Normally our Happy Hour posts include lots of links to other marriage blogs we believe are worth your time to read and apply in your marriage. But today we are featuring only one post, and it’s not from a marriage blog. It’s that important!

We have been concerned about the pull of social media on our real-time relationships for a while now. And when we read the following article by Cara Joyner in Relevant magazine, we had to share it. We appeal to you to read it completely and then, spend some time this weekend talking to your spouse about what the author shares. We pray the wisdom offered will encourage you and your marriage in ways you may not have known you needed.

5 Questions To Ask Before Posting To Social Media

I was a freshman in college when Facebook came out and I distinctly remember thinking, “why would I need this? I have AOL Instant Messenger and MySpace!”

Well, times have changed. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram (and a slew of other sites I’m not cool enough to know about) have simultaneously brought us closer together and driven us further apart. With the exception of a few universally offensive statements or pictures, it’s a rule-free zone where we can interact with society while accepting minimal personal responsibility for the implications of what we do.

In absence of guidelines for healthy and polite social media etiquette, we are left to determine our own boundaries for navigating the seemingly endless opportunities available to us.

Before we snap one more picture of our hot chocolate topped with a foam leaf, perhaps we would benefit from a brief pause—an extra 30 seconds to ask five simple questions might suggest it’s time to unplug, or at least reconsider when and how we use social media:

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