What I Learned From My Instagram Detox...
Last month I decided to take a little break from Instagram because I started to find my Instagram very ‘noisy’. Here's how it went...
Happy New Month!
Last month I decided to take a little break from Instagram because I started to find my Instagram very ‘noisy’. Constantly absorbing so much information and feeling the pressure to always be online, always reply and post good content can become so overwhelming. I also wanted to remind myself that I don't need to depend on social media to succeed. I always felt like I needed to be on Instagram to show the world what I’m up to, network, and grow my brand but the real magic happens offline.
My Instagram detox gave me a chance to clear my mind and focus on myself. On social media, you’re constantly shown people’s highlights and not their whole life. It’s easy to unconsciously start comparing yourself to others, competing with others, or posting things to impress your followers. I follow a lot of inspirational people, doing amazing things and Instagram is the best place to share the fruits of their labour. It’s easy to compare yourself to these people because they’re in the same industry or on a similar path but I have to constantly remind myself that everyone’s journey is different and most of them have been on the journey much longer than I have. Taking a break allowed me to take a step back and fully focus on myself, enjoy the journey without comparing myself to other people’s online lives.
When it comes to our online lives, our “personal brand”, we’ve been taught to present our best selves. Social media rewires your brain with instant gratification and the physiological need to experience fast, short-term pleasure. This is because of the production of dopamine, a chemical that’s associated with pleasure and reward systems. When you post something and start getting messages, likes, and comments, your brain provides a “hit” of dopamine that makes you feel really good. This trains your brain to expect instant gratification, but that is not reality, most times you will do a lot of stuff and not get any feedback or the feedback you want straight away and that’s normal. We want a nice car, a great job, a successful career but don’t want to do the hard work to achieve all of this. No amount of online networking or personal branding will actually make you successful if you don't actually work to perfect your craft and become skilled within your industry.
There is also a huge fear of missing out (FOMO) with social media that brings a lot of anxiety. You always feel as if you have to stay up to date with what’s happening in the world, in the lives of others, and in your social circles. Taking a month's break showed me that I don't always have to be updated with other people’s lives or always provide an update on mine. Just because we follow people on social media doesn't exactly mean we know what’s going on in someone's life, people only show you what they want you to see and only show a 10 - 60 second clip of a 24 hour day. You also don’t have to feel as if you have to update everyone with your life and what’s going on, sometimes you can just live life in silence without having to update the world. In the month of October, I've done so many cool fun things and it’s been great to just live in the moment without feeling the need to capture the perfect 15 seconds to share with my online friends.
I decided to mainly detox from Instagram but spend less time on my other social media pages. You can choose whatever works best for you, you can delete all your social media apps for a few days, month, or more or you can just limit the amount of time spent there. One thing that helps me a lot is removing all notifications, this means I reply to messages when I want and not as soon as I see them come in, it also helps me forget about these apps sometimes. I also use Apple downtime to restrict the times where I use my social media. I try not to go online until after 12pm, this helps me a lot as it stops me from picking up my phone and going to social media as soon as I wake up.
Social media is only a small part of reality, it’s a falsified image of what each individual wants to portray to others. It is helpful to take a break from social media, all social platforms, or any of your choice, to gain perspective. I’m back online again but in a much different way, I don’t feel the need to always be online posting or replying to messages straightway. If you’ve been feeling like you need a little detox, I encourage you to do so, there are so many benefits of it.