This month, I was challenged to do a 10 day social media fast and I thought “what could it hurt?” Sure, a lot of my business is on Instagram and Facebook, but I knew that I could still look “active” on there without actually being on the apps themselves. And then, while it’s fresh in my mind, I wanted to share some these thoughts from my social media fast.
One of the first things that I noticed from my fast was how often I reach for my phone to open up Facebook or Instagram. It’s literally a habit, and it happens SO often. Thankfully a lot less now after 10 days of not using it, but it made it pretty apparent that I was addicted. I also knew this thanks to the new “screen time” widget on the new ios for iphones. I had updated my phone a few days prior to starting and it told me that I spend 5 hours on Instagram one day. 5 HOURS, you guys. It was ridiculous. And pretty sad, really.
One of the first days, I was burning boxes and one of the first things that popped into my head was “INSTASTORY!” then I realized I couldn’t do it, and it made me start thinking how I DO NOT have to document every moment of my life. There’s definitely times and places for that, but most of the time, i’d rather just be present and not doing things just to put it on Instagram. That was insightful.
That same day, I spend 4 hours working on dejunking my house. Things that I had needed to clean up or straighten up for MONTHS now, and I just never got around to it (probably had something to do with the 5 hours per day on IG). I was pretty proud to finish all those things and my house was definitely cleaner, and I was happier because I wasn’t yelling at my kiddos less for “disrupting” me looking at IG. *face palm*
One of the BIGGEST take-aways was how this paradigm shift happened. I was no longer irritated or upset because of something I saw someone else do that I so wanted to have happen to me. No vacations that I could see that I wish I was on myself. No photoshoot that I would have loved to be a part of and wasn’t. None of that.
The first time I got back on Facebook, I felt like I had missed out on so much. We don’t have TV (besides Hulu and Netflix) so I didn’t know anything about the hurricane in southern Florida, but besides feeling bad for those people, did I really NEED to know that? It’s good to be informed, but there wasn’t anything pressing about that I needed to know.
The first time I got back on IG, it was basically the first picture I saw, and it happened…jealously. I saw a photo shoot that someone else had put together and I was instantly jealous that they had the time to do that, and that I wasn’t creative enough to think of it, and how I should have done something like that, and on and on. It’s toxic, people. Don’t get me wrong. There’s inspiration and being able to see what my friends are doing on there, but so many times I fall into the comparison trap thanks to those stupid little scrolling squares. Like I mentioned before, when I wasn’t spending time scrolling, I was infinitely happier and more pleasant.
All in all, my social media fast was SO good. I loved the extra time it gave me to be productive, I loved the time I got to spend giggling and snuggling my sweet little ones, and I loved that I wasn’t so focused on things other people were doing to ruin my mood. I still feel like an addict, constantly reaching for my phone but now, there’s a little less pull to open up the apps. I’m still planning on marketing on them, but I’m anticipating more and more time off of them.
So now I want to know….have you ever done a social media fast? What’s stopping you if you haven’t? Comment and let me know!
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