Facebook vs. Family: Guess Who Won?

By Nathan Tabor, Op-Ed Contributor Saturday, January 14, 2017

Nathan Tabor is a businessman and entrepreneur who has successfully founded and owned over 25 businesses since 1999 that have grossed over 0 million in sales.

Let's face it. We all live busy lives ... between work, family, friends, and everything else that occupies — or threatens to occupy — our attention.

I often find myself professing that I don't have enough time during the day to get done what needs to be done, whether it's work or family obligations. It's quite frustrating at times. I am sure you have felt this way too.

At the end of 2016 Facebook released their Year in Review app, which allows you to post a set of pictures to your timeline that are representative of your year. I watched the video of my pictures and then scrolled to see the details below.

I was mortified!

I knew I had spent a little time on Facebook here and there ... sometimes scrolling through my Facebook feed, occasionally posting something myself, and maybe watching a viral video. I mean, who didn't see the video of the woman wearing a Chewbacca mask laughing uncontrollably?

The truth is, I had reacted to 11,657 posts in 2016 — that's almost 32 per day! So if I spent just 30 seconds pondering a post and reacting to it, then I spent a whopping 58 hours reacting to people's Facebook posts. That's a week and a half of my time!

OK, so maybe each reaction took 10 seconds on average ... well that means I spent 19 total hours reacting to people's Facebook posts. What could I have been doing with that 19 or 58 hours last year? That equates to as much as 10 minutes per day — plenty of time to read a book to my kid, talk with my wife or perhaps even read God's word!

Then it hit me even more, Facebook didn't tell me how many videos I watched and it didn't tell me how many status updates I made. It also didn't tell me how much time I had spent scrolling to find something to react to. So, I can say for sure that 10 minutes per day is probably not an accurate number. It's probably more like 30 minutes per day — which amounts to over 180 hours during the year!

What these horrifying statistics did tell me was a smack to the face! It told me that I was spending WAY TOO MUCH TIME ON FACEBOOK!

I now realize I have time, I just have to spend it better!

See, I know how my mind works. And it has been telling me that I don't have time to sit and have a talk with my wife about her day or read a book to my daughter or spend time in God's word. Because it's easier to unplug and bury my thoughts in something that doesn't matter, right? At first, it is. But looking back over the years, I'm embarrassed and ashamed of the time I've spent on Facebook. And I'm embarrassed and ashamed of the time I've not spent with my family.

How much time do you spend every day on social media? And what does that add up to every week, every month, and over the course of a year?

So moving forward, my commitment is to make sure that God and my family get my time and attention first and foremost! I hope you will do the same!

Nathan Tabor lives in North Carolina with his wife and daughter. He has founded and owned over two dozen businesses since 1999, grossing over $150 million in sales. Some ventures have been wildly successful while some have been epic failures. He is passionate about applying God's word to his personal and professional life and helping others do the same as an executive coach and business growth consultant. Learn more about Nathan at NathanTabor.com.