A couple years ago I stopped using most of my social media apps and deleted a lot of them. These included Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and other social platforms. It was hard to get used to not having those social media platforms. But in the long term, it was a tremendously big relief. At first, it was difficult to tell people that I did not use social media anymore. On social occasions, I often could not talk about the latest news and trends. However, these cons did not weigh up to the great advantages of reducing social media usage. In this article I will talk about the benefits, my intentions, and my thoughts about the future of social media.
Why I Quit Social Media | Additional spare time
The average social media user spends about two hours per day on social media apps. Some people spend even more than that amount on it. When I stopped using social media, I got a lot of additional free time. That gave me space to do things that have a positive impact on my life and my identity. This could be anything like reading more, working on your business or exercising.
I can also build up more patience to do hard things. After all, social media has a big impact on my attention span. When I stopped using social media, I started spending more time on exercising, reading, meditating, and making music. Right now, I don’t even miss using social media.
Less anxiety and jealousy
Another negative effect of using social media, is that it creates a feeling of anxiety and jealousy. You see other people’s pictures and big results all day. When you stop using social media, you have less people to feel jealous about. Instead, you start working on yourself more. This means that you feel more confident, happy, and become better at socializing.
This last point is a big thing. These days a lot of people feel lonely and have difficult times when trying to socialize. Their insecurities get in the way. I feel this too sometimes, because I am 21 years old and grew up in a digital era. But we all have the power to gain control over it. We can start communicating in a spontaneous and healthy way again. The great thing about social media and digitalization is that we can see our errors. That way, we become aware of the up- and downsides of it.
How we could use Social media in the future
In my opinion, the best way to deal with social media is to stop using it for a while. Then you can see if it helps you. I don’t think that deleting your profiles is a wise thing to do. Social media also has a lot of benefits, like selling your products and sharing knowledge with other people. But there are no rules or regulations for social media usage. The effects of it on our society are huge. That is why this is a wise decision for the moment. In the future, there could be measurements like an age limit, or time frames for social media usage. These things could help us to take back control over it. I think social media should work with us, not against us.
Read this article to form new habits that have a positive impact.
I hope you enjoyed this article, have a nice day,
Mart Bergsma
