It is pretty common these days for people to breaks from social media. Many people try to reduce the amount of time they spend on these apps as a way to stay focused and productive, but sometimes it can be difficult to summon the will power to stop death scrolling. I used to be very involved on Facebook and Twitter, having reached over 5000 tweets before I chose to delete both accounts about 6 years ago. For a couple years I even went back to using a flip phone just to be more off the grid, but unfortunately I moved to a new town and had to get a smartphone for navigational reasons. I won’t get into all the reasons I think social media is bad, which I think are fairly obvious at this point, so instead I’d like to highlight some of the benefits I’ve experienced since becoming a tech hermit.
First, I’m more focused, and I don’t mean this in the “picking up my phone to go on reddit every 5 min when I have a second at work” sense. I mean more focused on my personal life. When you go on facebook/reddit/insta/tiktok you open the door to a million other people’s experiences and feelings. Without all that noise, I feel like I’ve been able to develop my own values and beliefs. I’m no longer just reading whatever articles the I’ve been able to increase some good habits in my life like exercise and reading. I’ve developed some new hobbies and interests, like jiu jitsu and philosophy.
2nd, I’m more content. Without constantly comparing my life to a million other peoples’ I can be more thankful for what I have and be at peace with my station in life. The words “comparison is the thief of joy” have never rang more true. At a certain point you got to accept the fact that you’ll probably never own a Lamborghini or win the lottery. Once you stop wasting your energy entertaining impossible scenarios you can focus on making your actual life the best it can possibly be.
3rd, I’ve increased the good habits in my life. These apps have basically short circuited the part of our brains that tells us we’re bored and need to do something else. It keeps us locked into a death scroll. There are literally teams of engineers trying to make these apps as engaging addictive as possible. Without using these apps, I’ve been able to listen to my brain telling me that I’m bored and use it to drive me to do something else. I’ve been able to increase some good habits in my life like exercise and reading. I’ve developed some new hobbies and interests, like jiu-jitsu and philosophy.
4th, I’m using my time to invest in things that actually influence my life. Our culture moves very quickly from one thing to the next. Something might be in the news for a couple weeks but then is quickly forgotten. For a while it feels important to have the most current information, but soon nobody cares. If our culture was a stock and you could buy some shares of it as an investment, you’d be super stressed trying to monitor such a volatile asset. It’d be like trading crypto. I think we should value our attention as much as our money; spend it on things we need or things that will return dividends.
I think 4 reasons is a good place to start, but really I think there’s a lot more. If you haven’t tried taking a social media hiatus, you should definitely try it. I think the pros outweigh the cons 10 to 1. Although, one of my friends did have to explain NFTs to me the other day, which normally I would’ve been up to date on had I not deleted reddit 2 months ago.
