Wondering how to quit social media? You’re in the right place. Welcome to your social-media breakup pep talk. Let’s get started.
Social Media is Toxic
Instagram gives me the ick, the kind of ick you get in a toxic relationship. You know, when you’ve known it isn’t good for you, and something finally comes along and completely turns you off. You can break free, start to move on, and feel like yourself again. But the kicker remains that since we often don’t put work into the unhealed things that kept us there for so long in the first place, eventually, they circle back and pull us back under.
Can I Break Up With Instagram?
Have you ever found yourself wishing that you could live without social media? I have gone through so many phases in my relationship with Instagram. Sometimes, I’m used to automatically overposting my life, and other times, I’m buying a flip phone and outcasting myself from society. Right now, I’ve been juggling a vibe that’s somewhere in between; I don’t have social media downloaded unless I’m posting something, and I’ll check up on things from a browser on my computer or phone. The issue I’m having right now is the need to have a presence on social media for this blog, but also a need to pull back into the flip phone spirit that still lives in me.
When I spend time in this gray area of allowing Instagram and other social media to exist only in a browser, the world around me changes. I find that I am more content, driven, and present in the moments that make up my day.
Social media is an out-of-body experience. Engaging with apps on our phones transports us away from the reality we’re living into the realm of the faux online universe. If we continue to fill our days with this alternate existence, what do we know about the one we live in?
Minutes Turn to Months
There are many frightening statistics that reveal the extremely unnecessary amounts of time we pour into social media. You don’t need a statistical study, though, to reveal to yourself just how much time you’ve given to the void of the digital world. Not to mention the damage that time does to your attention span, self-worth, goals, relationships, and peace. Fancy me a devil’s advocate.
If you spend 2 hours on social media each day. That’s 730 hours spent on social media each year. 730 hours is roughly 30.5 days. 30.5 days is a month. That seemingly harmless 2-hour engagement a day costs you a whole month out of your year. A WHOLE MONTH CHALKED FULL OF SCROLLING. A month filled with abundant opportunities to connect, explore, listen, learn, and love. What the hell are we doing spending this time on Instagram? We didn’t even factor in total screen time, and if yours is more than 2 hours… you’re wasting a lot more than a month. Let it sink in.
Whether social media is your job, hobby, communication tool, etc., no app is worthy of this time thievery. Not only will your life start to free up, but so will your mind. Humans aren’t used to taking in the vast amount of information social media is comfortable flooding our brains with on a daily basis.
The fact is, we all have the same 24 hours each day. In this day and age we’re so comfortable dismissing new additions or ideas in our life with the excuse “I don’t have enough time.” We all have enough time to read before bed and go for a walk during breaks, but we only make time for our priorities, and our phones take the cake.
How is Snapchat Still Around?
I haven’t had Snapchat since high school, for the most part, and I actually completely forgot it existed. If you still use Snapchat, especially if you keep streaks, you are opening your phone far more frequently than if you didn’t have the app. This also leads you to switch back and forth between other apps on your phone, resulting in a time-sucking vacuum. Ever notice when you close an app, sometimes you open up that same app a second later? Or go to another app and come back to the original app out of habit even though you already spent time on it?
Time is money, and we should spend it somewhere that has our happiness in mind rather than a quick dopamine release. Snapchat can also do damage to your self-image. It’s not natural to check in with your appearance as often as the app pulls you to, and unless you’re hyping yourself up each time, there is probably some damage being done. The last note I have on Snapchat is that relationships only kept alive through a social media app are ok to let go; aka end your streaks and make phone calls great again.
Joy of Missing Out?
So, Instagram gives me the ick. I don’t have the app on my phone right now, and thinking about downloading it or scrolling through the facade of other people’s lives is something that I just don’t want to have in my life. However, if the things that once drew me back into the world of social media go unhealed, who knows how long I’ll be able to resist the temptations of the online world. The unhealed bits are different for each of us, but the answers are within you, and journaling and reflection will guide you to that clarity.
For now, I’m pretty happy staying away. If you haven’t heard, FOMO has a cousin in town: JOMO (joy of missing out), and I hella vibe with JOMO.
My phone is a tool again, rather than an entertainment destination, and I’m able to spend a lot more time in the present moment. I’m able to sustain this environment for a decent amount of time since I allow myself to check socials on my computer. Having the option takes the power socials once held over me and puts it right into my hands. A comforting feeling in the approaching AI uprising.
Going Forward with Social Media
If this ick and response sounds like something you have and need in your relationship with social media, try it. Delete the app right now and journal ASAP about your thoughts on social media, the ways it makes you feel, and the role you want to give it in your life going forward.
Learn how to be bored when you’re waiting in a line when you’d normally pick up your phone. Notice the sounds and smells and life around you. Reconnect with things that bring your soul happiness in your downtime. Learn a language; heck replace all the social media time on your phone with Duolingo and see how many days it takes to count to twenty in French.
This is an overwhelming topic because life holds so much meaning. When we find out how something is truly compromising that, we get scared. It’s time to take your power back, and it is definitely not too late. Everything happens in Divine timing.
Instagram is the demon I keep mentioning, but all social media is on trial. There may be one that’s worse than the others, but when your happiness is at stake, they all need to go.
How to Quit Social Media:
- Delete the apps
- See if you miss them
- Notice how often you go to open them out of habit
- Find hobbies to do instead of opening apps
- Tell your friends that you deleted your socials, and encourage them to join
- Read a book when you’d normally scroll
- Learn how to be in the moment
- Get comfortable leaving your phone behind when you don’t need it
- Reflect and journal
- Remove your phone from your morning and night routines
- Set new goals
- Give yourself permission to check social media on browsers if you’re tempted
- Get outside and watch the reality of your universe unfold around you
At the end of the day, I’m still on social media. I use it for work and my personal life, and I am on more than one platform. As much as I may want to dive back into my flip phone bliss, it doesn’t make sense for where I’m at right now. The goal of this post is to guide you towards a healthy relationship with socials, however that looks for you. Be honest with yourself and work hard to reach your new goals. Life is a collection of moments, and the moment is a reflection of life.
You create your own universe, so go and make it a goddamn fairytale.
Speaking of Instagram, be sure to follow Earth & Emma, I only post things that add value to your feed:) Whenever you find yourself in a struggle with social media, come back and read this post to re-ground you.
Comment something that you love to do in your downtime instead of scrolling through social media <3
