I have a confession to make and I am sure I am not the only one. But I have a phone/internet addiction. A lot of people spend a lot of time on social media. I do that too but I also spend a lot of time on other things like the weather app or I check the news every single hour. That last one is a result of the corona pandemic. I wanted to know what was going on and before I knew it, I was addicted to reading the news too.
But since last week, I am spending less time on my phone. So far it is going pretty good but I have to be careful. Before you know it, you go back to the old habit and you find yourself scrolling on TikTok for hours. But there are many reasons to do a social media detox, even when you are not addicted to your phone.
6 reasons why a social media detox is good for you
Mental health
Many researchers are saying that spending less time on social media is great for your mental health. They say it will increase your happiness and it will decrease your anxiety. Is this the golden solution for your anxiety? Probably not. But it can help. I think this is mostly because you feel calmer without your phone. After all, you don’t have to respond to all of your messages.
You realize what kind of effect it has on your life
When I did a social media detox for the first time, I realized I was really wasting my time on my phone. Just after a few minutes, I wanted to get my phone and go to all of my social media apps. It took me a few days before I got used to it. And I stopped reaching for my phone. But I used my phone whenever I had a minute for myself or when I was bored. I think it was safe to say that I wasn’t in control and the phone controlled my behaviour.
More time
If you are like me and you like TikTok, you know that feeling when you reach for your phone and suddenly it is 1 hour later. Social media is created to keep you on those platforms. But when you stop using your phone, you suddenly have a lot of time extra every single day. The average user spends 2.5 hours every single day. So if you always complain you barely have any time for yourself, take a look at your online behaviour. Imagine what you can do with those 2.5 hours every single day.
Self-image
When you spend a lot of time online, you are probably also comparing yourself to other people. You see all of those beautiful photos of beautiful women or men and you get jealous. You see all of those people doing fun things and you feel like you are stuck in life. A social media detox will help you take a step back and to restore your self-image. And hopefully, during your social media detox, you will start to appreciate your own body and your life again. And remember: their lives might look very fun on social media, but you have no idea what is going on in the background. Everyone can fake a smile.
Focus on you
So you have more time for yourself if you are on a social media detox. That means you have 2.5 hours ‘extra’ every single day to focus on yourself. You can start working out and get fit and healthy. You can work on your mental health. Or maybe you have a dream. You want to start a business and guess what? Now you have more time to realize those dreams. Take this opportunity to focus on yourself. You can even become a completely different person if you focus on yourself for a whole month.
Change
If you realized during your social media detox you are wasting a lot of time online, it is now the perfect time to change. You set rules for yourself and how often you can use your phone. Maybe this detox was an eyeopener for you and you start focusing on yourself and you start to care for yourself again.
This break can also give you ideas on how you want to fill in your whole life. Online find a lot of opinions but for you, the only opinion that really matters is your own opinion. Maybe you find your voice during this detox.
Recently, I wrote an article on how you can reduce your screen time. You can read that if you want to spend less time online but don’t want to do a full social media detox.
Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash