What's Your Digital Diet Doing to You?

When's the last time you took a critical look at what you were digitally consuming (social media, music, TV, etc.)?

Today's conversation is one I'm passionate about: your digital diet! 
Today's focus: owning practical steps for taking inventory on what we watch, listen to, and digitally consume. And then diving into if those things are effecting us as a whole person!

Transcript

Hey friend, welcome back to a nother episode of the so what podcast. My name is Anna McGuire. And I'm so excited to have a conversation with you today about sowing intentionally into our lives so that we can reap abundantly in the days, weeks, months and even years to come. Have you ever been in the dead of sleep, and you start to toss around in your bed and memory or a thought or an idea comes to you, and you simply can't fall back asleep? That is what happened with today's conversation. Several weeks ago, I was asleep. And before I had gone to bed I was praying about and journaling about some ideas for so what? And I had a couple of thoughts that I said, Okay, I'd love to share on this in a couple of weeks and going through my calendar. And I went to bed. And then it was like, and I really do believe this was like the Lord, I woke up out of the dead of my sleep and was like, Oh my gosh, I love to do an episode on this. And then all of these ideas and these examples. And the stories kept coming to my mind. I'm like, Oh my goodness. And then I was trying to go back to sleep. I was like, and it's like two o'clock in the morning, go back to sleep, you wrote down some thoughts in your iPhone note now go to sleep. But I couldn't. I just kept thinking about it that eventually I did fall asleep. So anyways, that is how this conversation was birthed. That was one of those things I got really excited about when I was sleeping. I love talking about things that are relevant to you and me. I remember when I was younger, I was I think I was in sixth or seventh grade. And I went to a small group at my church with youth small groups. And I remember somebody saying to me, you know, we've got to be on fire for God. And I remember even at that age, I wanted somebody to explain to me explicitly, what does being on fire for God mean? Like, what, what does that mean? And my amazing small group leader, and it was Angela, she began to explain to me what that meant. I was like, okay, like, being on fire for God means abiding in Him daily, I have a relationship with him. I'm sharing him with others. That's what being on fire for God is. And are that is parts of it. And I feel like that has been who I am. Like, as I look over my teenage years of my adult life is when I'm given like a big idea. I want some practical things and practical ways to get to being the person that God has created me to be. Like when people are like, Oh, you need to be holistically healthy and like, cool. What does that mean? What does that look like? And today's conversation, when we talk about mental health or emotional health, and really our spiritual health, I'm like, okay, yeah, I want to be emotionally healthy. And I want to be spiritually healthy. And I want to be holistically healthy. But somebody tell me what that means. And so these conversations on so what I guess I'm giving you like a little pre message before the conversation, I want every conversation on here to be practical and clear. And really strengthening to be the person that God has designed you to be. So I try to keep conversations practical, instead of like giving like, Hey, be healthy. See you later. I'm like, Hey, let's have a specific practical conversation on what that looks like. And today, we're going to be touching on a couple areas of health. I really do believe in holistic health, spiritual health, physical health, emotional mental health, I believe that all of those pieces are important. And this conversation is going to be hitting on spiritual, emotional and mental health. Now let's dive in the vast and overwhelming majority of people in the United States. And really the globe, and I'm speaking specifically of the United States here have social media. The most recent data shows that adults and this means 18 and older 81% of adults in the United States have social media 18 and older. That's pretty crazy. Enough teens. So now this is 13 to about 17 in 364 days, the day before they turn 18 Over 60% of teams have social media and the United States in 2021 487 million people had music subscriptions. So 487 million people in the US had music subscriptions, things like Spotify. Apple Music, I think Amazon has a music thing. Google has a music thing. 487 million people and the article that I got this from shared that that doesn't account for the amount of people that are in family shared accounts. So you know, like Spotify. It's like you can have X amount of people on the accounts. This is just saying there's 487 million subscribers that doesn't account for the people that are family. Members on those accounts. What another crazy statistic about like digital media, and the social media world is that YouTube has over 2 billion monthly users, 2 billion monthly users. Another crazy thing is 58% of Americans have a TV streaming service that does not include cable or dish or satellite, whatever you want to call it. This is just purely TV streaming services. And they found that the average American household had three TV streaming services. So things like Netflix, Hulu, Disney, plus paramount, you name it, peacock, I know there's HBO Max, there's a billion of them now. So many I'm not even like scratching more coming to my mind as I'm like I'm saying them. But they say that 58% of Americans have TV streaming services. And on average, the average household has three. And then here's another interesting statistic, this is a super recent one that just came out about tick tock is that tick tock now officially has 1 billion users, and the majority of tick tock users are in the United States. So as I've been really, really through, didn't mean to say that. But anyways, as I've been reeling through information, and as I've just been observing trends of social media, I've really began to ask myself, is what I'm consuming, good for me. I do have Instagram, I do have Facebook, I do have a couple of TV streaming services, I have Spotify, I fall into a lot of these categories. I help make up this data of what digital consumption in the United States looks like. At the beginning of January, my church did a 14 days of prayer and fasting. And I was really praying during that time that the Lord would enrich my relationship with him. That was my focus of that fast, really asking him to open up my eyes to see him more clearly and to abide in him with more passion and authenticity than ever before. And it was through that fast that I began to read it really critically think about, what is my digital consumption doing to me? What is my digital consumption doing to me? Is it elevating and advocating for my relationship with Jesus? Or is it doing the opposite? And not just my relationship with Jesus? But is it adding to and advocating for my mental health and my emotional health?
What is it doing for me? Or is it just taking things from me? So I decided I'm going to start excavating, I'm going to start really looking at my social media use and how I feel prior to going on during it. And afterwards. I really wanted to take an inventory on what it is that I was and am consuming. And to see is this actually good for me. Growing up my cousins, and I would go to my grandparents farm in Northwest Wisconsin. My grandparents they lived my grandmother still lives there on I can't even remember how many acres it's like 100 and some acres there. And so it's beautiful area and one thing that they have on their farm are blackberry bushes, and you have to go a little bit deeper in the woods. It's not like it's around their house like It's like in the woods, you have to go and get them. And my family tells the story about when all of the cousins and Aunt uncle's were up there BlackBerry picking my cousin Ross, who was four at the time found a little tiny toad. And he put it in a bucket because he was so excited to keep the toad I guess. So in his excitement, he decided to show my grandfather, this Toad so he ran up to my grandpa with the toad in his bucket, and he said, Grandpa just showed it to him, and my grandpa thought the Toad was a Blackberry. So what did my grandpa do? He reached down in the bucket picked up a little toad and popped it in his mouth and ate it. Think thinking it was a Blackberry. I'm just imagining how mortified Ross was. Anyways, my grandpa eats the toad. And the story goes that Ross, of course, being devastated the day continued on and all he does is grandpa ate my toad. Like all day long, I'm just thinking about oh, if that happened, RG he wouldn't be so sad. But all day long. He just kept saying grandpa ate my toad. And here we are. Decades later, we still talk about this story. We still laugh about it about our grandpa thinking that a toad was a Blackberry. Why did my grandpa eat the toad? Well, yes, they kind of similarly look like blackberries. Maybe I don't know. But it was because he didn't slow down long enough to see what was in the bucket. He didn't take time to see what he was about to consume. And as a result, he ate something he never intended to eat. He intended to eat a Blackberry, but instead he broke my cousin's heart and ate a toad. Of course, this wasn't done to be malicious or intentionally. It was an accident. But I don't want to lose the principle of there wasn't the time taken to see what was he going to consume? What was he about to ingest? Was it what he thought it was? Or was it a toad or a rock or whatever it could have been that my four year old cousin was bringing to Him? So this is really what I want to pull from this is, have you and I slowed down to really see what it is we're taking in digitally? Are we looking at is what I'm reading online watching online, engaging with on television? Is it actually good for me? The Mayo Clinic research shares that social media has significantly more negative effects than we give it credit for. Because social media can be a source of comparison, felt rejection and allowing our minds to go numb. An article published by CNN shared that music has a tremendous effect on our emotional state and response to others, yes, in a positive way, but they were saying that it has a much more negative effect than what we typically would think that associated with listening to particular types of music, his rage, shortness with others, and irritability, because of music that is consumed. CNN also shared in that article that TV does the same exact thing. That TV has much more effect on our emotional state in response to others than what we truly give it credit for. Other research talks about from Psychology Today and mental health magazine, how what we listen to watch and digitally consume has the power to change not only how we feel, but the way we operate and perceive the world.
What are we consuming? Have we taken the time to slow down to see is what I'm quote unquote, digitally eating good for me. I love when science backs up the principles in the words of Scripture. Proverbs 20 371, of my favorite Bible verses says, As a man thinks, so he becomes. So he becomes, and I love that scripture here uses the word becomes as something you grow into. So if you're engaging in things on social media that aren't good for you, that aren't advocating for your overall health or adding to your overall health. It's not like a switch, like boom, you're not good. It's something that is compounded and it is something that becomes unhealthy. And I love that as a man thinketh. So he becomes it's something that you grow into, what we meditate on what we consume, whether it is music, or it is something on television or to something on social media or YouTube or Tik Tok. Again, although those things are not inherently evil, there are things on there that are straight up not good for you and me, straight up, not good for us.
And we have to slow down long enough to see are these things adding to who it is that I want to become? Or are these adding to me becoming someone I don't want to be? Your mind is a garden. The seed you sow is the fruit that it will bear Galatians six seven, which is the scripture that has inspired this podcast. So what it says do not be let misled, you cannot mock God, you will always harvest what you plant. That's the New Living Translation. The NIV says, What you sow is what you will reap what you reap, you will reap what you sow. But I love how the NLT says you will always harvest what you plan. We can't expect to sow seeds of judgment or comparison or feeling rejected or allowing our minds to go numb and expect to harvest something good in its place. And we can go through all the data. We can I can read to you scholarly article after scholarly article, counseling resource after counseling resource that shares that social media that music that television It has an effect on us. And I'm not telling you to go like throw your TV out the window and get a flip phone with no internet. Like, if you want to do that, that's fine. I'm not advocating for that. But what I am saying is that we become conscious consumers of what it is that we're taking in each day that we really survey, is this good for me? Is this helping me become the person I want to be? And if I'm feeling stressed out, down, exhausted, social media, YouTube, television, those are probably the last places I want to go. Because data tells me that those things will exhaust me, they will only add to the emotional deficit that I'm already experiencing. One of my favorite Bible verses since high school has been First Corinthians 612. And it says, you say, I'm allowed to do anything. This is Paul talking. But not everything is good for you. And even though I'm allowed to do anything, I must not become a slave to anything. The NIV version of that scripture says just because something is permissible doesn't mean it's beneficial. Just because something is permissible, just because you can do it doesn't mean that it is beneficial, that it's good for you. And so this is one takeaway, I would love for both you and me to walk in, when it comes to our digital consumption or digital diet. Just because you can veg out on YouTube for an hour or two doesn't mean you should, just because you can watch that brand new show that everybody says is incredibly good, doesn't mean you should, just because you have access to that brand new artists album on Spotify, or Apple music doesn't mean you should listen to it over and over again. Just because you can be on social media just because you can create a Twitter account and Instagram account Facebook, Tik Tok, whatever it may be, doesn't mean you should spend a significant portion of your time or even a minimal amount of your time on there each and every day. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, you might be thinking yourself and I'm feeling your emotion in this? Well, it's because this is something that the Lord has been doing in my heart. And after getting to walk alongside of people for many years in the area of emotional mental and spiritual health, I see digital diet, digital consumption, what it is that you are consuming content wise, it has way more effect on you than what we give it credit for has way more effect on me than I give it credit for. And so if you want to be a whole healthy being, you can't be passive in the area of what you are consuming digitally. Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect at this, because I'm not there's so much more room for me to grow in it. But I will say one thing that's been helpful for me that I started when I This happened a couple years ago that I really first started become a little bit more critical of like Instagram for me, I started to look at whose accounts were I looking at the most, whose accounts that I want to be most like, and there was celebrities and like Christian leaders that honestly I was comparing myself to that I was thinking to myself, Oh my gosh, I could never be like them, or oh my word. They're super unhealthy. But for some reason they're famous. And so maybe if I'm like that, like you know, there's these are all like inner dialogue that I'm having. And so I decided to unfollow a ton of people years ago, like unfollowed a lot of like celebrities and like Christian celebrity type people, because it just was not good for me. I had to look at what it was that I was consuming. Another couple years ago, there's a show that is really popular, really well known. And I people that I love, love this show. And I'm not going to name it shows it. But the Lord convicted me of it a few years ago while I was watching it, and it was just like one of those things of this is not good for me. This is not helping me in any kind of way. So I'm not gonna watch it. And guess what? That was the last time I've ever watched the show. And you know, I was like, what if you're around people who are watching it? Well, that's a different conversation. I let them watch it. I don't say anything. I don't assert what the Lord is convicted me of and has showed me up like for me personally because that's I'm not their Holy Spirit. I'm not their Lord. The Lord is their Lord, the Holy Spirit is their Holy Spirit. So I'll let him talk to them. So, you know, I have conversations people if I stop listening this music What if I'm in so and so's car and they're listening to it? Okay, that's fine. Like, you don't have to, like preach a message to them. If they ask you like, if you like so and so you can then share your heart. But, okay, I'm going to stop there. You don't have to like make sure that everybody follows your convictions and what you've noticed is good or not good for you.
Hi Have you really critically thought through? What is it that I'm digitally consuming? like reading a label at the grocery store? Can you take the time to really look at? What are the ingredients that I'm putting into my heart and into my mind, digitally? What is it that I am consuming? digitally, your mind is like a garden. And everything we consume are like seeds. That's why scripture says that, whatever is noble, whatever is excellent, whatever is praiseworthy, think about these things. Because scripture knows, like whatever we put our mind on, is what our mind continuously moves towards, and really harvests in our life. Take the time to think through what is it that I'm listening to? What is it that I'm watching? What is it that I'm taking? And who am I following? How much time am I spending on these apps and on these different resources? How much time am I committing to this? And you might be asking me, you know, like, give me a black and white answer. How much time should I spend on social media? How much time should I spend on YouTube? Who should I follow on Tik Tok? Who should I not follow on Tik Tok? Who should I follow on Twitter? Who should I not follow on Twitter? What should I watch which ocean and I watch? That's that's not what I'm telling you here to do. You take a hard look at what you're listening to, what you're watching what you're taking it and as a side note, and overtaking digitally, even what you're reading, like in a book, and ask yourself, Is this good for me? Is this helping me become the person that I desire to be is is advocating for and adding to the person I want to be? For me? This is honestly where it came from, for me in January is is this advocating for? And really adding to my pursuit and my desire to grow my passion for Jesus? And if the answer was no, or if it was like, Man, that really, then I had to start saying, Okay, I need to reevaluate and scale back on some of these things. And again, I don't want to sound like a prude. And I don't want to sound legalistic, again, I'm not saying get rid of everything, because I like listening to music. I like watching TV. I like using social media, like I like all of those things. But I want to be more critical of what it is that I'm consuming, because both the data in science, and Scripture shows that what I think on what I consume, it does affect me as a whole. Being a whole being friend, I am always in your corner. And this is a heart to heart conversation that I hope that you feel inspired and maybe challenged to so intentionally into the area of your digital consumption. What are you consuming digitally, like a label at a grocery store? Taking the time to critically think through? What are the ingredients that I am taking in on a daily basis and maybe mindlessly doing so. And as you pinpoint those areas, my hope for you is that you'd begin to make some adjustments, that you'd begin to scale back maybe you'd be new limits on your your devices of how much time we can spend on Instagram, or maybe it's watching that show less or listening to that music less or maybe it's cutting it out altogether. Or maybe you're transitioning to I'm going to start looking for other artists to listen to or other shows, to watch your other accounts to follow or different time spent on my phone other than social media. And as you sow intentionally, as you are intentional about what you digitally consume, I believe you will reap abundantly. You will and you might not just feel it in the moment. But as it compounds and as you continue to go you will see the fruit of it in the days, weeks, months. And yes the years to come. I love you so much my friend and I can't wait to talk to you next week.