscribe to many people, especially if they are great, godly influences or post harmless content.
Honestly, I used to think that if I didn’t follow someone on Instagram that this meant I didn’t love them. I thought following them showed that I supported them as a brother or sister in Christ.
I’ve since learned that hitting a button doesn’t equal love. Afterall, some people don’t even have an account on social media, and we can still love them.
I now understand that I’m not obligated to hit the “follow” or “subscribe” button for everyone. I don’t have to feel guilty for being selective in my follows.
And this is good news…
Less subscriptions and follows can lead to less wasted time on social media. Feeling pressure to keep up with everyone leads to anxiety, comparison and a whole lot of wasted time.
Again, it comes back to learning to involve the Holy Spirit in our content consumption and let Him lead us in this digital age.
Even good things can distract us from what God wants us to do and what is most important.
A Personal Example
Let me share an example from my own life that illustrates this.
One Friday night many years ago when I was in high school, I was listening to worship music on my computer during my free time after school. That weekend was going to be busy with a long marching band practice and hours of homework. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with relaxing to worship music, but God had other plans for me.
As I was jamming out to my music on Spotify, I suddenly heard the Holy Spirit whisper: “Turn the music off. Spend time with Me please.”
I was a little caught off guard. And guess what, although I love my quiet and alone time with God, I didn’t listen. Before I knew it, I needed to go to bed to wake up early for practice the next day, and my opportunity for refreshing quiet time with God had passed me by.
Who knows what I missed by not obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit.
I hope my mistake encourages you to listen to the voice and leading of the Spirit even when it’s inconvenient or strange.
3. Numbers Don’t Rule Your Life
Let’s be honest. Our generation runs on numbers. Numbers run our marketing strategies, our self-esteem and oftentimes even our lives. For example, we can subconsciously see someone as more credible based on their number of followers or views. We can even measure our own worth and success based on the number of likes we receive or our follower count.
Growing up in the age of social media, I definitely struggled with comparison and insecurity when it came to my like and follower count. Especially in middle school, I would always compare my number of likes and follows on Instagram to my peers and wonder what I needed to do to increase them. More selfies? More posts with friends? Without realizing it, I was letting numbers and people’s opinions control my life.
The truth is, because I didn’t yet have my identity anchored in Christ, I was always seeking to be validated through my like and follower count. I thought my Instagram feed and activities with friends determined my relevance. This is a never-ending hamster wheel of comparison, people-pleasing and insecurity.
And, the scary part is, this can easily carry into our ministries.
As believers who use social media to spread the gospel, we must realize our numbers don’t necessarily equal our maturity. You can go viral on social media overnight. This is the favor of man, not necessarily the favor of God. Ouch!
I know this can be a shocking discovery, especially for a Gen Zer like myself who grew up in the current culture of fast-paced digital success. I write this from my own mistakes of thinking that my influence on social media meant my effectiveness or lack thereof and that my worth was tied to numbers. In hindsight, I now see more of the beauty in waiting and letting God process me in wilderness seasons instead of immediately giving me what I thought I needed to be effective in ministry. God promises to bless our ending, not our beginning (Jer. 29:11). This waiting and refinement process helps us build on the right foundation of character instead of gifts which can unfortunetly easily destroy us because of our pride.
The question is: are we serving God or our ambition for fame and godly influence? Are we trying to outdo the next social media evangelist in view and follower count?
We are co-laborers, not competitors!
4. Rotate Your Feed
This idea came to me very recently. Instead of following or subscribing to everyone, we can have our evergreen accounts and our rotating accounts.
What do I mean by this?
Say you are currently researching a specific topic for work or for a hobby. If you are doing something temporary like a project, say, decorating your dorm room or learning to garden, you can follow those accounts for a limited time until the project is complete or you’ve mastered the new skill.
So, your feed is full of your staple, evergreen accounts and rotates between your current hobbies and learning material.
This keeps your feed limited and helps you feel less anxious and attached to constantly consuming content.
5. Follow Your Future
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future?”
The same applies to our online followers. Our digital influences.
Follow the people you want to become like, those believers in Christ who influence you positively and inspire you to go deeper in your walk with God.
He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed (Proverbs 13:20).
They don’t have to be the latest Christian influencer or most popular celebrity pastor. Again, this is more about following God’s leading in who you press “follow” to than popularity in numbers.
I’m so grateful that during my high school years, God led me to wonderful ministers and even people my age who showed me by example what it looked like to follow God in my everyday life. These people—young and old, men and women—helped me go farther in my relationship with God than I would have without their positive influence.
This is one of the benefits of social media. It gives us access to learn from people we may not be able to meet in person because they don’t live in our community.
Just like friendships in real life, walk with those people on social media who are leading you closer to God through their content. Let your social media influence you positively toward God and making an impact for His Kingdom!
Which tip resonated with you the most? Feel free to comment below!