We carry our phones with us wherever we go, and the most important thing we do with them is check all of the social media platforms. It may begin with a desire to connect with others and later become addictive. Then you get to the point where you feel as if you can’t exist without social media. If you’re feeling the same way and need a break, you could try a social media detox. If you’re not sure how to go about doing a social media detox, we’re here to help. Continue reading to learn how to begin a social media detox and feel great afterward.
Things to do to start with a social media detox:
Unfollow people
You would have opened your personal account a long time ago and would have followed everyone you used to communicate with. But things change, and you may no longer be in contact with them but continue to follow them on social media. Following people you used to know on social media is fine until it makes you feel bad.
If you always have a negative feeling after viewing their posts or stories, it’s time to move on and unfollow them permanently. You can mute their posts and notifications instead of unfollowing them if you’re too kind and don’t want them to think anything terrible of you. They won’t even know you’ve muted them, and you’ll be able to live in peace.
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Unfollow pages and leave groups
This is identical to the first stage, except instead of unfollowing people, you must unfollow pages that no longer bring you joy or information. If all you feel when you look at a given brand’s postings or stories are unpleasant emotions, simply unfollow them. You should also unfollow any hashtags you are following on Instagram, as well as any YouTube channels you are no longer interested in. Another thing you should do is disconnect from any Facebook or Whatsapp groups that are no longer relevant to you. Leave the group if you don’t feel like participating with them anymore, whether it’s for a community or to reconnect with old acquaintances.
Turn off notifications on social media
You do not need to disable WhatsApp notifications because you may receive vital texts from friends or family. However, you should turn off notifications from all other social media platforms on a frequent basis. Begin by doing this for a weekend and notice if you feel any better than you did previously. If so, schedule it for every weekend or on some weekdays if you don’t want to be sidetracked. You may disable a social media app’s notifications by heading to your phone’s settings.
Delete the social media apps
For some folks, simply turning off social media app notifications may not be sufficient. So, if you continue to use the app and spend more time than you wish browsing through the feed and exploring the app, uninstall it. You can always reinstall it once your social media detox is complete. However, you must be aware of how much time you spend on social media platforms following your detox so that you do not feel as if you no longer have control over your life.
Plan and schedule content ahead
You must be active on social media if you are a social media creator or influencer, or if you own a business. And if this is the source of your exhaustion, you can prepare and schedule the content you want to post ahead of time. You may schedule all of the stories, videos, and feed posts you wish to publish for a week or two and simply monitor the process.
Instagram reels are the one thing you can’t schedule for now. However, you may always film the reels and save them as a draft with captions and hashtags. You’ll only need 10 minutes to publish a reel and get back to your life. Meta Business Suite is the greatest and free solution for scheduling content for Instagram and Facebook.
Even if you accomplish all of the above, you may find yourself reaching for your phone more frequently. That is fairly common, however, you should focus on breaking that tendency. So establish a plan for what you intend to do during your social media detox days. You’ll be so caught up that you won’t even have time to check your phone.
Have you ever done a social media detox to feel better? If you did, how did it go? Please let us know!