7 Prominent Reasons For Doing a Social Media Detox

“Tell me if I am wrong, but latching on to our phones every chance we get and scrolling endlessly through our social media feeds has become sort of a habit, right? “

You don’t have to feel guilty. We all do it. You, me, the stranger sitting next to you on the bus, a six-year-old kid, we all love to sift through reels and shorts and whatnot on our phones. But is it the right thing to do? I mean, social media platforms exist to help us humans socialize more conveniently. 

But is it fair to share a huge chunk of our lives on Facebook or Instagram, or Snapchat, looking at profiles of happy-seeming people and feeling miserable because we’re not as happy? It sounds like a ridiculous idea, at least to many of us.

So what should we do? Delete all social media apps from our phones forever and act like we are back in the dark ages? 

No, not really. Instead, we can gradually reduce the impact of social media on our lives. In short, we can do what is called a social media detox.

Decoding Social Media Detox

Similar to a detox diet that eliminates accumulated toxins from our body, a social media detox mitigates our craving for social media platforms.

A typical detox includes

• reforming your daily routine to spend less time on social media apps
• ruling out the usage of smartphones at bedtime and when you wake up
• taking a hiatus from social media platforms for a specific/unspecific amount of time
• starting a new hobby that doesn’t require any use of smartphones or the internet
• abiding by the rules that you set

However, since there is no one-size-fits-all detox strategy, you can add/remove pointers to the above list or create a new one from scratch. The end goal is to use the time we spend on social media in doing productive things and taking care of ourselves.

7 Reasons to Opt For a Social Media Detox/Cleanse

Here is a list of 7 reasons why you might need a social media detox. If you can relate to one or more of these, you should go for a detox asap!

1. You Constantly Compare Yourself With Others

Comparisons are inevitable, especially when we have (unconsciously) trained ourselves to do so from a very young age. Comparing grades, clothes, mobile phones, wealth, etc., has been a part of our lives for so long, there are times when we don’t even know we are doing it. And it is not surprising that this habit of comparing things has crept up into our social media usage.
But, if you’re constantly measuring yourself up against others’ lives on social media apps, you need to give it a break. And what better way to do so than a detox?

2. Your Sleep Cycle is Effed Up

You don’t even need a scientific study to understand that scrolling through your feed at bedtime affects your sleep cycle. Once you start going through all those pictures and videos, you lose track of time and end up sleeping for less than the recommended number of hours. Then you get dark circles, headaches and you feel less motivated to do anything. It is time you stopped playing with your health for a few hours of screen time and took some good rest.

3. You Have Privacy Concerns

When you sign up for a social media service, you provide personal and sometimes professional details in the process. And no matter how safe a social media platform claims to be, hackers are always lurking around, trying to steal user information.

If you have come across instances that indicate that your personal information is being wrongfully used, you need to get away from social media platforms.

4. You Feel More Jealous Than Happy

When you look at your friends or acquaintances getting good jobs, getting married, traveling to new places, or buying expensive vehicles, do you feel happy for them? Or do you get jealous of the fact that they are getting more than you are, regardless of whether you are in a good position yourself?

If the answer to the latter question is a yes, you need to take a step back and analyze your thought process. But before that, throw that darn social media out for good.

5. You Have More Friends Online Than Offline

Having more friends is always good, but not when you solely dedicate yourself to only making friends online. It doesn’t matter if you have tons of friends on Instagram, if you can’t sit down with one in real life and talk heart-to-heart, you will feel lonely and left out.

Also, since social media platforms are mostly texting-based, you might lose out on real-world conversation skills. So make friends in real life too, not just online.

6. You Don’t Know How Else To Spend Your Free Time

Across the globe, more than 4.5 billion people (nearly 58% of the total human population) actively use social media. And, most of them do so, not because they want to stay connected to their friends and loved ones, but because they don’t have anything better to do.

To counter this habit, you need a new hobby (one of the commandments of social media detox). You don’t have to take up the most intensive or extravagant hobby. You can listen to music, learn a new instrument, read a comic book or enjoy different desserts. But don’t spend too much of your valuable time on social media.

7. Your Mental Health is Unstable

All the reasons stated above work collectively towards deteriorating your mental health. You feel dejected, lose interest in things, revel in self-pity, and curse yourself for not following your dreams. And all this translates into your daily life becoming difficult.

So if you are suffering from one or more of these underlying conditions, you need to seriously consider a social media detox.

Conclusion:

Distancing yourself from your beloved social media apps can be difficult. You will have bouts of FOMO (fear of missing out), will unconsciously take out your phone, and get restless when you don’t know what your friends or crush have been doing lately.

But, you need to persevere and tell yourself, “I can live very well even without social media.” You will thank yourself in the long run.