“WHY can’t we tag you anymore in our posts? Why can we no longer see you on Facebook?”
These were just some of the messages I received when I decided to have some social media detox. Being someone known to be so active in posting and interacting with friends on social media, it somehow came as a surprise for a lot of people why I suddenly disappeared from their newsfeeds.
I had to explain to them that I had to detach myself from the online world for a while.
Social media detox? What is it? Why do you have to do it?
Social media detox is basically staying away from social media for a specific period. It could be a week, a month, or even completely “cutting off ties” with your social media circle.
While a number of my friends appeared to have difficulty understanding such decision, I personally enjoyed it. I had to emphasize that it was actually a needed relief. In fact, it was something that helped me improve my overall mood.
Before I share with you the benefits I experienced while doing my own social media detox, let me first discuss that I did it in two ways: totally deactivating my account; and logging out of Facebook for 10 hours a day. I did the former for two weeks, while practicing the latter after that until now. I have been uninstalling my social media apps from time to time to avoid the temptation of logging in.
Anyway, here are the benefits of social media detox:
More time for more important stuff. Let us admit it: when we start getting updates from contacts in our newsfeed, the scrolling never stops anymore. Personally, I must say that it is addicting.
Since you are no longer on social media, you can already have more time doing other more important things, rather than wasting your time on Facebook.
You regain your focus. This relates to the first benefit.
The fact that you have stayed out of the social media loop, you already have your attention focused on important concerns.
Privacy. Admittedly, we have the tendency to share so much of ourselves on social media. We somehow forget the risk of our privacy being taken away from us. In some cases, stalkers get to dig more about us because of our social media posts.
By the way, to limit the audience of my posts, I placed a number of my Facebook friends under the “Restricted” and “Acquaintance” folders. It has been a conscious effort, too, to always customize the audience of my posts.
Lately, I have also set the privacy setting of my old posts, particularly family photos, to “Only Me.”
Blocking toxic engagements. While Facebook, Instagram and Facebook Messenger have been my major vehicles to stay connected with the people who matter, these have also become the source of some disappointment and stress.
There are those who contact you just to force you to buy their products. You get unending chain messages saying that you will die if you don’t forward to a number of people. Annoying, isn’t it?
Apart from these, some contacts have comments that irritate you and somehow cause your blood vessel to pop (of course, I am exaggerating).
And yes, there are those who continue to annoy and disgust you because they assume that since you are nice in your conversations that already give them the right to presume that you like them as well.
In fact, there are those who unceasingly relay to you some “what ifs”: what if we ended together; what if I never stopped pursuing you when we were younger; and “why you never gave me the chance to prove my worth.”
Gosh! It is already 2018, but it seems, these people are still fascinated with the past?
Doing social media detox are done in different ways, depending on how you badly need it and what works for you. Its benefits likewise depend on you.
By practicing social media detox, I have one great realization: it is still more heartwarming and overwhelming to connect with the “real” people in the “real” world. It will always be better to hear their voice along with the emotions they put in every conversation, and to sit beside them while listening to their stories.
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If you have special events and fashion tips to share, or just want to discuss about any fashion-related concerns with me, you are always free to reach me at mendoza.jennygrace@gmail.com.