What a feeling after SOCIALMEDIA DETOX!
Writer Mary Jo Rapino has a very good article about the emotional effects and the benefits of quiting social media. This is what she wrote: "Social media algorithms are designed to keep you coming back, and choosing to quit creates a difficult withdrawal process. This constitutes one of the primary reasons individuals do not quit, despite its contribution to negative body image, insomnia, elevated anxiety, and decreased productivity. Most of us don’t even recognize how addicted we’ve become until we attempt to stop using our social media platforms."
Here's my take:
Having learned this idea further from her in a sounder insight, I was determined to finish my self exit approach ground plan from Facebook to a few more weeks.
When I do things I always have to make sure something good comes from it and why I needed to do it. For over two months, I deactivated my Facebook accounts with hundreds of friends on my friends list. I have two remaining that I didn't deactivate without any friends or just a handful of followers. However, my Facebook messenger is still active, so its good that I can still communicate to the individuals that I choose to connect. One of my endearing passions is that I am glued to for years is my politics - so I created an account only for my politics, using my true name that everybody thought was fake. I also created a new official Facebook account to be visible to my reader friends (99 % of them are friends that I found through my book writing) so in case they search or attempt to contact me through social media. I wrote this article so that my friends will know that I will be less available and I cannot reply back immediately. So, this kind of strategy makes sense to me.
Within around sixty days, as I put my social media use in a different perspective, I felt really relaxed. I thought the gradual withdrawal process would be like a punishment or possibly would affect me mentally. Nevertheless, the habits of posting, scrolling and checking the reactions are really like an addiction. Don't get me wrong, but honestly, the days when I prioritized my focus on other things made me more productive, mentally organized, cool, calm and collected. As I age, I want a simple life and a few friends to be with and communicate with. I don't consider myself a private person because I write books that I openly share my experiences to help other people find healing in their life.
Though we have different and valid reasons why we need a break from social media, it's in part about taking our mental health seriously. My goal is to find out myself if deactivating my Facebook and my other social media is good for me.
Ms. Maryjo Rapino added six benefits (I copied and pasted a few snippets from her article):
"1. You stop comparing yourself to others. You will lose your drive to compare your life to those of others and begin the process of self-awareness, engaging in activities that add value to your life and uplift you.
2. You feel greater gratitude to "real people" who reach out and connect with you.Once you recover from the recognition that many of your followers weren’t real friends, you will begin feeling more grateful for those who check in with you and desire to physically spend time with you.
3. You feel less anger. Engaging with the virtual world often involves angry memes or insults to your posts. Your real-life neighbors and friends are more concerned with your life, family, and yard – and easier to get along with.
4. Your productivity increases. No one recognizes just how much of their time is consumed by innocent scrolling, routine checking of their accounts, and responses to posts – all of which intercept their work. You will enjoy significantly more time with less distraction without social media, and when you complete your work more quickly, you open up more time to congregate with good friends, sleep, workout, or other activities which increase the meaningfulness of your life.
5. You won’t receive as many birthday wishes, but those you do are meaningful. Social media amplifies your feeling of importance on your birthday or other special occasions. Strangers will offer wishes for a happy birthday and/or congratulations for life events. These well-wishes boost your endorphins, increasing your desire for more.
6. You gain perspective and self-awareness when disconnected from social media. Disconnecting from social media lowers your phone’s priority and allows you the time to engage with the world. Although their thoughts are wonderful, they lack the worth of real greetings you receive from people who truly know you and are present in your life – through good times and bad.
To conclude, this is what she wrote:
"Life encompasses so much more than the contents of your social media feed. The fact that this feed is controlled by an algorithm with the explicit purpose of consuming more of your time illustrates your relinquishment of control to a virtual machine which lacks your best interests or goals at heart. Enjoy the photos of family and friends on social media, but do not lose your identity and values to an algorithm incapable of appreciating the many facets of you. Social media is a business – not a friend."
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