And Why You Should Too…

I stopped checking my social media because it made me feel yucky. No matter which way I sliced it, I never left my Facebook sessions feeling better.

I either left feeling more anxious, more FOMO, more sadness, more pressure or just upset by the time I spent monitoring other people’s lives rather than living my own. Those are all pretty terrible ways to feel to start the day (I, like many, was one of those people that would check first thing in the morning before I was ready to tackle the day).

Quitting social media is a productivity or wellness tip that lots of gurus extol. I didn’t do it for them or their reasons. I did it for my reasons above. I did it for me.

It was both way harder than I expected it to be and way easier than I expected it to be. Leading up to the moment of uninstall I was afraid. I was afraid that I’d lose touch with all my friends and family irrecoverably. I was afraid that I wouldn’t know how to fill my time. But what I learned after I uninstalled it was, it’s so easy to forget about that stuff and to move on with your life. There’s so much richness to life. I’m not in an enlightened state now, spending every waking moment on nature walks or engaged in higher levels of thought. In fact, I probably replaced a lot of that time with time I spend on the internet. The difference is that I’m in control. Rather than constantly reacting to content that’s fed to me, I’m the seeker. If I want to learn a new skill, I can. If I want to research for my wife’s birthday, I can. If I just want to watch the next episode of Season 14 of Survivor, I can!

I uninstalled Facebook and Instagram on Thanksgiving 2020 and never looked back. 9 months later the results of my little experiment are pretty promising — I spend my time doing way more of what I want to do. I even installed TikTok and it’s brought me lots of joy (though I still need to be mindful of the wormhole that it is).

Before you go…

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