This week’s Ed Tech Fitness challenge was to try going on a social media diet. In other words, cut back or cut out the time you spend on the social media site(s) that sucks time out of your day while not giving you anything positive.
I’ve almost entirely avoided for Facebook a month, and I feel better. Next I’ll be cutting back on my time on Twitter. It took a long time for me to get to place where I was ready/ needed to cut back. Based entirely on my own experience, here are some signs that you might be ready for a break from social media.
You’re annoyed rather than entertained.
From friends sharing “free ticket” scams to pithy inspiration memes to political posts, I found that my reaction to most of the things I saw was annoyance rather than entertainment.
You’re making too many comparisons.
We all carefully select the picture, video, or words that we post online to show the best parts of our lives. If you’re having a tough day, week, month, year and all you keep looking at are pictures of things that look like more fun than you’re having, it gets depressing really quickly.
Perhaps looking at pictures of people having fun is inspirational for you. If so, go for it. For me and many others it’s just a depressing comparison that’s easy to quit making when you stop either following those accounts or quit looking at social media all together.
You’re not reading because you’re scrolling.
Do you know how hard it is to take a paperback book with you to read while you’re in your doctor’s waiting room? It’s not! I found there were lots of times when I could have been reading a book instead of scrolling through annoying Facebook posts or pithy memes on Twitter.
You’re looking at your phone instead of the beauty around you.
I live in one of the most beautiful places in the country. Heck, our state nickname is Vacationland! I was sitting in my backyard on a beautiful summer evening and looking at my phone instead of enjoying the sunset. What a waste!
You think about the social media post instead of the actual experience.
When you find yourself thinking about an experience through the lens of “how will I share this online?” before just experiencing it, it might be time to ask if you have a social media addiction.