Spoiler: life happens outside social media
I took an extended social media break. I deleted the apps off my phone in early June and logged in twice for 5 minutes on my laptop to do a few things for work.
So, 20 days later, what is life beyond the scroll?
The same.
Honestly, I have nothing transcendent to report. I was more productive and efficient. I was less stressed. I itched my scroll scratch by designing a pool for my backyard on Pinterest (lol). I spent more time with my kids. I missed a few birthdays and life events of friends. (Note to self: put birthdays in iCal.)
I still took an exorbitant amount of pictures of my kids. I still laughed and had fun. I still read books. I still read the news. Life is pretty much normal. (Minus the whole pandemic thing.)
And here’s the real kicker –
during this extended social media break, my business was fine
I spent quite a lot of energy in keeping up social media appearances for my business. I often used it as an excuse and a crutch to spend more and more time on there.
Now that I’ve spent 20 days off, everything is fine. I still believe a social media presence is important for business, but there are ways to curate that without feeding your addiction. More on that later.
Overall, social media is just a mind-numbing distraction. It fuels our narcissism in a major way – like I really don’t think anyone noticed I was gone. Your life happens – the good and the bad – whether or not you report it online.
Social media doesn’t add much to your life, turns out. And if you’re not careful, it can take so much away.
Try it. And just like when you ditched cable, you won’t miss a thing.
