Last year during this same time, I decided to start the year off by taking a month break off social media. This year I have taken that a step further by applying the rules of 30 hard (no alcohol, exercise every day, healthy eating) along with my social media cleanse. If you think you can’t do it, I promise you can! Here is my story in hopes it will give you some motivation and encouragement.
As a PR/communications student, I am certainly the worst candidate to delete all social media. A lot of my college education is centered around social media advertising, and in fact, my major encourages keeping up with trends and influencers. Even with this huge incentive to never miss out on what’s going on in the social media world, the pros of taking a break drastically outweighed the cons.
My why
I have never been a person with an addictive personality, but social media has a clever way of making you think that you are not addicted when everyone else is on it too. This addiction was taking up time that I knew could be spent on other things. When I thought about my life without social media for a month, I didn’t think about how hard it would be, I thought about the endless possibilities.
I could finally have time to work on my future travel plans, I could start practicing my Spanish, I could at last finish the book I have not picked up in weeks because I’ve chosen Reels instead. I knew that being without it would have so many benefits to my growth. More than that though, I hoped it would give me peace of mind.
Humans are not meant to be bombarded with information in 30-second intervals for hours at a time. Social media makes it so easy to get a hit of dopamine that we keep scrolling even when we are not even processing half of what we see. It causes overconsumption to the max, which has sometimes left me feeling foggy and fatigued.
I wanted to finally see the world through my own eyes. To be present and allow myself to even be bored sometimes. Yes I would miss it and maybe feel left out, but I knew 30 days out of the year would set me up for a better year.
The Impact
What we tend to forget when we have social media is how great of a tool it is. In the 30 days I spent without social media I never once missed scrolling and seeing what other people were up to, what I did miss was how many times I wanted to use it to benefit my own life.
For example, when planning future travels, I wanted to find a good hotel in Spain, but couldn’t use Tiktok to help me. I realized Tiktok would have made it a lot easier to see what is out there from real travelers. The point is that by the time I got social media back, I had reframed my thinking to use it as a tool, not as a distraction. My relationship to social media finally became mutually beneficial, instead of feeling like it was taking from me.
Without social media, I felt so much more in tune with my emotions and mentally clear. I realized that people often use social media as a coping mechanism without realizing it. Instead of facing uncomfortable emotions or tedious tasks, we escape through social media and try to forget about our lives for a while. Though it wasn’t always easy to conquer at first, I found healthy coping mechanisms instead that made me feel better!
I also felt bored and it was awesome. Any time I felt bored I was thankful because it was an opportunity to do something different. I had to think and come up with things that I wanted to do. Most people complain about not having enough time, but if you eliminate social media you will have a lot more time than you think. I was able to complete those tasks I had been putting off and find enjoyment in hobbies more often than I used to.
Conclusion
Let’s normalize social media cleanses! Start small, even just for a week, and see how you feel. If you are afraid of missing out on anything, don’t be, it will all be there when you get back. Let your friends know beforehand if you feel like they might think you are ignoring them once you go offline, and they will understand. There are so many benefits that you will experience and it will forever impact your relationship to your phone and to the world for the better.