This Christmas, let's take a break from social media

There’s something beautiful, and increasingly rare, about inhabiting a moment without a thought for its online potency. About loving a place, a person, a dish, a moment for their intrinsic goodness, and not seeing them as a means to a technological or social end.

But this is a large part of what it means to be embodied. It means savoring the present without distraction or motive, loving the folks we’re with enough to ignore the distractions of a larger culture or friend group.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a little FaceTime and Facebook during the holiday season. Indeed, for many of us with family far away, it’s an integral means to loving and connecting with those we care about. But there’s a significant difference between posting incessant life updates to Facebook, and actually calling or Skyping a loved one. There’s a big difference between connecting with an old friend via email, and sending them a hasty text.

Yet I would argue we should even limit these sorts of interactions during the Christmas season. That’s because Christmas, of all the celebrations throughout our year (with the exception of Easter), is the one perhaps most focused on the idea of embodiment.