Social Media Detox
I’ve been hesitant to post this blog and have been working on it for a few months now. I took a 6-month detox from Instagram and it was wonderful. I gained a ton of confidence in myself, my intentions were clear, and I didn’t care at all what people thought. I did what made me happy. Although I missed keeping up with the people I was interested in, I found such peace not knowing a thing about their life. I wasn’t constantly searching for the best shot to post on my story or who was liking my photos. It was the shit.
I decided to get back on IG in January. I thought that I had taken enough time away and was finally in a better space to get back on. Since then my screen time has gone WAY up and I find myself stuck in the trap again. I’m wasting time editing photos, posting a story every so often to stay relevant, judging my views, beating myself up for not being further in my life etc.
As much as I’d love to go off the grid forever I’m not willing to give it up completely for multiple reasons. Right now I run multiple accounts for my job. And honestly, I just love it. I love taking and editing photos, supporting the people I love, and it’s a great learning tool. I know that eventually, I want to build a brand, and the cheapest way to grow it is social media.
With this, I’m discovering that it’s important to set healthy boundaries for myself. I think it’s important to set boundaries for any social media but I’m mostly addicted to Instagram so I have listed good habits for it. Take breaks when I feel my brain frying and not judge myself for what I post. These boundaries can be applied to any social platform though.
TAKE A BREAK
When you are constantly being fed information it’s easy to lose yourself. Whether you believe it or not, it’s making you form opinions, desire something you don’t need or it’s just not serving you at all. It’s important to take breaks and take a step back. It could be a weekend, a month, or 40 days for lent. Clear your mind from the constant flow of information.
I’ll be real with you. I got off Instagram because I was dealing with a break-up. Being online would completely change my mood from happy to miserable. I felt like I constantly had to show everyone that I was doing great and was being fake af. So one day I just deleted it all. I hated that something could change my mood without my permission and make me act in a way that wasn’t true to myself. I wanted to get off to truly process my emotions and be by myself.
I was finally in control of the information that was fed to me and was able to develop healthy habits. I wasn’t comparing my career, my body, or my creative skills to peers. I developed an enormous amount of confidence, I found out who my true friends are, and was truly able to heal. I focused on myself and the relationships that I cared about the most.
I strongly encourage you to do the same. Start small and see how freeing it is to be unattached to it. Be with yourself and process your baggage. Everyone has things they could be working on and it’s easy to do without the constant comparing.
POST FOR YOURSELF
Stop posting for someone and post for yourself!!! You know you all do it. You post a story to impress a handful of people and before it disappears you scroll to see who’s watched or liked it. If you don’t do this then good for you, please keep doing whatever the hell makes you so great. But for the rest of the world, stop lol.
Post something because it makes you happy, you’re proud of it, or you think it’s cool, and stop checking in on who’s seen it or how many likes you got. People should like you for you, not someone that you’re trying to be.
UNFOLLOW
A good habit I have been doing is unfollowing unnecessary content.
If an account makes you feel like your life should be better than it is, unfollow them. If an account makes you think your body should be different, unfollow them. If an account makes you feel lonely, broke, or jealous, unfollow them.
Got it? Cool.
The only reason you should follow an account is for positive reasons; inspiration, you really care for them, you’re learning something you’d like to know more about, it POSITIVELY impacts your life! If an account makes your life feel shit then UNFOLLOW them. Once you’re actively thinking about it while scrolling you’ll start to notice. You may find you want to unfollow people that are close to you. You don’t need an excuse, just unfollow them. Chances are they won’t notice and you’ll discover how freeing it is to not be burdened by their content.
I unfollowed a lot of travel influencers. It’s not that they didn’t have amazing content, it just made me feel depressed I didn’t have their life. Why would I do that to myself? There’s a big difference between an account bringing you feelings of envy and inspiration. You’ll be able to feel that difference and you can act accordingly.
SCREEN TIME AND LIMITING SOCIALS
Other tips are the obvious screen time. Set some limits and follow them. This will help you prioritize when you are on Instagram. Catch up on the people you care about, then get out.
I find that I like to balance my social media. There are so many platforms that could be addictive; Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube etc. When I decide to invest my time in one, the other has to go. I deleted my Facebook app when I got on Instagram and I also deleted a lot of people off Snapchat. It’s called balance 🤍
I hope you’re inspired by these habits and use them in your life. If you have a hard time giving it up, that’s okay. We’re all human and doing the best we can. It can be easy to fall into the social media spell and let it consume you. Be aware of how it affects you. If you have other helpful habits please send them my way 🙂