Instagram. I used to love it. Well, I still kind of do. But I decided to delete my account, along with Facebook.

Goodness, it was hard. In all honesty, I miss it a lot. It was where I read about new homesteading ideas and found encouragement from mom bloggers. I was part of an awesome debt free community there that was so encouraging when we paid off our cabin.

But I still decided that leaving Instagram was the best choice for me, and more importantly, for my family, unless the company decides to make some policy changes.

My wheels started turning about a year or two ago, when I convinced my husband to make an Instagram account. He hadn’t followed many people or topics yet, so whenever he went to the search page, photos of nearly unclothed ladies were suggested for him. He ended up deleting his account. A few months later he tried again, but this time followed and liked quite a few things to try to clean up his search suggestions. This seemed to work for awhile, but if he was off of the app for any length of time, the unseemly search suggestions would return. He then left the platform for good.

At this time, I probably should have left with him. It bothered me that I was supporting a company that would suggest such filth to my husband, and likely, to a lot of other men, too. But at the time I was just too involved sharing pictures of my kids with friends and trying to be an encouragement to others.

I totally justified staying because I thought I was being a light in the darkness. But honestly, I probably enjoyed looking at what others were posting more than being an encouragement myself.

Then over time, I started to believe that Instagram was spying on me. The items I would look at on Amazon, or things I would mention in conversation with my husband would pop up as advertisements. What in the world? Well it turns out that it was true. There are some settings you can adjust to make this less intrusive, but when using Instagram, you allow them access to the contents of your phone and your microphone.

I felt like this was an invasion of privacy, but I still wanted to use their service. Goodness.

Then came the 2020 election. I was shocked when all hashtags were locked down so Instagram could “make sure misinformation wasn’t spread.”

Now, this really bothered me. Who did this company think they were? I could post at #homesteadhappenings or #lovemyfamily without spreading “false” election information!

Then there were the pop ups for everything. Apparently, I couldn’t decide whether to believe a post about a certain virus or not unless Instagram helped me with their fact checkers. Same with the election. Never mind that I watched nearly 50 hours of legislative testimony…my opinion should be formed by scrolling through Instagram, apparently.

The final straw came when the sitting President of the United States was blocked from using the service. I have never seen such blatant censorship, and it finally seemed obvious that my conservative views were not welcome on the platform. I knew it was time to go.

When I spent my time there, I was encouraging others to spend their time there. Instagram was making money by showing me and my friends ads, too. I really wanted no part in it anymore.

Most of the mainstream social media outlets are a form of Babylon. The word Babylon stems from the word Babel, which means confusion. There is such confusion found there, and these companies are operated by people who have an agenda.

The enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy is also called, “the prince of the power of the air.”

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

Ephesians 2:1‭-‬3

What does this mean?

I believe that Satan literally is the prince of the power of the air…which includes airwaves. So much of the content found on television and the internet is evil.

This is disheartening for a believer. But we must remember that we have been called to be separate, and to fulfill the holy calling that the Lord has placed on our lives.

And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty.”

II Corinthians 6:16‭-‬18

We must be discerning when it comes to God’s will for our lives. It is so easy to go along with the crowd, especially when it comes to social media.

For now, I’m trying a few new social media platforms out that seem to value both privacy and freedom of speech. You can join me on MeWe, and I’m also on Parler if they are able to retrieve their website from the Big Tech takeover. You can find alternatives to Big Tech here.

I hope this post has somehow been encouraging to you. We can do hard things and be separate. Blessings, ladies!