Social Media Detox: 5 Easy Steps to Healthier and Calmer Life

While we were on lockdown getting away from social media was extremely hard due to the fact that it became basically our whole lives. All the interaction, the chance to be with our friends, our work and our hobbies moved completely online, leaving us no chance to unwind and detox. As much as we love social media it can be destructive and bad for our mental and physical health. Now our lives slowly become easier as the restrictions fall down and now some of us might be ready to get away from social media, to feel free and focused on themselves only. We’re going to give you five easy clues on how you can make this journey easier:

1. Set a time limit on your apps, especially on Instagram and Facebook. No, you won’t miss anything extra important, and no, you won’t fall out of reality. Moreover, you will feel connected to your reality more than ever — social media creates lots of white noise in our lives and holds us from focusing on what’s really important. You can try to do it for several days straight and when you’ll be ready to get yourself even more away from social media, you can delete these apps (temporarily) or put them into a folder at the very back of your smartphone. NB: we don’t recommend doing that if your work relies on using social media. If so, you can stay content with a time limit or try to put Instagram and Facebook into a special folder that would be hidden deep into your smartphone.

2. Instead of focusing on the promotion of your social media profiles and looking for chances to buy Instagram followers, you should stay away from it for a while. If your work isn’t revolving around social media, you should try not to post daily and shorten your chats with people as much as possible. What’s bad about talking on the phone if you need that interaction so much? You get what we mean: don’t focus on running your social media pages, don’t focus on talking to people daily and don’t try to stay in touch with everything that’s happening on social media in general.

3. Okay, but detoxing is not all about staying away from social media, isn’t it? It’s quite important to say what you should replace it with. Use that free time on planning your day, concentrating on what you should and what you’ve always wanted to do. Making use of a planner is always a good idea — who knows, maybe bullet journaling is a thing that you’ve always wanted to try and you could stick to it for a while?

4. Add some time to the occupations that you weren’t paying enough attention to. Maybe you’ve given up sports, reading or painting? Maybe you’ve always wanted to spend more time outdoors with your family or your dog? Invest free time into yourself as in form of a new or given up activity and you’ll notice that you don’t want to go back to surfing Instagram or Facebook anymore.

5. Last but not least, don’t forget to socialize in other ways than being stuck in chats on social media. Call your friends, get them outside, go for a walk, a coffee or maybe a run. Live communication is irreplaceable in communication in general and you should remember that not only during social detox, but after this period is gone as well.