Detoxing from Social Media

A Social Media Detox

A time like this last year someone sent me a YouTube video about a guy who was doing a dopamine detox for a week. This meant he would starve his dopamine receptors of the so often 'privileges' they were getting. He logged out of his social media accounts, did not eat junk food, stopped eating while watching a YouTube video or while watching a certain series that was too intriguing to power off his laptop, and a couple of other activities that he did that gave him a momentary high. This article is going to talk about a social media detox, which is not as big as a dopamine detox but is worth something. Maybe when you do a social media detox, you may want to do a dopamine one.

The First Step of Doing a Social Media Detox

Now the first step of doing a social media detox is logging out of all your social media accounts or better yet uninstalling them to avoid falling into temptation. This means you won't get to look at and arrange your Pinterest boards if you are a Pinterest addict like me, no keeping up with the fashion choices of your favorite celebrity on Instagram, and definitely not doing the trending dance on TikTok. It sounds hard and impossible to achieve but it is not. It's achievable (believe me I tried it). Before we get into it, you might want to know the benefits of doing the detox.

Benefits of Doing a Social Media Detox

  1. The first one is you get a lot of time to engage in your forsaken hobby or hobbies if you have many. It might be going out to play basketball with your friends, picking up your dusty novel that now has a funny smell or continuing that crochet project you started the next day after your birthday in the spirit of new year, new you, new activities. You can even start the activities you said you wanted to start doing.

  2. You get to connect with yourself. Now that there is less noise from the outside world, you can connect with yourself and notice some things about yourself that you wouldn't have previously.

  3. You get to practice mindfulness. The reduced distractions now give you a chance to be more in the moment. You not being glued to your screen reading the latest tweet from your social media role model gives you a lot of time to notice the texture of the food you are eating, the beauty of the sunset, and the chirping of the birds in the morning.

  4. Reduced pressure. It's no brainer that social media gives us a lot of pressure, whether we realize it or not. Taking some time off it reduces the pressure social media inflicts on you. For that one week, or the duration you choose, you don’t have to worry about getting the new shoes in town or being on the know on who did or did not do what.