Why do a Social Media Detox?

Have you ever found yourself feeling overwhelmed, annoyed, exhausted, anxious, depressed, overstimulated from the clutter online? If you’ve ever found yourself feeling this way you’ve probably considered a social media detox, or you’ve already done this before or many times in the past when you feel like you need a break, need a breather from the online circus.  Yes, i think it’s a circus. 

So what does a social media detox look like? You delete the apps from your phone for an extended period of time. A week, a month, two , three. But typically the plan going in is to go back after you’ve given yourself some time and space for a while. 

If you’ve done a social media detox before you’ve probably had the experience of feeling lighter, less distracted, improved mental health, and all around positive changes! 

On the flip side you could have also experienced withdrawals from it and a strong desire to return before your social media detox is over because this is a real addiction! So I wanted to be sure to mention that side of the detox that exists for many.  

But let’s speak to the positives as they likely outweigh the negatives.  You’re riding this high during or after your social media detox and you start to feel like yeah, i’m ready to go back i’ve gotten the space i’m going in with different mindset different habits this time and when your detox comes to an end and you jump back on social determined THIS IS THE TIME THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT. I will not fall back into old habits and behaviors.  

Then unfortunately like a thief in the night, those same habits and behaviors and feelings and thoughts are back with the same magnitude before you had the chance to even identify them creeping back into your life. 

And no matter how clear you are, no matter how determined you are to make things better when you return it’s not your fault that you fall back into your old ways. It’s like sending a gambling addict into a casino with no exit with a pocket full of dollar bills and telling them not to gamble, or even think about gambling.  

The Big Question

Social media and the feelings whether negative or positive associated with it, is an addiction.  

It’s going to be extremely difficult to interact on the platform without developing an addiction of some kind through these apps.  

It’s wild because while social media produces negative side affects, it also produces some positives such as the feeling you get with a dopamine hit- which In my opinion is part of why it makes the realization of the problem that social media actually is in your life difficult for some to identify and call out at times. 

SO, to the social media detoxer who has made it a week, a month, three months, a year even! Without using social media and you’re planning to return.  I have to ask, if you’re experiencing improved mental health, more productivity, if you’re noticing positive changes all around- why go back? You’ve made it this long, yes even if its only been a week, you’ve made it this long, so why not keep the offline streak going? I need to create something that’s like a social media streak but for number of days offline!  

Why would you limit yourself and cut off those feelings of peace, mental clarity, and overall wellbeing that you found during your social media detox? Why would you stop a good thing that you have going? 

Is it because at the same time you’re experiencing FOMO? Probably. A the same times still longing for validation, or a boost, or a distraction? Probably.  

I encourage you to weigh the pros with the cons, meaning take those positive feelings and the improvements in mental health that you’re experiencing and weigh them against the FOMO, against the longing for distraction, for “connection”.

The pros during your social media detox and the impact they have on you and your life, will hopefully outweigh the cons of feeling like you need a distraction and connection.  And heres the most amazing thing about this too, that need for connection that you’re feeling deprived of? You can fulfill that offline. You can take care of that no problem in your real life offline. The need for a distraction or an escape? Yeah we can work on that too, we can learn to get comfortable with silence to lean into boredom. That feeling of FOMO? We can translate that into your life we can flip that around and that will inevitable fade as time goes on.  

The real problem

But hold up! There’s a problem.

To address and to fulfill these feelings your longing for that social media provides for you,  to fulfill these offline it requires effort. It requires you to get uncomfortable to do something hard. Most people will just choose the easy route to avoid any uncomfortable feelings. They’ll just go back to social media and continue to do a social media detox periodically and keep this cycle going. 

Many people don’t want to put forth effort. They don’t want to feel uncomfortable. But if you want to have better mental health, if you want to look into your future and see a healthier, happier, more fulfilled you, you want to feel lighter and not carry around an unnecessary burden you’ve got to do the hard thing and leave social media for good.  

Yes here i’m proposing that you ditch the social media detox and do this instead.

The Solution

Delete social media for good. Close that chapter and keep your offline streak going one day at a time.  Start filling your real life with the connections, the self love, the awareness to begin building a foundation that will root you in your life offline and give you a place to start building from and upon thats unshakable by the grip or enticements of social media.  

I don’t want to knock the social media detox, I think it’s valuable in giving you a taste of the offline experience and showing you what’s available on the other side and to seduce you to life offline. The detox is good for that purpose! 

Consider the social media detox as your test drive I for life offline. You’re in it, you’re seeing how it makes you feel and if you could see yourself committing to this long term. 

Ya know, if you really care about yourself, your life, your wellbeing, and you’ve experienced improved mental health and overall wellbeing from your social media detox, then naturally you should be able to see yourself committing to this, longterm.  

That is the perspective you should go into a media detox with. Instead of, I’m breaking for awhile to declutter to clear my mind, go about it as if you’re test driving living life offline. That way while you detox you won’t be anticipating or counting down the days till you can go back on. 

So I want to ask you a question and i’d love to hear from you in the comments.

WHY do people detox from social media- experience improved mental health, and better overall wellbeing while they’re doing a social media detox , yet they still go back to social media? Why is this? 

Are people not even considering the fact that you don’t have to be there? That you can choose to live offline, that that’s okay?! It’s almost like they feel offline isn’t even an option. 

Maybe you use social media for work so it’s not an option at this point i do want to acknowledge that. But is there a way to separate your personal from your work? I know that’s so vague because there’s so many different ways your work could involve social media. 

I would hope there might be a way to eventually transition away from it. OR change roles if the one you’re in now requires you to be on social media and you don’t want to maybe it’s time to look into changing paths.  

But it truly is fascinating to me, I have this conversation often in my life when people find out i’m not on social media and we talk a bit about how i’m trying to help people take their lives back offline, people will say, i’ve done a social media detox before and it was actually really nice! I actually really enjoyed not being on social media.  I’m probably doing another one soon.  

Maybe you yourself relate to that or have said that before, and I want to you to consider this next time you go to do a social media detox, what would detoxing indefinitely AKA deleting social media for good, do for my life? 

Consider that you would be able to experience all the positive side effects that come from a detox, and you would be able to address and take care of the negatives of what you feel like you’re missing- if you step up and put forth the effort that it takes, you allow yourself to get uncomfortable, you allow yourself to be different, to do something against the grain.  I know that if you do, you won’t regret it, it will be so worth it and your life will start feeling as good i’d even say better than it may have once looked online.  

I’m on a mission to get as many people as I can to show up BIG offline! To start curating the way you’re showing up, in the details of your real life.  

It’s time to ditch the social media detox! To delete social media for good -i ndefinitely and start living with strong mental health and greater space and clarity to become and show up as the person God intends you to be. 

Now, let’s take action!

Now let’s get into our action step for today. I challenge you to take life offline for a test drive.  I challenge you to do a social media detox.  You can start small, a week, you can go big a month or many. But in this detox don’t go in with the sure intent to return. Seriously think about what your life could look like without social media indefinitely if you weren’t to return, and once you return because most people will- I challenge you to start taking steps to get closure with social media because getting closure will make all the difference in a successful transition to taking your life offline. 

You can download my checklist to closure HERE, it’ll give you a starting place to finally begin getting the closure you need from social media in order to move on.  

What are your thoughts on my perspective of the social media detox? I’d love to continue the conversation in the comments.

Thanks for reading today, I hope you have a wonderful week!

xx
Carly