For most of December 2019 and all of January 2020, I stayed off social media. I deleted apps from my phone and only went on Facebook through my computer if I needed too (I belong to several groups that mainly communicate through there, so if I need to talk to them, that is my best and, sometimes only, option).
It was a revelation.
Firstly, near the end of 2019, I was close to being burnt out. I was tired all the time, my mental health was a rollercoaster and I found going on social media was wearing me out and bringing me down. With several family members coming to visit and not leaving until the middle of January, I knew I needed to do something. The easiest thing was to stop going on social media.
The difference was immediate. I was anxious to start with, worried about what I would miss, but this passed within a few days and by the end of a week I was feeling a lot freer. I no longer cared about what everyone was up to and instead, began to focus on myself and my family a lot more.
The next few weeks were pretty good, filled with spending time with loved ones, going to the beach and just generally enjoying the school holidays.
Then life got in the way, as it does. I ended up in the hospital for the last week of the school holidays and I’ve been a half step behind ever since. Once the kids went back to school, I found myself with excess time and little energy. Enter social media.
My whole reason for the break was to focus on myself, my family and to rest. Now I was resting but on social media to cure some of the boredom from the enforced aspect of it. The irony.
I returned and found my approach to it was different. I was more mindful, which I had certainly not intended. I didn’t reinstall Facebook on my phone, happy to log onto it from my computer as needed. I tend to check it once a day, pretty much like I do my email inbox. Twitter is a bit hit and miss, I’ll either be on it all the time or absent for weeks. Instagram though was and still is my social media of choice.
I like scrolling through pics and reading peoples captions, plus sharing my own. But even the way I am on there has changed. Instead of mindlessly scrolling through my feed, I actually interact with people.
Previously I had been mindlessly consuming, liking and moving on. I also noticed that I hadn’t been doing the things that I needed to do to get to where I wanted to be in life. Instead, I had been scrolling through my socials. Getting further behind, seeing other people’s successes and stressing the fuck out over it. Plus, the scrolling caused me to be overloaded with information. For example, Mount Kosciuszko and Mount Townsend in NSW swapped names because of misinformation that Kosciuszko was taller when in reality it was Townsend. Instead of correcting that mistake, the names were swapped and Kosciuszko is still the tallest. Thank you social media for that useless bit of info.
But back to my point. Like anything, if you are not mindful with your social media consumption, it will take over and before you know it, you’ll be behind in your goals and wondering how the hell it happened. Personally, I’m much happier now that social media doesn’t have control over me. Honestly, before this break, it was such a huge part of my life. I was constantly on it, wondering why everyone else was succeeding and I wasn’t. In hindsight, it was because I wasn’t dedicating time towards my goals, but social media was giving me a quick fix. A way to feel like I was doing something, simply by posting. The reality was somewhat different.
Now I dedicate time every day towards furthering my life. I plan it the night before so that I get up in the morning knowing what to expect of myself. For me, it takes out the decision process when I wake up and I pretty much go on autopilot to start with. I figure that no one else will do it for me and instead of complaining and feeling miserable, I really need to get off my arse and simply do it. And all this came about simply by taking a break from social media.
Take a break for a week yourself and see how it feels. Then try it for a month and see what happens. If you do it, let me know what happens. I’m interested to see what other people’s experiences with a social media break would be. So far, I know two other people who have done it and they found they were far more productive plus their mental health improved. I guess, like anything, it’s all about boundaries.
Anyway, my lovelies, have an awesome month xx
Samantha House 