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Abstract

g rid of the majority of my social media. My hours of scrolling, posting, and reading comments weren’t resulting in anything productive. My compulsive checking of new notifications and feelings of obligation to post daily and make comments were a constant distraction.In addition, none of my social media habits was helping me mentally. I always seemed to be either depressed or pissed at myself for spending so much time on social media — not to mention the feelings I had towards people who had seemed pretty nice and reasonable prior to the pandemic.So I asked myself three questions:<ol><li>Was I making any money by looking at posts for hours?</li><li>Was I learning or gaining anything that would get me closer to my goals?</li><li>Was my mood better after spending a lot of time on social media?</li></ol>My answer to all of these: Nope.I’m not currently an influencer or a business that uses social media to turn a profit. No one is paying me to post anything or give advice or state my opinion on social media. And likes on my selfies and posts only go so far.Rather than swearing off all social media straight away, I decided to remain on hiatus from Facebook and any other app that drained my time and emotions. I deleted or deactivated every social medium that did nothing to improve my life.Then I started looking into online alternatives that would help me get ahead in more meaningful ways — things that I should have been working on a long time ago. Better late than never, right?<ul><li>I joined SubStack and worked on my first newsletter</li><li>I started learning Elementor and begin work on the website that I’d been meaning to get around to making</li><li>I started reading Medium stories, liticles, and blog posts full of tips, tricks, and and recommendations from top writers</li><li>I took <a href="undefined">Dr Mehmet Yildiz</a>’s advice and made a Twitter account dedicated to my writing so I could network with and learn from other writers</li><li>I started answering a lot of questions on <a href="https://www.quora.com/profile/Pepper-Lowe-2">Quora</a> for writing practice and blog inspiration (and because I enjoy helping people)</li></ul>And my productivity didn’t stop there. My “found” time also allowed me to really put some work into my Etsy, Poshmark, and eBay stores — some of the few apps I kept around.<p id="1fd6"

Options

And all of this has happened in less than fourteen days.This time swap has already made a noticeable difference in my productivity, not to mention my mental state. To borrow some verbiage from my husband, a serious IT guy, my processor runs more efficiently now that I’ve cleared the cache in my mind. And because my motivation changed, my social media time in general started descending the ladder of priorities.As with most habits, though, there was some withdrawal. But because I was moving my main focus to something that I believed had a better payoff, the transition was a lot easier than I’d thought.Now that I’m on the other side, I’ve come to realize that FOMO had caused me to become dependent on social media like a drug habit. My Fear Of Missing Out on whatever trend was going around had me hitting up social media several times a day. Those frequent “hits,” ranging from checking notifications and reading comments to posting memes and selfies, had me missing out on more meaningful aspects of my life that I didn’t know existed until after I’d removed myself from the formula.If you’re thinking about purging social media from your life, I encourage you to first do what I did and replace the biggest time and energy drainers with things that you know will have a payoff if you put them high on your list of priorities and put in consistent effort. It’s essentially a beta test before you make any permanent decision.Content writer <a href="https://medium.com/@sergeyfaldin">Sergey Faldin</a> describes his decision to take the leap from social media four years ago in the story <a href="https://readmedium.com/why-i-completely-stopped-using-social-media-3752d4d7cb83">Why I Completely Stopped Using Social Media</a>. It’s an inspirational read that helped me decide which social media to keep — for now — and which to leave.Even if you end up going with a decision similar to my own, you’ll probably discover that you really can live without certain aspects of modern life that most people consider to be essential.Like me, you may be surprised at what you can get accomplished once you decide to walk away from social media. Even if it’s just one. Even if it’s for a week. Or a month. I believe that every little bit of eliminated clutter has benefits.Clear the cache in your mind and see what happens.</article></body>

What I Learned After Taking a Social Media Break

Apparently my mind cache needed clearing

Almost two weeks ago I removed myself from Facebook after finding out that my daughter had been around a girl her age who tested positive for COVID-19 a few days later.

I’ll back up.

I currently live in one of the biggest Coronavirus hotspots — The Florida Man state. My social media, particularly my Facebook feed, has for months been stuffed with posts and comments by conspiracy theorist mask-denying Trump lovers just gunning for a fight. This includes people in some of my friend circles. And a doctor I know. I’ve largely ignored the memes and tirades because I’ve been shown that arguing goes nowhere.

So the day I found out that my daughter may have contracted COVID-19, I made a post to my 4900-ish friends list:

“It’s all fun and games until one of your kids has to get tested because a friend of hers has COVID-19. Enjoy your theories and denial. I’m getting off here for a while.”

And for the first time since I joined Facebook over ten years ago, I left.

I had always felt some sort of loyalty to this particular social medium. Thanks to Facebook, I’m married to the most wonderful person I could have ever hoped for. I never would have met him back in 2008 if he hadn’t randomly seen one of my posts on Facebook.

But things change. Social media evolves. In my case, it had devolved. It had been wearing me down for months. I’d gotten to the point of hating the people who were spreading misinformation about the pandemic — the same garbage that likely led to a 17-year-old with COVID symptoms decide to go to work and then get within breathing distance of my daughter and niece.

So for me it was a pretty easy decision to jump what I considered to be a sinking ship.

Once I deleted the Facebook app, I seriously considered getting rid of the majority of my social media. My hours of scrolling, posting, and reading comments weren’t resulting in anything productive. My compulsive checking of new notifications and feelings of obligation to post daily and make comments were a constant distraction.

In addition, none of my social media habits was helping me mentally. I always seemed to be either depressed or pissed at myself for spending so much time on social media — not to mention the feelings I had towards people who had seemed pretty nice and reasonable prior to the pandemic.

So I asked myself three questions:

Was I making any money by looking at posts for hours?
Was I learning or gaining anything that would get me closer to my goals?
Was my mood better after spending a lot of time on social media?

My answer to all of these: Nope.

I’m not currently an influencer or a business that uses social media to turn a profit. No one is paying me to post anything or give advice or state my opinion on social media. And likes on my selfies and posts only go so far.

Rather than swearing off all social media straight away, I decided to remain on hiatus from Facebook and any other app that drained my time and emotions. I deleted or deactivated every social medium that did nothing to improve my life.

Then I started looking into online alternatives that would help me get ahead in more meaningful ways — things that I should have been working on a long time ago. Better late than never, right?

I joined SubStack and worked on my first newsletter
I started learning Elementor and begin work on the website that I’d been meaning to get around to making
I started reading Medium stories, liticles, and blog posts full of tips, tricks, and and recommendations from top writers
I took Dr Mehmet Yildiz’s advice and made a Twitter account dedicated to my writing so I could network with and learn from other writers
I started answering a lot of questions on Quora for writing practice and blog inspiration (and because I enjoy helping people)

And my productivity didn’t stop there. My “found” time also allowed me to really put some work into my Etsy, Poshmark, and eBay stores — some of the few apps I kept around.

And all of this has happened in less than fourteen days.

This time swap has already made a noticeable difference in my productivity, not to mention my mental state. To borrow some verbiage from my husband, a serious IT guy, my processor runs more efficiently now that I’ve cleared the cache in my mind. And because my motivation changed, my social media time in general started descending the ladder of priorities.

As with most habits, though, there was some withdrawal. But because I was moving my main focus to something that I believed had a better payoff, the transition was a lot easier than I’d thought.

Now that I’m on the other side, I’ve come to realize that FOMO had caused me to become dependent on social media like a drug habit. My Fear Of Missing Out on whatever trend was going around had me hitting up social media several times a day. Those frequent “hits,” ranging from checking notifications and reading comments to posting memes and selfies, had me missing out on more meaningful aspects of my life that I didn’t know existed until after I’d removed myself from the formula.

If you’re thinking about purging social media from your life, I encourage you to first do what I did and replace the biggest time and energy drainers with things that you know will have a payoff if you put them high on your list of priorities and put in consistent effort. It’s essentially a beta test before you make any permanent decision.

Content writer Sergey Faldin describes his decision to take the leap from social media four years ago in the story Why I Completely Stopped Using Social Media. It’s an inspirational read that helped me decide which social media to keep — for now — and which to leave.

Even if you end up going with a decision similar to my own, you’ll probably discover that you really can live without certain aspects of modern life that most people consider to be essential.

Like me, you may be surprised at what you can get accomplished once you decide to walk away from social media. Even if it’s just one. Even if it’s for a week. Or a month. I believe that every little bit of eliminated clutter has benefits.

Clear the cache in your mind and see what happens.