One year without social media

[Autumn]

One year ago (more or less) I decided to delete my social media accounts because I realized how toxic they were.

I had accounts on two major social media outlets and spent about 4-6 hours per day online. I would never spend less than 30 minutes and most days I was basically online all day, looking through Facebook a couple times per hour.

I realized how toxic it was to maintain the addiction of constantly getting on and scrolling through posts without even thinking about it. So much negativity, politics, opinions, and so much other SHIT (in the strongest meaning of the word).

After a couple months without this toxicity in my life, my mental state improved immensely. I was getting out and doing stuff, meeting up with friends in REAL LIFE, and no longer consuming/producing shit opinions on all these unimportant matters that people make such a big deal about. (Or very important matters that people know nothing about but still have such strong opinions on.)

Now after a year, I would never even consider creating an account on any social media site and I know that my life is so much better for it.

I recommend everyone do this, or at least take a break and see how it changes your life. You will be surprised.

[Shadowraix]

Rather than deleting my Facebook I took the route of unfollowing everything I didn't want to see whether that was pages or friends. I now see no toxic content and only content that keeps me updated on topics relevant to my life. 

This accomplishes a similar feat. Enter social media with a clear intent and stick to it and you'll be fine. I never go on Instagram it's there for my DMs and I don't touch Twitter with a 10ft pole

It's good you found a break away from it though. Watch out for this forum. It can become an addiction as well. 

[yellowschnee]

8 minutes ago, Shadowraix said:

Watch out for this forum. It can become an addiction as well. 

I find that very true.

 

As for the deleting of the social media accounts, I also deleted my long held Facebook account a while ago and later regretted it. All the old pictures and friends gone. Now I'm back to social media.

Who knows when the next time comes and I delete it again.

 

Same thing goes for phones and computers. I have the tendency to just destroy them to conquer addiction to it sometimes. 

Mixed feelings.

[hamedsf]

Remember, Addiction first happens in your brain. but sometimes quiting social media could be the only way to get rid of things. 

our brain wants to socialize and if you ban every possibility of being social, your brain will find a way to socialize...

but again, keeping awareness power while even doing trivial stuff will make you quit of that trivial automatically!

 

[Autumn]

2 hours ago, Shiva said:

@Autumn Really inspiring, thanks for sharing

Was it easy for you to quit? And did you do anything to make sure you don't fall back and sign up again?

It wasn't too difficult because I knew how bad it was for me so once I decided that was it. And nothing other than deleting my accounts and staying strong to my decision.

 

2 hours ago, Shadowraix said:

Rather than deleting my Facebook I took the route of unfollowing everything I didn't want to see whether that was pages or friends. I now see no toxic content and only content that keeps me updated on topics relevant to my life. 

This accomplishes a similar feat. Enter social media with a clear intent and stick to it and you'll be fine. I never go on Instagram it's there for my DMs and I don't touch Twitter with a 10ft pole

It's good you found a break away from it though. Watch out for this forum. It can become an addiction as well. 

For me it wasn't the same at all. I unfollowed everyone that posted anything I didn't want to see as well months before I quit and it was better but it was nothing compared to cutting it out completely.

1 hour ago, yellowschnee said:

I find that very true.

 

As for the deleting of the social media accounts, I also deleted my long held Facebook account a while ago and later regretted it. All the old pictures and friends gone. Now I'm back to social media.

Who knows when the next time comes and I delete it again.

 

Same thing goes for phones and computers. I have the tendency to just destroy them to conquer addiction to it sometimes. 

Mixed feelings.

I understand about the photos which is why I saved them all first. I lost contact with a lot of friends but that was okay because I stayed in contact with my real friends - less superficial I think.

 

1 hour ago, hamedsf said:

Remember, Addiction first happens in your brain. but sometimes quiting social media could be the only way to get rid of things. 

our brain wants to socialize and if you ban every possibility of being social, your brain will find a way to socialize...

but again, keeping awareness power while even doing trivial stuff will make you quit of that trivial automatically!

 

I totally agree. I found myself doing all kinds of (much healthier) activities in order to socialize that I wouldn't normally have done before.

[Sahil Pandit]

@Autumn Taking a long break was one of the best things i did for my growth. I took a 8 month break from social media and it was very peaceful not knowing what anyone else was doing! 

[Alex]

Did the same thing 4 years ago, life is alot better ever since.

[Shadowraix]

@Autumn I can respect that. I'll probably get rid of my Facebook at some point and just keep messenger for friend contacts. 

[pluto]

This is common sense. We are not designed by nature to process such over-stimulation on a daily basis. Our brains are not designed to process the whole worlds problems. This is why paying attention to news beyond your region of living becomes very toxic to ones mental and emotional health.

Focus on where you are, what's important and keep it simple.

Balance and Simplicity - The Divine Principles.

 

Edited July 9, 2019 by pluto

[Autumn]

15 hours ago, pluto said:

This is common sense. We are not designed by nature to process such over-stimulation on a daily basis. Our brains are not designed to process the whole worlds problems. This is why paying attention to news beyond your region of living becomes very toxic to ones mental and emotional health.

Focus on where you are, what's important and keep it simple.

Balance and Simplicity - The Divine Principles.

 

This.

People love to take other people's problems and tell themselves that they're helping said problem by sharing their opinions on the matter.

[zambize]

On 7/8/2019 at 1:16 PM, Autumn said:

One year ago (more or less) I decided to delete my social media accounts because I realized how toxic they were.

I had accounts on two major social media outlets and spent about 4-6 hours per day online. I would never spend less than 30 minutes and most days I was basically online all day, looking through Facebook a couple times per hour.

I realized how toxic it was to maintain the addiction of constantly getting on and scrolling through posts without even thinking about it. So much negativity, politics, opinions, and so much other SHIT (in the strongest meaning of the word).

After a couple months without this toxicity in my life, my mental state improved immensely. I was getting out and doing stuff, meeting up with friends in REAL LIFE, and no longer consuming/producing shit opinions on all these unimportant matters that people make such a big deal about. (Or very important matters that people know nothing about but still have such strong opinions on.)

Now after a year, I would never even consider creating an account on any social media site and I know that my life is so much better for it.

I recommend everyone do this, or at least take a break and see how it changes your life. You will be surprised.

Congrats on the results and thanks for the advice!

[Good-boy]

Smart move. I deleted my Facebook, twitter, Instagram and even WhatsApp back in 2017. Best decision of my life. ?

[Knock]

@Autumn Congratz Autumn!

Do you still go on other social websites like Youtube, reddit, twitch.tv?

What did you replace your time with?

Did you find you started to use forums and read blogs more?

[Rilles]

I locked my Facebook acccount about 6 months ago. Havent missed it at all. 

[Charlotte]

The social media platforms aren't the issue. It's the user. Maybe look within to find what you are avoiding by creating an addiction.

I find blaming anything external such as this takes the internal reflection away that may be needed.

[SFRL]

@Autumn

Have you seen the episode Nosedive of the TV series Black Mirror? 

It's what is possible if social media is taken further in the future. 

We are already making steps towards it with the Uber ranking system etc. 

[pluto]

5 hours ago, Charlotte said:

The social media platforms aren't the issue. It's the user. Maybe look within to find what you are avoiding by creating an addiction.

I find blaming anything external such as this takes the internal reflection away that may be needed.

You must realize that technology used today, especially on most social media platforms, severely overstimulate our central nervous system. This technology is not created in harmony with nature and natural flow thus regardless of how we use it, it is still overstimulating us and unknowingly programming us to become "mechanical"/machine-minded that we cannot truly relax into our naturally calm/enlightened/fluid states of being until an adequate fast from all technological stimulation is provided.

Of course, we have to work with what we currently have and we can always find balance between use but you must realize it effects us negatively from the moment we jump on regardless. Until technological platforms are created that work in harmony with nature and the human body, Its simply incoherent with our natural biorhythms so we need to use them as less frequently as possible to keep ourselves aligned at all times.

You can observe when you take long breaks yourself and realize quite the shifts in consciousness/awareness.

 

[DrewNows]

i enjoy this discussion. @Autumn thanks for sharing. Did you find yourself doing anything to take the place of social media browsing like new habits? Did you feel a sort of empty void for a little while, or maybe found yourself having to spend more time simply with yourself “bored”? 

Make good points @pluto I wonder what a harmonious technological platform would look like...anyways our bodies are amazing at reestablishing a new baseline for equilibrium so negative effects are dependent on the individual to an extent but I agree and can notice shifts with just short breaks lol 

[pluto]

@DrewNows Indeed, Well said.

[Charlotte]

@pluto Absolutely fair point, I see what you mean and whilst I agree I still feel the responsibility does fundamentally come to down to our choice in whether we use or not. The social media platforms can be anyway they want, they are the way they are. It's our choices that will impact us ?