5 reasons you should detox from social media

Have you ever counted the amount of time you spend on social media platforms? You’ll be amazed.

Social media is like a drug. The same way alcohol and nicotine release dopamine hormones that makes us feel good, social media has the same effect. Therefore, the more time one spends in social media leads to addiction.

Addiction affects how we live our daily life. It may derail us from working or studying as required and even steal our social life.

Below are major benefits one can gain after detoxing from social media:

Stop unhealthy competition

Social media platforms provide ground for competition. This can be measured by the number of likes, reactions and comments one gets on a post or picture. This brings out the competitive nature in us by trying to have the best post with right words, or a great picture that is captivating.

However, this may also lead to depression and anxiety as a person might keep checking how his/her post is ‘performing’. If the performance is below their expectations, one’s self esteem might drop or make them go to great lengths to fake it so as to gain more reactions.

When one reduces the number of posts, pictures and amount of time they use on social media, they achieve a mental health break, which has a lot of effect on one’s mental health.

Connect with the real world

It is just disturbing how people in modern age cannot hold a five minute conversation while on a date or dinner or function without looking at their phones every now and then. This is because of social media notifications that keep popping up. We have lost touch with the real world since we spend a lot of time is the internet world.

You will be surprised on how many people you can have one-on-one conversation with when not looking at your phone every other minute. This will also make you stay in touch with things happening right around you that you didn’t pay attention to because you were on social media.

Living the moment

We live on social media so much that we don’t enjoy the moments we are having. For instance, a person is at a concert and instead of enjoying the band playing and dance, he/she is busy streaming live on social media. How are you going to dance to that favourite rock song, singing, throwing your hands up when streaming live on Facebook?

It is okay to document events of your life but how are you going to remember the experience if you keep living your life through the lens of social media.

Stop obsessing

That ex you keep stalking on social media to see if their life is miserable or happier without you, that is obsession. This can turn out to be a harmful activity that can hinder one from getting over and moving on with life to better stuff that the future holds.

Staying away from social media gives one time to heal and get over a painful past. Dealing with such emotions directly secures your chances of self-improvement.