Quitting Social Media 6 Days A Week
I don’t need to tell you about the negative impacts of social media on our mental health and wellbeing. This has been a much discussed topic in the news and in the medical research world. We have enough evidence showing that social media is not harmless. What I want to share with you is my own personal experience with dramatically cutting back on my social media time in the hopes that I may trigger some reflection for you about your own relationship with this technology.
Earlier this year I decided that I only want to engage with social media once a week. That meant no scrolling or posting or responding to messages outside of that one day a week. This decision was inspired by the realization that social media was taking up too much of my mental space and personal time. These realizations will probably sound familiar to you:
Instead of getting fully absorbed in an event or outing, I was taking pictures with the intention of posting on social media. As much as I tried to convince myself that this wasn’t impacting my experience, it was. I would frantically rush to capture picture-perfect moments and zone out at the end of the event to post away. It undeniably took me out of the moment.
My kids would often catch me scrolling during our family time together. I would miss out on little things they said to me and have to ask them to repeat themselves. It was nothing catastrophic and I was still very present with my kids overall, but this is not the model that I want my kids to learn from me.
As much as I like to think of myself as immune to comparison traps…I’m not. Like most humans, when I see others winning awards or achieving great things I can be hard on myself for not accomplishing “enough”. With social media you get to scroll past dozens of big wins each day (or hour)–more than you would encounter in normal life. I don’t think we were wired for something like that.
There were many other reasons but the point is, daily social media exposure was doing more harm than good. The benefits outweighed the risks and, in medicine, when that happens, it’s time to make some changes.
I decided to cut social media down to one day per week. There were many slip-ups and many days when I felt like I had to “make an exception” for this or that reason but now I’m pretty committed to it. I eventually started scrolling other apps (email, photos etc.) because my brain did not know how to kick the scrolling habit so I set limits on those apps too.
I often find myself actually dreading my social media day. I approach it like a hot oven–I just want to get in and out and close the door. It almost always leaves me feeling worse off.
Here is what reducing social media has done for me:
It cleared up the brain fog. We blame hormones, diet, inflammation and a myriad of other things for causing brain fog. These are all valid causes but I suspect social media scrolling is a big contributor as well.
I re-awakened my love for other hobbies like reading, journaling and watching actual movies (spoiler: they’re more entertaining and thought-provoking than 7 second videos).
It made me more present with my family and everyone in my life. Looking back, I’m horrified that I used to carry out conversations with people while scrolling through social media–that feels so rude now.
I found time to exercise more regularly and be more productive in general. Those little scroll sessions add up and eat away at your time.
I feel less doom and gloom while still being aware of global issues. For news, I’ll check out my local news website a couple times a week and that’s more than enough to keep me up to date with local, national and global events.
My mind is….quieter and I think that’s the most precious change. What a blessing it is to feel relief from the excess noise. I can hear myself think more and I think that is essential to living a richer and more intentional life.
I don’t think I’ve said anything shocking here. I’m sure you could have guessed at all of these benefits. I think the surprising thing to me is that having daily cut-offs (like banning all social media before 10 am) was not enough for me. I tried that and I found having full days without it was more impactful.
There are many people who rely on social media as part of their job and I hope they have found their own balance that supports their wellbeing. There are also many of us who think we need social media more than we actually do (I was one of them). For those of you in that category, I want to share that reducing social media did not interfere with my business. I don’t have a lot of followers and views but I still have a busy practice and that’s what counts for me (although, I recognize that this may not work for other types of businesses who rely on having high social media engagement). It was useful to work with experts in the past who helped me show up on social media more strategically so that I can make the most of my engagement when I am on there.
I’m actually considering reducing my social media further to just twice a month in the new year. Overall it’s been a fun experience and I want to see what more will happen to my mind and my life if I give myself that opportunity.