This sounds hard, right? But, if you are here, it’s likely because you know that social media is draining you or your life in some way. Maybe it’s consuming all your time, or maybe you have stopped interacting with real people in front of you so that you can see what’s going on with the people you don’t know on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. If you are ready to start being more present in your real life and less absorbed into the world of technology, then it’s time to challenge yourself to get off social media for 30 days.
5 Reasons To Challenge Yourself To Get Off Social Media For 30 Days
1. Social Media Is Not As Social As You Think
Have you ever heard someone say that they feel lonelier than ever, even though they have social media? This is true because social media is not a type of social interaction that we crave and need. Our brains don’t accept it as an equivalent to socializing with people in person.
You may feel like you are being social because you are clicking on the like button or commenting on someone’s post, but your brain doesn’t have that same feeling.
So, the more you socialize on social media and miss out on real interactions, the lonelier you can feel.
2. Focus On YOUR Life For A Month
When you are on social media, you are focusing on other people’s lives. It’s a lot like reality TV, but on speed. You are constantly thinking about other people, what they are doing, and what is happening to them. And in the meantime, you are leaving yourself behind.
Why not take a month to focus on you. Take a program, such as Lifebook Online, and get to know yourself better without the influence of random people on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
3. You Will Come Back With More Purpose On Social Media
Once you get yourself off social media for 30 days, you will see that checking in on that guy you like or don’t like is a waste of time and doesn’t move your life forward.
You will have an understanding that social media is not for being social – not really. That’s reserved for people that you come face-to-face with.
Instead, you find more purposeful ways of using social media. You may follow people who help you push your vision forward. Or you may follow people with skills that you are working on building, and learn from them.
You will find yourself less likely to get caught up with dramatic social media users and more likely to focus on people who can help you improve your life.
4. Your Attention Span Will Grow Larger
Social media moves quickly. You devote a few seconds or minutes to a post and move on. This is not good for your offline life. The shorter your attention span, the harder all your offline things will be.
For instance, relationships require quality time and include long conversations where you need to listen to someone talk about their concerns or share something important with you. If you can’t help but get distracted and want to do something else, then you are going to hurt their feelings and cause issues in the relationship.
Get off social media and practice lengthening your attention span. It’s important and will help you engage smarter and better with other people and help you put more effort into things that require focus.
5. You Will Be More Productive With Extra Hours In Your Day
With no posts to check or photos to look at, you will find yourself with a lot more time to do something else. So, if you normally spend two hours on social media at work, you will now have an extra two hours to actually focus on work!
Or, if you normally fall into the social media hole after supper, you will now be able to do other things, like creating things, focusing on hobbies, maintaining your home, and so much more.
A Few Things To Do First
If you are someone who uses social media a lot, here are some things to think about doing before you take on this challenge.
1. Post That You Will Be On A Social Media Hiatus
Your friends or followers may not communicate how much they read of your stuff, but if you suddenly disappear you could upset some people online and cause some sort of distress to them. They may worry about what’s happened to you or they may think that you have stopped engaging with them personally.
If you have a large or loyal following, just post a quick post that you will be gone for 30 days.
If people don’t really interact with you anyways, then just disappear if you want. It might be a good eye-opener to how little your followers care about your well-being.
2. Make A Plan To Do Some Offline Things For The Month
It’s important to develop some goals for the next month, such as learning a new skill or interacting with the community more. It’s important to have some things in mind to do when you are going to break away from social media. If not, you will feel like you have too much free time and the call of social media will be too strong.
3. Get On Something Like Feedly And Start A Reading List Of Blogs That You Like
You won’t be able to look at short posts, tweets, or pictures for the 30 days, but you can read blogs and interact with people through comments if you want. That helps you get your internet fix without engaging in social media.
It will also help you improve your attention span and avoid that social media attention span I was talking about.
You can use something like Feedly for this. I love Feedly. I pay yearly for my subscription because I want to connect with a lot of bloggers and get the latest news in subjects I’m interested in, but even the free version is good enough.
This will also help you stay in the loop. When you go off social media, you are going to miss out on those little snippets of information.
Take The Challenge And Break Free From Social Media For 30 Days
Go ahead and start as soon as you want. You don’t have to start at the beginning of the month. You can start today or tomorrow.
And, get excited about breaking free from random posts that drain you, make you upset, or cause you to waste time. The more excited you are, the easier it will be to do this. So, come up with some solid reasons that motivate you to get off social media and focus on them as you go through this challenge.
