7 Reasons Why You Should Do A Social Media Detox

Ever since I signed up for my first ever social media page with Friendster back in 2004, I was hooked! Connecting with current friends, new friends AND old friends that I’ve not been in touch with for years, was great! It was exciting, it was different than the other ways of communicating back then such as using ICQ, MSN/Yahoo Messenger and MIRC, among others. Being able to look at pictures that your friends shared, being able to share pictures with others, writing testimonials on their Friendster pages, it was fun!

Then, Facebook came along and it was even better! That was soon followed by Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and the many other social media pages that we have today. Personally, the ones I use the most are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Although I was very active when I first joined all those social media platforms years ago, I’ve started to just browse through them more than actually being actively active on them now. I rarely have new status updates on my Facebook, rarely Tweet and hardly post up new pictures on my Instagram. However, ever since Apple introduced Screen Time with iOS12, I’ve been able to track the usage of my phone more accurately, especially the apps that I use on a daily basis. Despite not being active on them as much as I used to be, it still showed that my social media apps were the most used!

Why?

Because I still browse through them a lot. I’d just scroll through the pictures on my Instagram feed or the status updates on my Facebook feed, even going through some really toxic conversations on Twitter! (don’t ask me why but it’s just interesting to see peoples behavior on social media)

I grew up in the 80s and 90s. My first experience with the internet came in the early 2000s with that dial-up connection that took ages to connect and was as fragile as a paper that has been wet by water. I remember sometimes it took up to 10 minutes just to get connected to the internet and all it took for it to disconnect was a call to my house phone. Not to mention the slowness of the speed back then. Downloading a picture that was only a few hundred kilobytes in size took minutes! Computers were still huge and so were handphone. I only got my first handphone when I was 18 years old!

Looking back at how life was back then, it’s kinda hard to imagine how life would be like right now without all these technological advances that we have in the palm of our hands. But I’m part of the generation that is privileged to have experienced both a world without technology and a world with technology. I remember how I would spend hours with my LEGO, trying to build the tallest LEGO tower with whatever LEGO bricks I had. Or pretending I was Batman, fighting The Joker with the action figures that I had. I would play outside of my house the moment it hit 5pm, as soon as it wasn’t too hot and come back in by 7pm for dinner. That was my routine throughout my childhood and it was a good one.

Now, as a 33 year old working adult, husband and dad, I find myself glued to my phone more than I would like to or should be. And that’s why, a year ago, I started this routine where I would take a 7 days detox from any form of social media at least once a month. And let me tell you something, it is just as good for your soul as any other detox such as a food detox, etc.

Here’s why.

1. You Reconnect With The Real World So often, I find myself so indulged with what is shown on social media that I feel disconnected with the real world. I forget what it was like to live without my phone. Checking my phone used to be the FIRST thing I did when I woke up from sleep, as well as the LAST thing I did before I slept. It was unhealthy. It was an addiction. And my mind was constantly thinking about what my ‘friends’ or people I followed on social media were doing. It was borderline dangerous. When I started my detox the very first time, it was VERY hard. I was constantly trying to reach out to my phone. It was tiring trying not to open my social media apps. As I said, it was an addiction, a habit that I knew I needed to break. In all honesty, I only found it easier after my 4th day. By then, I didn’t think so much about it and was more interested in the other activities that I was doing, like finally reading all the books I bought but never touched. I also started to spend more time outdoors, going for walks or runs or just taking my lil boy to the park without having the urge to use my phone.
2. You Have Your Priorities Straight As I mentioned above, checking my phone used to be the first and last thing I would do on a daily basis. For a year now, that’s not been the case. Yes, I would still reach out to my phone the first thing in the morning, but only to turn off my alarm (yes, I should really invest in a proper alarm clock) and then, it’s no using it until I actually have to. What I do now is actually brush up and do some visualization for a good 10–15 minutes. Kinda like meditating but not as intense. I’d then either read a book, write in my journal (or blog starting from now on) or work on my books, or do a workout. By the time I get ready for work (which would be a good hour plus from the time I wake up), I’d have done and started my day right, rather that wasted it by scrolling through my social media apps.
3. You Come To A Realization When I was in my 3rd month of doing my 7 days detox (that would have been around 3 weeks or 21 days in total), I realized a couple of things. I had better control over my impulse to check my social media. Where I used to unconsciously just open my social media apps, I actually stop before I open them now and I’d ask myself, “Do I really need to browse through them now?” and more often than not, I don’t. I also realized that I don’t learn anything from them. Not like places like Medium for example. So, the time that I used to spend on social media have now been replaced to spending time on sites like Medium or books or apps like Duolingo where my time is actually being used beneficially.
4. You Learn To Love Yourself Better If you’re someone that is not blessed with an abundance of self-confidence, social media can be a very depressing place for you. I’m a fitness junkie, or at least I used to be. When I was younger, I was VERY fit (as most people would be when they were younger) but as age catches up on you, your body tends to like telling you that you’re not as fit as you used to be. Nevertheless, being in my early 30s, I’m not actually old yet and seeing how a lot of people are still very fit and healthy even in their 40s or 50s, it’s not an excuse for myself to not be at least bare minimum in my fitness. The thing is, I follow a lot of fitness personalities in hopes of motivating myself to workout more, eat better, live better, etc. but instead of being motivated, I just got depressed, envious and sometimes, even bitter. Instead of positives emotions, I had negative ones. And it was because I compared myself to them, especially those who were in the same age group as me. I’d question why they were in such good shape, compared to me who seem to gain weight as easily as it was snatching candies from babies. It was because I was so fixated on them than I was on myself. During my detox, I was able to focus more on me and it helped me to love myself more. Social media at times put too much pressure and expectations on you. It’s too perfect at times and that usually tells you that it’s also quite fake.
5. You’re More Present Somewhat similar to my first point, I’m more present now than I used to be. Because of the constant detox that I do now, I don’t spend as much time on not just social media, but on my phone in general too. When I get home, I’d put my phone in my room and leave it there while I’m in the living room with my family, being present with them. I’d play with my son and just chat with my wife. Work wise, I’ve also been more productive which I’m sure my employers would be happier about! If your phone has the ability to monitor your app usage, check how much time you actually spend on it and make the decision on whether you should cut back on it, or if you think the amount of time you spend on it now is sufficient.
6. You Live That Much More It’s pretty evident in today’s world just how much our lives revolves around our phones. If you’ve ever been in a situation where you left home and left your phone behind, you’d know just how weird it would feel. Some would feel uneasy, some would feel nervous, some would get plain right anxious. It’s because we’re so used to having it with us 24/7. Honestly, I’d only have my phone with me constantly when I’m at work, and that’s because it’s just in case anything were to come up with my family while I’m away. But when I’m at home or with my family, I don’t use my phone as much, sometimes to the point where I even forget where I’d put it! Growing up without phones, it soon started coming back to me again, how it was like before we were all just staring at our tiny screens.
7. You Wake Up To Reality As I mentioned before, social media is such a huge part of our lives now that if it’s not on social media, it’s not real. I have friends who’d say things like “If there are no pictures on social media, it didn’t happen!” but in reality, majority of what’s on social media is fake and not what it’s made up to be. A lot of so called ‘influencers’ do not actually influence anymore. A lot of what they post on social media isn’t what’s happening to them in reality. And it also sometimes places unrealistic expectations on us to live up to what society thinks is how life is supposed to be lived. Reality is what your life is like right now. If it’s good enough, then good for you. Keep it up! If it’s not, then you can change it by working hard and investing in yourself, not spending hours scrolling through social media wishing your life was like a celebrity or influencer that you follow.

Truth is, as much as you need to embrace technology in today’s world, you also need to find a balance in putting it aside every now and then so that you can live your life that much more. Not everything you do or eat or buy needs to be on social media. So what if the world doesn’t see it? The most important thing is YOU did. You’re the most important person in your life that you need to acknowledge and to be acknowledged from, not anyone else.

So, if you feel like you’ve been on that tiny screen of yours a bit too much, why not try a little detox? It might do you wonders, like it did for me.