Why I quit Social Media for 24 hours
This article is perfect for you if you feel like:
- You’re losing control over your life
- You lack the time to focus on important things in life
- Your habits are all wrong
- Headaches are a big part of your daily mood
- You’re wasting your energy
- You could be more productive
Yup: All of those could be due to the overdose of social media.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found myself struggling to keep away from my phone for longer than 30 minutes, just to scroll through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
The reason for that is because of all the logic and ‘point’ behind social media.
The ‘Social Media Mindset’
Here’s what most of us, social media users think:
We believe like we’re always connecting with people, networking, staying in the loop with the recent events, being ‘in control’ with your friends’, acquaintances’, partner’s, family’s, colleagues’ lives.
But the harsh truth is that you’re losing control over the most important thing in this world — your life.
You invest so much energy into bothering and thinking about other people’s lives. You think about their content, think about how they spend their days, how they feel, what’s going on, etc.
Where the mindset turns into an addiction
As a result of a mindset you’re ‘forcing’ yourself into, you tend to idealize your own life and focus on how will your life look on your social media profiles.
You spend hours thinking about your captions.
You have so many ideas on how to look better on the images you’re posting.
You start seeing engagement metrics (likes, comments & shares) as personal value points, which make you happy (and again, log back into the app(s) dozens of times, just in order to check how many you’ve received.
Sounds familiar?
I’m not ashamed to admit I was there.
Are you?
How do we cure addiction?
The biggest consequence of your social media addiction is losing control of your life (time, energy and mind).
Yup, mind. It’s that bad.
Just stop for a second. And think.
What are you spending your time on? Why are you doing things that you do on your phone/laptop? Why do your fingers have almost the exact same pattern every time you unlock your phone?
Take back control of your mind. Reflect on your thoughts.
Here’s a pro tip: Although social media might be one of the habits that turned out badly for you in the end, it’s (hopefully) still not the only habit you have.
Try focusing on other habits like reading books, working out, walking, and intensifying them on a daily basis.
You’ll quickly realize where you’re standing and become more observant and present to the current situation.
When’s the last time you had a healthy mind to think of a great idea, and energy to execute it?
When’s the last time you did something for yourself?
For me, that was a long time ago. Literally 6 months ago. Which by the way, passed really fast.
The Comfort Zone
See, we all have our daily activities.
Ultimately, what we do every day (go to work, workout, spend time with a partner, maybe even kids), makes our comfort zone.
And social media is one of the crucial parts of that comfort zone.
Just think about all those ‘empty hours’ between our activities we got used to.
All of that precious time we feel ‘exhausted’ from our daily activities, we spend scrolling through Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn feed.
We become freakin’ robots. And it’s so hard to get out of that ‘regime’.
How to fix that?
Step 1 — Identify your comfort zone (your activities)
Step 2 — Plan your time
Step 3 — Find that extra time you spend on Social Media, reading articles, watching random Youtube videos and convert it into YOUR time to grow, make more money, learn new stuff, pick up a new hobby and ultimately get out of your comfort zone.
So, why I quit all Social Media?
Because I was so addicted that I had allowed my mood and energy levels depend on what I saw on those social media channels.
I had a habit to unlock my phone, check out the News Feed, scroll through dozens of stories, check upon my GF, see if my mom saw my Instagram story, who liked my image, if my ex saw my story, etc.
So I just decided it was a necessary step to regain my consciousness and actually identify where does all my time, energy and money go.
From that point, I asked myself a couple of crucial questions:
- Am I satisfied with my life?
- Do I want to change something?
- Do I want more time?
- Do I want or need more money?
- When is the last time I picked up a guitar?
- When is the last time I learned something new?
Yup. An answer to all of those questions in freakin’ 24 hours without all Social Media.
It was tough.
My ego was breaking.
I felt like I’m losing control (But the truth is I was getting it back).
I tried to reactivate my Social Media profiles a couple of times, but I resisted.
And at the end:
I was feeling epic.
The Takeaway
Is it necessary to quit social media to regain back control of your life, be more focused on your daily activities, improve your habits, improve your health, have more energy, and be more productive?
Maybe.
For me, individually, quitting Social Media for 24 hours made me realize how addicted I was actually, and motivated me to set a daily amount of time of how much time will I spend scrolling through Instagram stories, Facebook feed, or LinkedIn articles.
It also helped me get an answer to all those crucial questions I mentioned a couple of lines above.
It might not be that rigid and extreme for you.
But what’s 24 hours for you? I bet you spend 24 hours on Social Media per week.
It will pass by quickly, and you should see that as a test.
Like literally like a drug test.
I’d love to hear your experiences if you decide to join the challenge.
#QuitSMfor24hours
Don’t hesitate to comment below on what you got through doing it!
