The Miracle Of Social Media Detox You Have To Experience

Are you experiencing social media burnout? Do you feel like you have a social media addiction that you don’t know how to control? Do you feel like taking a break from social media but don’t know where to start?

Well, you are in the right place because you’re about to find all about the social media detox experience, its benefits, and a free challenge to help you get your time back.

Whether you are a content creator or a content consumer, most people are highly addicted to social media in this day and age. It’s a huge problem that people don’t know how to deal with.

It doesn’t matter what you use social media for, but if you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or Tiktok, then you need a social media detox. Hey, me too!

On my end, social media controlled my life for a long time, even before I started blogging. For example, many times when I would want to access my bank account app or any other app on my phone, I would subconsciously find myself on Instagram, rewatching my own stories. Like what the heck?

This is when I noticed I had a huge problem – social media addiction (not chronic but we all do somehow). And that I needed to start social media detox ASAP.

So, if that’s you too and you’re experiencing these three things:

1. Social media addiction
2. Social media burnout
3. Feel like taking a break from social media

Then you highly need to do a social media detox challenge to get your life back.

All About Social Media Detox

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Social Media Detox Meaning

In my own interpretation, social media detox is taking a break from social media for a certain period of time such as 30 days, weekends, a year, 23 hours a day, etc.

Moreover, during that time, it’s about learning how to control social media, instead of letting social media control you.

Basically, finding a balance between social media and mental health. Or a balance between social media and being present in the moment. So on and so forth, whatever aspect of your life that you’re struggling with.

Social Media Addiction

Social media addiction is such a taboo topic. In this day and age, no one wants to admit that they’re addicted to social media because it is so “embarrassing”.

For example, you find that people are shamed or laughed at when they admit they took a social media break because of their mental health.

While most of us might not have a chronic social media addiction, but we cannot fail to admit that it controls our day-to-day lives.

Here is a simple way to know if you are kind of addicted to social media:

1. Have you gone on a date and felt the urge to pick up your phone in the middle of a conversation, and your partner gets annoyed?
2. Have you ever hang out with a friend, and they are on their phone scrolling, while you’re talking, and then you thought, “how rude?”
3. At a concert, have you ever recorded the entire event, to a point you didn’t even see the concert itself?
4. Do you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner while scrolling?
5. Do you mindlessly pick up your phone and find yourself on social media subconsciously, not knowing how you landed there?

And many more examples! Hey, don’t feel attacked, because this is me too. I am honestly speaking from my own experience. That is why we all need a social media detox.

Lastly, I know y’all are going to get mad at this one haha! Do you still think you’re not addicted? Well, do you take a picture of every food you eat at every restaurant before you eat? I know for a fact I have gotten most of you on that.

Taking A Break From Social Media

While taking a break cold turkey from social media is sometimes needed, I am a firm believer that life is more of a balance. In my own opinion, I believe the best strategy is to find a balance between life and social media by controlling what you see and when you see it.

This is because social media has its advantages and disadvantages. Depending on how social media affects you, it is up to you to consciously pick up the good and leave the bad, or cut it all out.

For example, having a blog, I cannot quit social media because it is a major part of my business. However, it is my responsibility to spread love, inspiration, and positivity to my community.

Nevertheless, it’s also about me creating processes to streamline social media usage, taking a break from using social media, and being intentional about being present in the moment with my loved ones.

Simply, taking the necessary steps to do a social media detox here and there to avoid addiction & burnout.

If you are a content consumer, it might be good for you to take a big break from social media once in a while, but let’s face it the truth, you will probably download the app again and fall into the same cycle of comparison, FOMO, spending too many hours mindlessly scrolling, and then burnout.

So the most important way to combat this issue is doing a social media cleanse that helps you control what you see and when you see it.

The Benefits of doing a Social Media Detox

There are a lot of benefits of social media detoxing. Just to mention a few, they include:

1. Less Comparison, More Inspiration

We cannot fail to deny that social media brings jealousy, comparison, FOMO, and compulsive competition out of most of us. It doesn’t matter who you’re following, in most instances, we feel like our lives are not as glamourous as our friends, relatives, or influencers we admire.

On the contrary, it is totally NORMAL to feel this way. Honestly, it’s human nature to want the best for yourself more than other people. So, I am not here to make you feel ashamed of your thoughts because NOBODY is a saint. I get jealous as well now and then.

As a way to cleanse your social media, you have to be honest with yourself and determine which accounts make you feel low vs. inspired.

Here is my related blog post on 21 Instagram influencers you will genuinely love.

Once you determine those people that make you feel bad about your life, then UNFOLLOW. In addition, only follow people who bring inspiration, determination, and encouragement to your life.

What if you’re jealous of a family member, co-worker, or close friend? In particular, I have trained myself to accept that what my close people have accomplished, it’s theirs and I acknowledge the fact that they have worked hard to get where they are in life.

Also, I ride in my own lane and purpose knowing that God blesses me at the best timing. That’s the best advice I can give you.

In addition, practice catching yourself before you can fall into the trail of jealousy.

2. Being Present

I cannot say this enough. But being present at the moment is one of the life blessings we all take for granted.

When is the last time you decided not to post about every little thing you do with your family or friends? Every meal you eat? Every little adventure you go on with your partner?

Due to FOMO, we all feel the pressure of posting every single moment. However, this pressure is costing us relationships, friendships, and missing out on special moments with loved ones.

Therefore, challenging yourself to do a social media detox is necessary to help you balance between being present and being on social media.

Here are 3 ways To practice being present in the moment:

• Gauge the crowd – Some friends are more inclined to be on social media, whereas others prefer intimate connections. For example, if you hang out with your blogger friends, go ahead and create content, whereas if you’re hanging out with your significant other, maybe take one or two pics and put the phone in another room/ purse.
• Have social media time restrictions – Set no social media days, hours, etc. For example, I try not to post during the weekends on social media. Those are my days to rest and be present. Moreover, I try to spend an hour or less on my social media accounts daily using the iphone sreen usage tracker. (For Android digital well being or SocialX)
• Set content creation days – This is a game changer 100%. Set a day aside for photoshoots and content creation, so that you don’t feel the pressure to create content when going out with friends and family.
• Try not to edit and post in real time – If it is a memory you don’t want to forget, go ahead and take a picture or a short video, but intentionally edit and post it later.
• Check in with your loved ones – To maintain relationships, check in to see if your partner, kids and family are affected by your habits? Are they experiencing social media burnout because of you?

And many more.

3. Less Anxiety

Whether you’re posting or watching other people’s content, as a matter of fact, being on social media sometimes brings a lot of anxiety, stress, and fatigue.

Have you ever had a no social media day where you genuinely had so much peace? It feels amazing, right?

A lot of people get so much anxiety because most social media platforms are popularity contests. In addition, people are always wondering how many likes, and comments they will get.

Funny thing, even if you have a million followers, it does not guarantee happiness. In fact, you’re more inclined to experience social media burnout because you have more responsibility to satisfy your audience daily, or else you will lose them.

Here is my related blog post on how to recover from burnout.

To reduce anxiety, the best action to do is a social media detox

First, determine who is your audience? (family, friends, business), what makes you feel anxious on social media? Do you genuinely need those platforms? And then take action.

For example, for me, I get a lot of anxiety enforced by social media gurus who are always implying that if you don’t do certain things, the algorithm will not like you, thus, you will not get results.

Such as, “if you don’t get a lot of comments within the first hour of posting, you’re not going to get a lot of likes and growth on Instagram.”

Thank God to Instagram and Facebook’s new feature that hides like counts. Now, most new bloggers and influencers can focus on offering value, rather than a popularity contest because it’s stinking hard to grow on social media platforms.

Also, just about anyone can post freely on social media without the anxiety of what your friends and family will think because you can hide comments if needed. In addition, if you are an introvert and you don’t have that many friends, you can still post your lovely memories on your social media without feeling like a total loser.

4. Mental Declutter

Due to social media, our minds are always cluttered by other people’s opinions, lives, projects, sales, advertisements, and news. It is simply annoying to watch people that you don’t care about trying to sell you something.

Here is my related blog on how to simplify life.

For social media detox tips, take these necessary steps:

• Delete social media platforms that you don’t use. For example, in this season of my life, I have dedicated to participate in only two platforms that I know my target audience hangs out. I am only active on Instagram and Pinterest because they help with my blog traffic. Therefore, I have deleted all other social apps on my phone such as facebook, clubhouse, and snapchat. (I have not deleted the accounts, incase I need them later for my business)
• Get rid of social media notifications – Not everyone deserves a quick response. Remember, you want to control social media and not the other way round. Moreover, the most important people have your phone number. They can text or call anytime.
• Mute posts and stories of people you don’t care about – Due to the algorithm, sometimes your feed is crowded by people you don’t have a relationship with, making you miss out on the important ones.
• UNFOLLOW, UNFOLLOW, UNFOLLOW accounts that don’t offer you any value.

5. Increased Productivity

Lastly, reducing social media consumption helps to deal with burnout and increases productivity.

Here are a few productivity benefits you’d gain from social media detox:

• Reduce distruction – If you find yourself picking up your phone every two minutes, time restrictions will be beneficial for you. For example, setting no social media for a period of time when you’re doing school work or your side hustle.
• Increase rest and sleep time – If you’re spending less time on social media, that means you have more time to rest or sleep, which as a result, increases productivity in your day to day life.
• Get time to do more activities that are beneficial to your health such as riding your bike, going to the gym, and walking your dogs.

Here is my related blog post on how to be productive.

Social Media Detox Challenge

Here is a 30-day social media detox challenge planner to help you control what you see and when you see it.

Book On Social Media Detox

How to break up with your phone by Catherine Price is one of the best books you’ll ever read that will completely help you with social media detox and absolutely change your life. Don’t forget to grab one for yourself or a loved one, who is struggling with being present in the moment.

Last thoughts on social media detox experience

In conclusion, I hope that you have gained insights from social media detox to help you balance social media life and being present in the moment.

Also, let me know in the comments how social media is affecting your life and how do you control it?

Aaaand! if this post resonates with you, please let’s be friends. Join my newsletter below because I can’t wait to chat with you more.

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