Every morning, I would gravitate towards my phone and almost robotically open up my social media sites without even thinking. I felt as though I had to catch up on anything I must have missed since 11 PM the night before. Maybe I missed one of my friend’s gourmet dinner photos or their precious selfies. Oh, and don’t get me started on the Kardashian’s Instagram accounts, because honey, trust me, I know how to keep up.
But why do I have to go out of my way to quickly catch up on other people’s lives? Nothing is wrong with having a social media account, and nothing is wrong with checking out the latest Hollywood dish. In fact, I love seeing posts from family and friends, and I am also guilty of magazine subscriptions. But even good things can become bad when your life revolves around them.
My Husband and I have recently decided to cut out social media for any purposes other than blogging and groups. Before this, I was spending many hours of the day on Instagram, and I opened up the app every single hour so I could view any new posts. I talked to most of my friends in the most impersonal way through these social media apps, and I also compared my life to other people through the apps too.
I would sit on the sofa with my Husband while scrolling down and blabbing away about things that shouldn’t even matter to me. His habit was Facebook, and he was just as bad as me. One evening, I mentioned something about one of the Kardashian’s to him, and he gave me this bizarre look and I just KNEW he was wondering why I cared so much about that stuff… all while he was scrolling through Facebook of course. But only three weeks ago, we decided to delete both of the apps and do our best to keep away from them. It wasn’t easy in the beginning, because we both had to get out of the habit of grabbing our phones to look for the apps that were no longer there. Now, I can say that we are both better than ever. I have had enough of scrolling through our phones while we are having a meal together. It gives us more time to have meaningful conversations and talk about our OWN lives. And I know he is feeling good without me filling him in on the latest Hollywood scandal. As a matter of fact, I am feeling good not knowing the latest Hollywood scandal.
My mind is a lot clearer, and I do more meaningful things with my time rather than scrolling through my phone for hours. And get this… I actually have to TALK to people now. I know… that is extreme living. I enjoy it because I feel more connected, and much less impersonal.
Since I am not looking at Instagram profiles of people showcasing their life highlights, I have no room to compare my life to theirs. I no longer care if anyone knows what I’m doing, and I find it better not knowing much of his or her plans either. It’s always bad when I know every detail about someone’s life because of social media, and then it’s hard to come up with things to talk about when I see them in person. They say, “Hey, did you hear about the awesome stuff I did yesterday?” and then I say, “Yeah… I saw the novel you wrote, and 2 photo albums you uploaded.”
Cool, that’s the end of that conversation. You get the point.
Since being off of social media, we have missed a few life announcements, birthdays, and several other important things. But the good thing is that instead of commenting on the post with everyone else, we can send a text or make a phone call, and learn how to be personal all over again. That’s the way life was before social media, but many of us have forgotten. There are more gratifying moments in our lives besides waiting around to get more likes on our posts.
I think there are great benefits to these social media platforms, and it helps make life easier in many ways. But I had a few problems, and I needed to unplug myself to detox from those issues. Sometimes I need to get my face away from my screen and look at everything else around me. Mental health is an import aspect of our lives, and many of us don’t realize we are being affected by social media until we unplug for a while. And it is worth it.
AWESOME! I too dumped Facebook years ago after going on the Low Information Diet. It’s defintely improved my relationships with others.
Yes! It brings us back to the life before Social media.
I haven’t completely dumped any but I do try to limit Facebook (I’ve pared it down to about 30 friends and family, all far away) and eliminated most groups. For instagram, I’m looking at it less than once a week. I just wrote a post as well about how I realized Instagram was making me less content with my life (along with being a waste of time) and touched on a few of my issues with Facebook as well. It’s really sad, as these platforms have started to feel like a necessary evil. We have to be willing to miss… Read more »
I think I need to narrow down my friends’ list as well. It seems like It would help tremendously. I didn’t know if anyone would understand when I wrote about my being happier without Instagram, but I am glad you get it! It is amazing what a difference it makes.
Well done on making the move towards a healthier digital life! Instagram, Buzzfeed and the Guardian were my top three unhealthy obsessions. I’d pick up my phone or open a new tab on my browser with a purpose in mind, but then automatically check one of these three… It’s like my fingers were set to some default. My sister has been developing a digital wellness pack and I’ve been her guineapig the last year or so. Since then I’ve deleted all non-essential apps on my phone, and I’ve stopped sleeping with my phone in my bedroom. Starting a blog has… Read more »
Thank you! It was a tough move to make, but it gets easier every day. And good for you on your move as well. Maybe I should try sleeping without my phone because I tend to stay on it for at least an hour before falling asleep each night. Unhealthy indeed!
Very good points and something I have considered for quite some time too, I at least want to heavily limit my usage. There are a lot of studies which link social media usage to poor mental health and I think I would feel a lot better in myself and savour things more if I didn’t use them myself. Thanks for the great post.
I started the full detox that lasted a while, and now I am limiting myself. I had no idea about the studies on mental health, but I believe it! Very interesting! Thanks for reading!
Hello
I stoped using facebook personally awhile ago, if it were not for the few professional groups belong to, I would just delete my profile.
I agree. My Husband actually hid his entire newsfeed, so all he sees are the group notifications and events.
This is important to do. I’ve been weaning my time off social media as well, but not completely. Still finding that balance between using it for my business but not getting overwhelmed by it. It’s nice though to have a night where I am not constantly checking it and can be in the present with my husband.
Definitely! I did a full detox, but I will not completely remove myself. My Husband and I need to work on being off of our phones at night. Bad habit!
Ahh, I totally agree with your point on conversation. Nobody needs to talk if they already know everything that’s going on in your life. Also, nobody needs to keep feeding wealth to the Kardashians!
Thanks to social media, the world is smaller now that we can reach out so easily, and part of me is grateful for the technological advances. On the other hand, if that limits our ability to have conversation with each other, it’s a problem.
I feel the same way about the misuse of social media. It drives me nuts how up to date my wife is on Hollywood nonsense…but at the same time, I think i drive her a bit nuts with all my FI strategy/money optimization talk. To each their own, I guess. The more I learn about social media use for website promotion, the more I realize it’s a rabbit hole that’s just as dangerous as for personal use. I’m just as guilty for checking my website Twitter/Pinterest/Facebook sites as I used to be for personal use. I’ve yet to figure out… Read more »
It’s definitely a dangerous rabbit hole. I’ve disabled my Instagram and get on my personal Facebook about once a week to check groups/notifications. I haven’t found any specific tools but the only social media I get on regularly now is Twitter and that’s only under our moniker for our blog. I don’t get on personal accounts. I’m not even trying to build up our Instagram or Facebook page now because I don’t want to get sucked in. 🙂