Social Media Separation –
Things that could happen if you quit social media…
Social media is riddled with contradictions. It can be fun but also infuriating. It can make you feel less alone, but also trigger feelings of isolation and inadequacy. And can we talk about the trolls? If you’re spending a lot of time on social media, or on your phone in general, it can be hard to imagine life without it. However, there are plenty of reasons to consider taking a break from endless scrolling. If you’re ready to take the plunge, here are some things to expect when you take a break from social media.
When you don’t have to worry about your devices buzzing left and right, you could find your productivity levels shooting through the roof. Social media constantly interrupts us. When we stop ourselves to check social media, again and again, it really becomes another form of multitasking, and multitasking makes whatever you do take longer, and you do it in an inferior way. In fact, the American Psychological Association estimates that trying to juggle multiple tasks at once—such as clicking back and forth between social media and an important project—may reduce your productive time by as much as 40 percent. That’s a high price to pay for a few likes and comments.
If you find yourself stuck in a creative block, it might have something to do with your social media habits. The key to an imaginative mind is taking breaks every now and then while you work with something other than social media. Having that social media in the background and calling to you and asking you things interferes with your creativity. By giving up social media entirely, you rid yourself of these nagging notifications and allow your creativity to flourish.
While the effects of quitting social media are generally positive in the long run, your immediate reaction may be one of stress and anxiety. These feelings are caused by a neurological withdrawal from the sense of being constantly connected. If you’re using social media addictively, which some people are, you have elevated levels of dopamine, so when you stop doing that, there is some withdraw. Luckily, these feelings usually do not persist beyond the first few days of quitting social media, so you should be able to enjoy the positive effects soon enough.
Because social media has become so easy to access anywhere and at any time, we often feel compelled to pay attention 24/7 to what is taking place on our news feeds and timelines. This impulse to be constantly aware of what’s going on online leads to an increase in cortisol, the stress hormone. This heightened stress can bring along a whole slew of unfavorable effects on the brain, such as reduced memory and an increased chance of depression. Staying away from social media makes you less prone to such a high level of cortisol, leaving you calmer and more focused.
When you take a quick minute to check one notification on Instagram before bed, suddenly you realize you’ve been browsing, liking, and commenting long past your bedtime. Sound familiar? This has become a common habit for many people at night, often spending one to two hours scrolling through social media in bed. Think about it: If you’re doing that every day, that’s 15 hours a week you spend just doing social media! That’s not like going out to dinner with a friend, that’s just looking at somebody play with their new hamster and then commenting on it. When you quit social media, you free yourself of this extra priority – and buy yourself the powerful health boost of a good night’s rest. If you need a cool-down activity in the p.m., skip the screens and try something more relaxing and less time-consuming, like reading a book or planning tomorrow’s agenda.
Sure, social media can be an excellent way to stay in touch with old friends or family from out of town, but cutting ties with the Social Media can work wonders for your tangible friendships. Face-to-face interpersonal relationships are generally much stronger than those conducted solely online, and taking a breather from your social media accounts forces you to focus on these real-world interactions. Pulling back on social media and spending more time on face-to-face interactions really helps your relationships, and relationships are really one of the most important factors in well being and mental health.
Once you stop scrolling through other people’s opinions, you will likely find out more about what motivates you, not them. When people remove themselves from social media, they lose that temptation to garner attention and superficial feedback from other people by posting where they went to dinner or where they went on vacation. That need to be relevant in the eyes of others will lose its grip, leading to the discovery of one’s self.
Ditching social media may not only make you a nicer person, but it could also help you develop your emotional intelligence, a valuable skill in the workplace. But it does require that you, yes, interact with other human beings. When we’re on a computer screen for hours a day, then we’re removing the possibility of having face-to-face interaction and we’re reducing our emotional intelligence. Lifting your head from the screen and having real conversations can increase the quality of your relationships and help you develop this critical skill.
So next time you head to the beach or the pool, leave your phone behind – breathe and focus on happiness, sunshine, health and all the beauty that surrounds us!
