Experimenting with a social media detox

Like many millennials, I’ve been on social media for basically all of my life. From AOL chatrooms to LiveJournal to Tumblr, I’ve never met a social media platform I didn’t like. There’s something so unique and captivating about being connected to so many people and so many different pockets of interests all at once.

But as we all know, social media isn’t without its drawbacks.

I’ve often gone through periods of having a love/hate relationship with social media, but recently I found myself really not enjoying the ways I was using it. I was spending a lot of time on social media, especially on my phone. I found myself going to Instagram or Facebook on my phone as a reflex, without even thinking about it. There would be times I would close an app because I had become bored with it… only to find myself reflexively opening it again and feeling confused as to why I would do that.

In the spirit of experimentation and pressing pause on things, I recently decided to try out a few different forms of social media detoxes. Some early attempts included moving apps away from the first page on my phone or putting them in a folder so they’re a bit harder to access. Most recently, this has meant deleting the more time-sucking apps from my phone (looking at you, Instagram).

It hasn’t all been easy, but generally, I feel a lot happier without having that draw to scroll always on hand. The biggest surprise is that I honestly don’t really miss it all that much.

Interested in trying a social media detox for yourself? Here are some things I’d recommend:

1) Treat it as a true experiment. In an experiment, you might try changing one small thing and then examining the impact of that change. For a social media detox, maybe this means deleting just one app that you find yourself enjoying the least and seeing how that goes for you. For me, I started by deleting Facebook off of my phone a few months ago, then more recently deleted a few other apps. You don’t have to do everything all at once, you can take it in stages and see how you feel.

2) Break out of all-or-nothing thinking. For me, having an all-or-nothing philosophy is a great way to ensure my experiment will fail. I need to have the flexibility to do things in the way that works for me. For my social media detox, this has meant deleting certain apps from my phone, but at the same time not forbidding myself from visiting those accounts from the browser of my phone or computer. Doing a social media detox doesn’t have to mean you delete all of your accounts. Giving myself permission to have that flexibility has been really helpful, and I’ve found that when I do visit Instagram or Facebook, I’m reminded of why I deleted it in the first place.

3) Think about what works best for you. Maybe for you, a detox means setting time limits on your phone so you can only access certain apps at certain times of the day or for limited amounts of time. Maybe it would help you to go “cold turkey” and delete everything, but then slowly re-introduce different apps over time. Be flexible and think about what works best for you, and avoid forcing yourself to stick to any arbitrary rules!

4) Find other activities to serve as a replacement. If you step away from social media, you might find yourself picking up your phone and saying “Wait, if I can’t scroll now what do I do?” For me, I’ve been spending more time reading on my Kindle, playing games on my phone or iPad, or doing crossword puzzles on my phone. It’s also been helpful to keep a few social apps on my phone, like Facebook Messenger or Slack, so I can still stay in touch with people.

5) Don’t force yourself to stick with it if it’s not working. Will I keep Instagram off my phone forever? Probably not. I genuinely do enjoy Instagram, but taking a break right now is what feels good for me. If and when I get to a point where it’s not working anymore, I’ll re-evaluate and go from now. This is just a thing I’m trying for now, and that’s exactly how I’m going to look at it.

If you try out a social media detox (whatever that looks like for you), I would love to hear from you! You send me an email here. Just don’t come looking for me on social because I probably won’t see it 😉