How Africa
I’ll admit it right off the bat – I fell completely and utterly in love with social media. I became besotted with it. I became obsessed with it, to the point where it was the first thing I checked in the morning and the last thing I checked at night.
I was a frequent poster and checker on Facebook, twitter, and Instagram – plus lots of others!
The only thing that comforted me was that I knew I wasn’t alone. There were – and still are – many millions of us who are hopelessly addicted to social media. Maybe you’re one of them!
Things have now gotten so bad that it’s hard to imagine what the pre-social media world was like. Just like we used to ask our grandparents what life was like when they only had one television channel, we will have to somehow answer questions from our kids about what life was like before Facebook. It’s a question that really makes you feel old!
What I DO know is what the post-social media world looks like. Having giving up social media for a week, I discovered a new way of life. I felt refreshed. I felt FREE.
If you feel trapped by social media right now, here is what will happen if you give it up for a week:
You Will Be Much More Content With What You Have
It’s very easy to pop onto social media and compare yourself with the lives of your friends. Perhaps Molly has a new job that is making you feel jelly. Maybe Jennifer – who insisted she and you were going to remain single forever – has been tagged in photos with a new man. It’s making you feel lousy because your life totally sucks in comparison.
You know, I hate this aspect of social media. I HATE it when I find myself looking at photos on my timeline and getting jealous. But it happens and the only way to stop it from happening is to abandon social media altogether.
And guess what? It works! You’re blissfully unaware of what everyone is up to. You have no reason at all to be jealous. Ignorance = happiness.
You’ll Become More Productive
If you quit social media for a week, you will become more productive. I promise you.
The math behind this one are simple. How many minutes a week do you spend on social media?
Okay, I’ll make it easier: How many hours a week do you spend on social media?
I can guarantee that it’s a lot. A lot of us will spend several ten minute “blocks” of time on social media each day, which add up so much that by the end of the week we have wasted an incredible amount of time lazily sifting through our timelines.
From now on, instead of procrastinating and putting something off because jumping onto social media is just easier, you will get more stuff done. You will have more free time. And because your mentality is to free yourself from social media, you will use your time more productively. I guarantee it.
People Will Ask If You’re Alive
Yes, this is a funny one that will undoubtedly happen to you. You’re basically Miss Facebook, and if you suddenly disappear for a week, people are going to wonder just what on earth has happened to you.
“Babe, are you still alive?!”
Expect these texts.
You Might Be Accused Of Being An Attention Seeker
This really depends how you quit social media. You could just silently disappear by not making any statuses or leaving any comments for a week, in which case people might notice your absence, but they might not say anything.
Or, if you know you’ll get tempted to check social media after like 5 hours, you could temporarily disable your profile.
In which case, you might get accused of being an attention seeker.
Your intentions were good, but be wary of the “drama queen” snipes.
Your Real Relationships Will Improve
A quite scary social phenomenon happens when we spend too much time on social media – we spend more time talking to our friends from our screens than we do face to face.
Is this normal? Healthy? The jury is out, but chatting to someone via a keyboard is in no way the same as interacting with them in person. And yet because it’s just easier to fire off a few messages to our friends than meet up with them for coffee, we do exactly that.
Quitting social media for a week will improve your relationships with everyone. You will start to connect more with the people around you. You will go out more, see your friends more. Instead of hiding behind a screen because it’s easier, maybe you’ll spend some proper time with people you haven’t seen in so long.
You’ll Appreciate Life A Lot More
The problem with social media is that it can warp our perceptions of what life is supposed to be about. Instead of being mindful of everything that is going on around us, we’re glued to our phones, transported into a digital world of comments, likes and emojis.
As such, we miss out on things like sunsets, the smell of home cooking, our cat doing something silly, or even our partner trying to tell us about his day.
When you’re away from social media, you’re living life with your head up and your eyes open again. You’re aware of your surroundings, and you’re fully living in the present moment. It’s a beautiful thing, it really is!
You Start To Lose That Fear Of Missing Out
One of the things that keeps us enchained to social media is the dreaded fear of missing out. We keep checking and commenting on Facebook because we just don’t want to miss out on something awesome. We don’t want to be left out.
This is a nightmarish scenario because even when you acknowledge that you want to quit social media, the feeling of FOMO keeps dragging you back.
Admittedly, for the first two or three days after quitting social media, FOMO is strong. But guess what? Like a lot of things, it fades. Which just goes to prove that FOMO in this case was pure illusion designed to trap you. Your attachments to social media weren’t as strong as the feeling tried to make out.
