Last updated on at 11:12 am
Let’s examine the many life-changing benefits of social media detox today.
According to this article, the average amount of time people spend on social media in 2019 is 2 hours and 22 minutes per day. In terms of an average adult life span, that’s estimated to be 6 years and 8 months being devoted to social media.
Quite a big chunk of one’s life is dedicated to something inconsequential, don’t you think? Imagine not wasting that much time but using it instead on something productive. We would probably be churning out more Steve Jobs than we know how to handle. Ha.
And maybe more people would be less depressed or arrogant in this world. Studies show that social media causes depression, sadness, and narcissism.
This post may contain affiliate links that may earn us a commission, at no additional cost to you, if you buy via them. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please see our Disclosure for more info.
If you’ve realized how social media isn’t doing you much good, then it’s probably high time to consider social media detox.
What is Social Media Detox
Social media detox simply means taking a break from social media. No matter how you do it—whether you log out of your social media accounts for a few days, deactivate them, or delete them—the whole idea is to distance yourself from them. To get away long enough for you to breathe and make time for many important things in life.
What is a social media cleanse?
A social media cleanse involves taking a deliberate break from social media platforms to improve mental well-being, enhance productivity, strengthen real-world connections, and reduce information overload. Individuals may deactivate accounts temporarily, uninstall apps, or set usage limits to achieve a healthier balance between online and offline activities.
Benefits of Social Media Detox
Clear Your Mind
Social media bombard us every day with lots of information we don’t need. Information that clutters the mind and makes us lose sight of what’s truly important.
One of the benefits of social media detox is helping us get rid of these pieces of information from our minds. It enables us to clear our minds, think clearly, and focus instead on the things that matter and are important.
Free Up Time
Doing a social media detox will free up more time for you, too.
It cannot be denied that social media takes up so much of your time. From looking for photos to post to thinking up updates to write, to engaging with others (either through commenting or replying to comments or messages), you’ll just be surprised to find later that you’ve been staring at your phone for hours already.
When you stop doing these things, you free up valuable time better spent doing better things—things that improve you and make you grow.
Increased Productivity
Instead of mindlessly scrolling on social media, why not make use of that time by doing something productive? Maybe teach yourself something new, learn a language or a new skill, read a book, or develop your creativity. You can already accomplish many things during those 2 hours and 22 minutes.
Less Comparing
There would be no opportunity for you to compare yourself and your life to others and theirs when you stay away from social media. As such, you don’t have to start feeling bad when that girl you sat beside in Literature class is going on vacation again when you haven’t even been to the neighborhood pool in what seems like forever.
Related Reading: Social Media Detox Quotes That Will Change Your Life
Not All Is What It Seems on Social Media
Remember that not everything you see on social media is what it is. You aren’t always given the whole picture. True, that seatmate of yours may be on vacation again, but what isn’t said with her update is how she’s struggling with debt because of it. Learn then to take everything with a grain of salt.
Avoid Competitiveness
When you stop comparing yourself to others, you avoid being competitive. Being competitive per se isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are forms of competitiveness that help you learn and grow.
When it comes to social media, however, being competitive would more likely than not cause you stress, anxiety, and depression. When you feel like you are competing with your social media friends, you tend to keep up with them by outshining them or their accomplishments.
Sometimes you even begin to feel like you compete with yourself. This can bring about stress when trying to, anxiety when you feel you can’t, and ultimately, depression.
More Focused
Because you don’t have to constantly make updates about what’s happening in your life or watch how others are living theirs, you’ll then be more focused on how to better yours. Set goals and work towards achieving them. Then you’ll eventually get to go on that vacation you’ve always wanted.
Confident and Happy
Achieving your goals gives you confidence and improves your self-esteem. In turn, when you’re confident, you’re happier.
Studies show that there’s a link between social media and the increase in depression and anxiety in people. Disconnecting may just be the solution to that.
Improve Mood
Even if haven’t reached that place where you are confident and truly happy, you’ll, in the meantime at least, improve your mood.
Doing a social media detox will give you a better disposition and take away the stress, self-doubt, and the feeling of worthlessness or restlessness.
Responsible for Your Self-Esteem
Some may post on social media for validation, but what determines your value isn’t the number of likes or reactions you get from those posts. You build your self-esteem and determine your value.
Learning to be in charge of your self-worth and happiness makes you a stronger person.
Live the Moment
Disconnecting from social media helps you improve your attention span. It allows you to live every moment. It makes you more aware of your surroundings and what’s happening around you. You begin to savor what you would otherwise be missing when you’re glued to your phone.
Know Yourself Better
You’ll have time to process your thoughts and feelings more fully, so you’ll know yourself better.
Stop the Spread of Narcissism
With people given the chance to constantly talk about themselves or take selfies on social media, no wonder there is an increase in narcissism and entitlement. You can prevent this from spreading by not patronizing.
Sleep Better
Since you won’t spend your nights scrolling your social media feeds or posting updates, you’ll then be able to sleep early. And since no light from electronic devices messes up your body (yes, they’re known to do that), you’ll also sleep better.
Great Mornings
And then you’ll have better mornings because you were able to sleep early, completely, and as a result, restfully.
Also, when you’re not so obsessed with social media, you do away with the habit of reaching for your phone first thing in the morning. Because I think most people do that—I, for one, definitely did before.
When you’re not occupied with your phone upon waking up, you have time to do better morning routines that help you as a person like meditating, reading, and exercising. These also benefit you throughout the day.
Enrich Relationships
The same is true when you’re with people. Since you’re not distracted by your phone, you’ll be able to be more attentive to them by giving them your full attention. This helps you build stronger, satisfying interpersonal connections.
Keep Things Private
Not everyone deserves to be privy to your private life. Neither are you duty-bound to share everything about it. Learn to know when to share and when it’s smart not to as well as what to and what not to.
Control Digital Use
Computers and gadgets’ purpose should be to help us perform tasks. It shouldn’t own us or take control of our time, emotions, or life. The constant use of social media, however, has the opposite effect. Being always glued to our phones scrolling, checking updates, and reading notifications make us the ones being controlled by our gadgets.
Doing social media detox helps us get that control back. It allows us to set parameters of our daily social media usage or non-usage, for that matter. We are the masters, not the ones being mastered. Because we don’t necessarily have to know 24/7 what other people are doing in their lives, right? Or constantly inform others what we do with ours.
Next Step
Try doing a social media detox today. Design it according to what’s comfortable for you. If you’re not ready to delete your social media accounts, start with logging out for a few days to a week. Then increase distancing as you feel comfortable as time goes by.
Or you can still maintain your accounts, but participate less. Maybe unfriend or unfollow people who are not helpful to your well-being.
However you do it, remember that the end goal is to make social media help you or add something valuable to your life and not incapacitate or destroy you.
Wrap Up
If you’ve been through social media detox, let us know how you did it and what are the benefits of social media detox to you.
Follow me on:
[…] The Benefits of Social Media Detox […]