Taking Time Away From Social Media

Written By Leland Lewis

While social media can be fun, like most things in life it's best to handle it in moderation. In this instance, it's healthy to take breaks from it since it can lead to a lot of unnecessary stress in addition to other issues. Today we want to talk about some good reasons to step away from this and why it's good for our well-being.

Facing FOMO

FOMO otherwise known as the fear of missing out, is a very real phenomenon and it affects us in more ways than we might think. One of the most common examples of this is periodically checking your feed to see what new things are going on. Doing this once a day isn't bad since it can keep you in the loop for some things or check to see if someone messaged you. This becomes a problem when we consistently spend the bulk of our time scrolling through our feeds or taking ourselves out of the present to prioritize social media. The issue is that when we're thinking about all the things we're missing out on, we're not appreciating the present moment. It can prevent us from valuing those that we're spending time with currently. Getting past FOMO requires us to set aside days where we avoid social media entirely so that we're able to not get caught up in the things we're not doing so we can focus on what's in front of us.

“It can prevent us from valuing those that we're spending time with currently.”

Comparison And Acceptance

Another common issue that arises when we spend time on social media too often is that we might find ourselves comparing our lives to those of others. Something good to recognize is that social media often portrays a skewed perception of how someone's life really is and oftentimes it's glamorized more than it should be. Understanding this can provide a reprieve and give us the ability to recognize that envying others’ success doesn't help us with our own lives. A better approach is to focus on personal acceptance since that can give us a healthier relationship with ourselves. This helps us see what things we value in ourselves and can give us a better roadmap to work towards improvement as well. Comparing ourselves to skewed perceptions isn't just inaccurate but it's also harmful to our well-being.

“Another common issue that arises when we spend time on social media too often is that we might find ourselves comparing our lives to those of others.”

Freeing Up Our Time

Have you ever felt like there's not enough time in the day? Chances are that how we spend our time is contributing to those feelings. Addressing how much time we spend on each activity is important since it allows us to remove things that aren't contributing to our sense of stability. Social media can take up a lot more time than we might expect. Our mind might spend excessive amounts of time focusing on it which deprives us of other activities as well. A good exercise is instead of spending the night browsing social media, to focus on doing things that further you towards your goals such as practicing an instrument or getting exercise. Social media is capable of helping people in many ways but it needs to be tempered with the right expectations and used responsibly.

Leland Lewis
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