Why I’m Not on Facebook and Instagram Anymore…and the miracles God did to work it all together for good
On January 13, 2021, a little over a year ago, I clicked to open my Facebook app on my iPad and got a response that my account was suspended and that I had up to 30 days to dispute it. I clicked over to my Instagram account and it showed I had been logged out and my account was deactivated. What! I was dumbfounded. Shocked! I did nothing to “violate” Facebook’s new “misinformation” or “hate speech” rules I had heard so much about (quotes intended). In fact, quite the contrary as I’ll share in a moment.
A week later, my Twitter account, with all of 17 followers and that I used to simply see other people’s posts, was suspended as well.
Screenshot of my Facebook account’s disabled notice with no explanation on January 13, 2021.
If you recall, during January 2021 the country was in a season of unrest. It still is. But back then, a week after the attack job on the capitol, tensions were extremely high. Turns out, mine along with millions and millions of other Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts were deactivated, disabled, or suspended with no advance notice or reason. Just a flick of the switch and we were all cancelled.
In the coming weeks, friends contacted me via text to ask if I had blocked them on Facebook because they couldn’t find me anymore. “Heck no,” I told them. My account was deactivated. One person said to me that, “If they deactivated your account, Genevieve, then we’re all in trouble.” What he meant was that I was the last person you’d expect to get booted off Facebook. You would never find a political or divisive post on my feed, let alone words that baited anyone. Another friend told me she thinks Facebook got my account mixed up with another Genevieve Schmitt that has a lot of politically charged posts. Could be. I decided early on that I would have no part in the derisive, divisive, or debating conversations that were, and still are, so dominant on Facebook. I used social media only to edify, enlighten, and encourage others. As a professional journalist, I carefully curated each post so that it did one of those three things.
This was my last cover shot on Facebook. Thank goodness I had the foresight to save a copy of every graphic I made for social media. I always knew in my gut that Facebook’s dominance and control over content was not in users’ best interests.
If you were a follower of my Facebook and/or Instagram accounts, you may recall I used those platforms to post photos I took of my beautiful Montana and motorcycling worlds. I sometimes attached a universal truth to those photos in the form of a Bible verse. I wasn’t heavy with the Bible verses, but you sure did know that I loved Jesus and that I wanted others to be encouraged by the hope, peace, and joy contained in those words.
When I owned and managed the website I founded, Women Riders Now (WRN), I used my personal Facebook feed to promote stories I had just posted on WRN, as well as to share news in the motorcycle industry. I also used social media to shine the spotlight on others’ achievements. I enjoyed tagging these accomplished individuals so that my “large” number of followers could know about the great things they did. In fact, in my bio on Facebook, this verse was there; it’s the one I live by: Proverbs 11:25, “The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed.”
While I wasn’t a heavy user of social media, I enjoyed having an outlet to share the good things in life with the 6,100 people that followed my personal accounts. I often ended a post with, “If you need prayer, send me a private message.” A fair amount of people did reach out so I was able to pray with them privately. I called this outreach my #socialmediaministry. To say I was upset when all this was stolen from me is an understatement. At first, I was mad, then sadness kicked in at the loss of this outlet to spread cheer and goodwill.
I was an early user of Facebook signing up just a year after it went online. I used it primarily to promote my website. In return, I supported the company for more than a decade with my eyeballs leaving impressions on their ads. Thousands upon thousands of times my gaze fell upon their sponsored posts over the years equating to lots of greenbacks in Facebook’s bank account. I even purchased products advertised on Facebook. But all that love I gave Facebook meant nothing. What kind of a business relationship is that?
Here I am in the early days of Women Riders Now working my booth at the 2007 Femmoto all-women’s track day event. I always ran a contest at events where visitors who signed up for my newsletter could win a prize. I used Facebook to help promote my appearances and contests.
After I realized I was not alone in the disabling of my accounts and that it was part of some sort of coordinated purging effort, the sting of the whole event began to lessen. It wasn’t until months later that I realized the 30-day appeal period had passed, but at that point I was done with Facebook and Instagram. I wasn’t going to beg to get my accounts reinstated for something I didn’t do. It was right about that time that two divine touches occurred in my life, and looking back I see where God was using the whole expunging event for good, as He promises in Romans 8:28.
In May last year, I was divinely directed (meaning I had not intended to seek this out) to an online ministry that I had heard of a year earlier but dismissed getting involved due to lack of time. But here I was on a Sunday afternoon browsing the internet and this organization called Groundwire crosses my path again. The ministry reaches young people who use social media. By running short, targeted commercials on a variety of platforms, it captures a user’s attention who may be hurting, upset, confused, or even abused. It invites the user to chat with a spiritual coach who can help.
Screenshot of the Groundwire website homepage.
When I came across Groundwire this time, I saw that the ministry was looking for volunteers to become spiritual coaches. I dove deeper. What would it take for me to become a spiritual coach? I’ve shared a lot about faith in God over the years, but I’ve yet to lead anyone to surrender their life to Jesus. Surely, I was not qualified. But wait! I could get free training on how to do this, and, well, I did enjoy my #socialmediaministry. It’s what I was doing behind the scenes anyway.
I signed up for the six-week training and learned how to communicate online through a proprietary chat platform Groundwire uses. After I engaged in my first few chats, my mentor coach told me I was very good at this and getting the hang of it quickly. I found I enjoyed texting with strangers across the country (and in several foreign countries), and listening to their concerns while finding ways to lead the conversation to a life of freedom in Christ. In the first two months of my coaching last summer, I led three people to Christ, meaning they now know they will have eternal life with God in Heaven, and they’ve invited Jesus to live inside their hearts to guide them through this life.
I marveled at the miracle God just did in my life—providing me a new outlet to reach needy souls, praying with and for them instead of spending time on social media. This is such a better use of my time and taps right in to my gifts and strengths. It then dawned on me why I was such a threat to Facebook. On the outside, I played by the platform’s rules, but what you don’t know is that behind the scenes, for more than a year I had been praying for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his team.
If you know me, faith in God is the hallmark of my life. Prayer is what gets me through challenges. I took this while on a motorcycle tour of northern New Mexico. I’m drawn to beautiful places of worship.
Even before the 2020 election was stolen, you may recall censorship was ramping up on social media, the internet, and the mainstream media. As a longtime media person (journalist, network TV news producer, and reporter) my heart is for that industry. I loved the dissemination of fair and good information and its value to society. I graduated college with a broadcast journalism degree in 1986 ready to dig for truth with my storytelling. But in the last 20 years, I’ve witnessed bias, censorship, and a basic lack of fact checking. This decline in fair, ethical, and moral practices in reporting seemed to reach a peak during President Trump’s time in the White House.
As I joined women I call my spiritual sisters each week for two hours on a Tuesday to pray for our country, our leaders, our families, and our community, my prayers would often focus on those working in all forms of media. I’d ask God to help these individuals have their hearts opened; that their conscience would be stirred to the true measure of right and wrong, and that the truth would set them free. I uttered some version of this prayer nearly once a week for more than a year. Are you seeing where I’m going here?
The Lord showed me that my prayers were working; that my words were causing a stir in the spiritual realm. It says in Ephesians 6:12 that “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” So, whether by accident or deliberately, my social media accounts were targeted because the person behind them, me, was praying for the truth to be revealed in the hearts and minds of those running and working at these media companies. My prayers were making the forces of darkness controlling these folks very upset. In the spirit world, I was perceived as a threat. To me, this revelation is the only conclusion that makes sense since, judging by how wholesome my feed was, Facebook didn’t have a case for deactivating my account. Taking me off social media didn’t stop me from praying for these lost souls. I pray even harder now that their hearts and minds would be renewed to the truth and that their souls would be saved.
One of the many inspirational graphics I had posted on my Facebook account. Ironic, isn’t it?
With no way to communicate with my virtual friends anymore, the Lord gave me the vision and impetus to launch my personal website last summer. I’m using it to showcase my Everyday Miracles columns that were so popular the last two years I owned Women Riders Now.
More than ever now, I use my motorcycling life as a way to reach people who need prayer. I wore this t-shirt that says “How can I pray for you?” while walking around the Sturgis Rally last year. I had a few takers.
I’m so grateful that I have God in my life directing my steps. One of my constant prayers is that God guides me daily. He promises he will in many verses including Proverbs 16:9, Psalms 32:8, and Proverbs 3:5-6 just to name a few. I’m much more fulfilled with my Groundwire #socialmediaministry—and my website and newsletter, that I own, are my ways of staying in touch with you.
Last year was rough on many of us in different ways. I decided to use this time to look back and see where God turned a situation around for good, and I want to encourage you to do the same. There is a silver lining somewhere or what I call an everyday miracle, that is, God infusing his grace into a situation for a positive outcome in the end. But we have to be trained to look for it. I’m here to help you do that through these columns.
Thank you for reading the first of my resurrected columns. Please leave a comment or prayer request below. And sign up for my newsletter if you’re not on the list yet so you’ll be alerted when I post a new one. I’ll also be sharing exciting news and updates as they happen. I love you and God bless. I so look forward to hearing from you.