Impact of quitting social media
Impact of quitting most social media
Hey friends,
By “most”, I mean everything except for Substack.
Years back I quit instagram and it was the first one I cut out. Prior to that, I found myself spending 30-40 minutes a day just scrolling through posts. Why? What’s the point? In that time I could have been spending more time with family, exercising, reading good books, praying, going on walks. You can do a lot in 30-40 minutes a day, it builds up. So, when I quit, the change was felt right away, a light load was dropped, however, biggest load still remained. Up until this year I was under the impression that I must stay on several platforms like facebook and linkedin to stay relevant with my books and to get enough news information. As I quit all of it just recently, it instantly became clear that this was not the case at all. There is nothing I’m missing that was of importance and my engagement with readers is perhaps even better now, because I can focus fully on the blog, without wasting any time on scrolling, reading personal problems, arguments, negative news, propaganda, gossip.
In simplicity things become more clear. It is very organized now. I have a few sources for specific things I like, such as Formula 1 and basic news updates, but outside of that, I am now able to have more time to dedicate to things that are more important.
If you are worried for any reason to leave these sites, trust me, you won’t be missing as much as you think you’ll be missing. You’d be surprised, it’s all a fake world.
Another interesting thing to notice is seeing how many people simply don’t care if you’re there or not. This is just a basic truth and there is nothing offensive about it. People go about whatever they are doing and if you’re away from there, they won’t miss you much, and you won’t miss them either. You have your family, your close friends, your work or writing, do you really need to know the problems of hundreds of people on facebook? And guess what, the reason they post all the troubles is because the virtual world has given them an illusion that it’s real interactions and that others truly care.
Fact is, you can post the saddest news, people will comment and the next minute they already scrolled past dozens of others posts. Brain is overloaded with information. There is chaos that is constantly being injected into the mind. Many needless things, commercials, opinions.
When is the time to take a dee breath? To reflect? To think fully of a single thing without mind jumping from one issue to another.
There is also the issue of fake life. Recently a friend told me that it’s hard to see people same age posting all the things they are now ahead at. I answered by saying that I believe that a lot of people post fake reality, and others who see it think they are behind. Another bad aspect of social media.
When you quit these platform you realize how damaging it actually is. You have less bad thoughts. Your mind is more clear. You have more focus. You have more kindness and patience. You make room for better things.
I can’t enough about how highly I recommend for you to quit. This is coming from an author of many books who has been told many times that I must have a presence there constantly. Yet, I have no more fear about that and I think things will be even better regarding that issue.
Blessings.
XXXXX
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Great points! In September I chose to permanently wipe my personal Insta, Snap and TikTok accounts (thankfully I’ve never had Facebook) and haven’t regretted it. I hardly used them anyway. In addition to all your listed reasons, a major one of mine was privacy concerns. I don’t trust those companies at all. And living more in the present brings nothing but good things.
I still have accounts for my business, but I keep those on a separate device and don’t check them daily, and when I do check them it feels like a chore. This system has worked well for me as a balance so far, but we’ll see how it continues into the future.
This is such a good decision. I quit all social media over 5 years ago. Substack is my new exception, but not remotely like the click bait of other platforms. I also took the independent publishing house I run off all social media at the same time. We had large numbers of followers but feeding the platforms ate a huge amount of time and I could see no benefits in sales of books and real engagement. The decision was not popular with a lot of the authors, who were sure we we were commiting suicide and sinking their books and events without trace. On the contrary, sales went up, not down, and as many people as ever came to book launches and events. It's so vital to be in spaces that are about real reading and support not cheap 'like' clicks that mean nothing but keep you from distracted from real conversations while your data is being mined. Hope your writing goes from strength to strength.