I’m going through my annual ‘Facebook? Meh!’ phase right now. That time of year when I’m about this close to shutting down my account. Again.

I won’t of course. But right now, today, I’d love to and I get all inspired by the likes of Alexandra Franzen, who takes great delight in not using Facebook at all.

It was during last year’s ‘meh’ phase that she and I first connected. But that’s a story for another time.

I’ve been thinking about it lot over the last couple of days though.

About social media in general and how we can not just survive but actually thrive in 2013, when all the world’s a stage, every page we open online is craving for our attention.

Some of it is great. I love, for example, that someone can ask her friends to pray for her mum or sister or whoever, and within less than 24 hours, she knows that she has a whole circle of people praying for her nearest and dearest.

That for me is social media working for good.

And sure, it makes us more aware of the needs and hurts out there, but those people were already needing and hurting. Us knowing about it doesn’t make it any more real. It just allows us to offer support and prayer and love and kindness.

That’s got to be a good thing.

But you know how like the weeping angels turn to stone when anyone looks at them? What if there was like a reverse engineered version of that for Facebook?

A way of being on and engaged in Facebook when we’re on Facebook, but then, when we look away, it’s gone. Frozen. Turned to stone.

Unable to distract us.

So that when we’re not on Facebook, we can continue doing whatever it is that would best serve us at that moment?

Instead of being this gaping void of time suckery, it would turn to stone. Unable to touch us. I think I’d rather like that 🙂

The challenge of course, for those of us who use Facebook for both business and pleasure, is that if I have ‘meh Facebook’ moments, you can be pretty sure I’m not the only one.

What if you woke up tomorrow and there was no Facebook or Twitter? (And telling me you’d switch to Pinterest is totally cheating by the way!) Social media isn’t going anywhere of course so it’s a pretty silly hypothetical question really.

Better questions would be …

How can you play on social media in a way that makes you feel magnificent instead of meh?

Who does God need you to show up as today, and what does that look like on a day to day basis, online and offline?

And how can you wake up today and reach out to people in the world who need you, in a way that makes them smile?

There are no easy answers.

But allowing yourself to get to the point where all you want to do shut yourself away in a quiet room and watch Doctor Who re-runs (the human equivalent of the weeping angel’s turning to stone) is not really an option.

This world needs you.

You are brilliant and wonderful and made to be like a light on top of a hill. Now is not the time for you to be hiding your light in a corner.

Now is your time to shine.