I remember six or seven years ago when a friend told me she was taking a month off of social media. She wouldn’t engage in her facebook or Instagram accounts at all for a month. I was stunned. I thought – how will she possibly keep up with her friends, she is going to miss so much!!!
Fast forward to now, I am just crossing the year mark of having been off social media (with LinkedIn as the exception). And I’m not sure I’ll ever go back.
I had tried a shorter hiatus earlier last year – I was off for maybe 3-4 months. After that respite, I figured I could engage casually and with less addictive tendencies. Spoiler alert: it took me all of about two days before I was right back down the rabbithole of losing an hour each time I would sit down to check, and every free moment made me itch to check my phone. It felt terrible.
At this point, I still remember that itchy, addictive feeling, and I know how good it feels to not have it. I see other people tied to their phones, picking them up at every spare moment to see if they’ve gotten any new hearts or messages or views. And the inevitable disappointment if they haven’t. It’s crushing. It’s hard to even witness secondhand.
There is so much more spaciousness for things that matter to me – seeing and connecting with friends, being out to explore new areas around me, reading, and just being outside in the fresh air. There is an ease in my chest where there used to be tightness, a stillness in my mind where it used to feel frenzied, a feeling of calm when I’m between things where I used to feel antsy.
I’m sure other things impact this – my meditation practice, my good sleep routine, getting exercise and eating things that make me feel good. But I think there is an outsized impact that social media has had on my life and wellbeing when I engaged with it that cannot be overstated.
I think about going back sometimes, especially when I know a friend is on a trip and posting pictures or I’m wondering the day-to-day happenings with people I care about. But it’s also made me realize that I could take that same time that I would scroll to send them a personal text or call them and have a real connection – without all the other junk that comes with scrolling.
I don’t know if I’ll stay off social media forever…but I do know that, for now, it feels too good to risk going back…
