Kentucky Mom Shares Five Things She Learned While Taking A Social Media Detox

I think it's fair to say social media is consuming the lives of most people in the world.  Whether you use one or ten apps it's hard to escape the harsh reality of it all.

WHY I DECIDED TO DO A SOCIAL MEDIA DETOX

Angel here and I recently came back from a much-needed two-week vacation from work, church, and community involvement (you name it, I stepped away from it).  My life is often consumed with work and working on the new Women & Children's Shelter we are opening here in Owensboro.  Not to mention other activities our family stays involved with throughout each month.  We are good about taking vacations but never truly unplugging from it all and just spending time in the moment.

My job requires me to be on social media quite a bit so I knew vacation was the perfect time to step away.  I knew I needed it and I most recently felt like I was swimming hard to keep my head above water in all areas.  I hated the stress and anxiety and I could pinpoint one area that I could easily fix for a controlled amount of time.

HOW I PREPARED FOR MY DETOX FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

Some people might have the luxury of just signing off from the world and going about their business but I don't.  Here are a few things I did to make sure I could detox to the fullest LOL;

• Even though I was on vacation I let my boss I would be MIA
• I let people who generally contact me for specific reasons through social media the dates I would be unavailable and when I would return
• I set up an automatic message for some things
• Most importantly I PRAYED!  This was the difference.  I asked God to let me step away and keep things in order.  I realize some people don't walk in faith or have beliefs as I do but this is what worked for me and it was absolutely MAGICAL.

Here are some suggestions from Good Housekeeping on how to be successful;

This will keep you from mindlessly going back to them.

Isn't life always better with friends?

Make sure to tell those you are closest with so they don't worry if they don't see or hear from you on social media.

Figure out which apps consume your time.

This serves as a good barrier when you go to check social media.

Serves as a great reminder when you hit that lock button on the bottom of the phone.

Value your own time and this will help with how you spend it.

Just like you should go to bed at a reasonable time so should your phone.

Go old school for a while.

We sometimes have to set limits on other things in life why not our phone apps.

This just creates one extra step to getting to those apps.

FIVE THINGS THIS MOMMA LEARNED FROM A SOCIAL MEDIA DETOX

1. We all get sucked into the mindless scrolling we lose track of time.  We spend more time watching others' lives on Facebook or Instagram than we do actually spend that time with our family and friends in real life.
2. People won't perish if you don't post.  No offense but I don't personally know many famous people and even if I did no one is actually going to lose their mind if you step away from your phone or social media to destress and relax.  The cold, hard truth is no one is sitting around waiting for you to put up some life-changing post that will forever change the direction of their life.
3. Social Media causes unconscious stress and anxiety.  This one was the real eye opener.  I immediately felt lighter when I put down my phone and walked away.  I didn't feel rushed.  Social Media causes us to live at this fast pace thinking we have to keep up with what everyone else is doing.  Making sure we comment or like posts so people know we care is a load of crap.  You'll learn those same people aren't concerned one bit.  This leads me to another thing I learned.
4. (THIS ONE IS GOING TO SHOCK SOME PEOPLE)You are not the center of the universe.  Most people probably won't even notice if you take a break and that is ok too.  You actually find out who the people that care about you are when you take a break.  I can in all honesty say I had less than two handfuls of people message me privately and ask if I was ok or what was going on.  No one the other hand I had let those who needed to know that I would be taking a break.
5. FINALLY, stop letting something that has no concern for you consume your life.  Social Media does not have a beating heart.  Those on social media are fickle.  One day they love you the next they're offended over a meme you posted.  Invest your time and energy in the people and things that truly matter and make a difference in your life.

I plan on doing a lot more detoxing for social media.  This vacation was a million times better because of it.  I experienced the personalities of my children in ways I hadn't before.  I had conversations I might have missed and I just took each second at a time and literally stopped to smell the roses (or the saltwater in my case).  This gave me even more time to see how amazing and wonderful God is.  Without all the chaos I was able to actually sit still and be quiet.  I know those who know me are shocked.  It was all right on time.