I Took a Week Off Social Media to Reset My Brain and This Happened
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ย. 2024
- A month ago I deleted Twitter and Instagram off my phone for a whole week to see if it would change my relationship with social media 📴 How did I do? Have I had any ~revelations? Let's discuss! 🌻 Have you ever taken a social media break? Let me know how it went in the comments!
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A few things I do when I want to scroll through my phone:
- desk is a no phone zone, I have to get up and flop on the bed if I want to watch TH-cam videos properly (a lot of my job is data entry so I get through a lot of videos while doing that)
- I have to sip my water before touching the phone
- phone goes in other room on full volume incase of phone calls if I need to focus
- if im wanting to scroll Ill go do something else cos I'm usually bored with work and tired
- main thing is to delete socials ngl
- playing a podcast is also great cos then I can't play anything else otherwise the sound will be disrupted.
Love these rules!
Oh my god I'm stealing the water one, such a good idea!
Sometimes I have 'no screen' evenings. So I don't look at my phone, my computer, TV, tablet or game consoles. The exceptions during this is that a)I can answer the phone if it rings but otherwise no checking messages b) taking photos (and only taking them, editing or uploading can be done later) and c) listening to podcast/music (as it's not engaging with the screen). I need to do it more tbh, once a week at least but there's plenty of things to do without any of these distractions: baking, cooking, knitting or crochet, other crafts, sudoko, reading, walking, cleaning, organising and list making, just chilling and relaxing.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“What type of shitness I was feeling” lmfao loved that. I need to do this!
There are different brands of shitness. Good to be aware of them all haha
As someone on the other side of the camera (audience), I tend to worry a lot whether my replies on social media are positive and helpful to the people I follow, or if what I say will end up sparking anxiety or other problems for them. I genuinely hate seeing trolls online, and I don't want the people I follow and like online to feel attacked, and I worry how to be a helpful and supportive viewer ... which is weird. Is that my responsibility? Probably not. But if I don't, then who will? I think a lot of people who regularly follow people online feel this way. We follow people Because we like them, and we just want them to be happy. I think parasocial relationships are just weird no matter which side of it you're on.
I'm glad you got a week off from social media, Hannah, and I hope we - your audience - don't ever become a serious problem for you in your life.
that's really interesting that from the audience perspective you also have a lot of things you consider when interacting online. And agreed, parasocial relationships are strange.
I think I know what you mean. I once accidentally wrote a comment which was meant as an observation and it was received (understandably) as offensive and I felt so terrible because the creator was obviously upset and I definitely didn't want that. It felt frustrating to try to explain that later in the comments and not getting there because I really really didn't want to look like a troll or a hater. And I completely agree - Hannah, we follow you for you. 🙂 As long as you're happy, we as your fans are too.
I feel how you do on this!
You're so right that this is a problem for everyone. The most calm and mentally well I have felt during this pandemic is when I have banned myself from looking at Facebook or Instagram for stretches of time and only reading the news first thing on a morning.
Spending the rest of my day either doing work or doing nice things for myself has been so much better for my brain that freaking out over whether my friend from five years ago is eating in a restaurant with people she doesn't live with etc.
Your experience using social media personally vs. professionally is very eye-opening from someone who doesn't have a following. I appreciate your candid discussion, and I hope these tips and tricks (along with reflection) continue to help you have a healthy relationship with social media. I've never felt the need to do a social media break, but I'm considering it just to see if I notice any changes.
As somebody who can forget it for days or spend the evening scrolling, I feel for you as this is your job, the pressure for you to post about your life to keep it interesting and have in mind the next post to get money has got to be quite a thing to live with.
Feel very proud to be part of your Patreon community and hearing you talk about it in this way brings me much joy.
+1
I've deactivated my Facebook for the past three weeks and my stress levels have gone down. But the bad part is my best friends would tag me in memes and local posts so that's something that I miss. Plus my older relatives are on Facebook. I was thinking of reactivating it but not having the app on my phone.
If it’s helpful: something that helped me a lot was clearing most people, pages, and groups from my news feed. My news feed was/is the biggest source of stress for me. If I want to see what certain people have been up to, I can go directly to their profiles. And I still get the notifications when I’m tagged.
I had the same feeling for the past year but recently i need facebook for uni so I now I only go on to facebook on the website or my laptop so that gives me distance between toxic facebook but i can access it when i need it. maybe try that if you feel you want to still use it?
@@Boop_Nicole Good idea. I might try it out.
Whenever I leave my phone for awhile my head weirdly becomes fresh or something . Well done hannah !
“Weirdly becomes fresh or something” - a human trying to describe what our brains should always feel like but phones/social media gets in the way 😂
Ironically just got an ad about how to build your social media presence during this vid 😂
Hahaha
"it's fine to feel the dread, but the dread doesn't control you" YES.
important to remember!
@@morehannah very!
Please share if you find a good news source/newsletter that focuses on marginalized voices! This is why I get sucked back into Instagram all the time. I had to delete it from my phone and now only use it on my computer, which has made me realize how much Instagram REALLY encourages you to use it on your phone. There are a number of features that are only available on the phone (like saving posts into folders), plus it just seems to flow worse on the computer (which can be a good thing with limiting my time on there!). Another upside is I don't get Instagram ads with my ad block on in my browser as well.
I’ve found that creating lists on twitter is really helpful so I can go to a certain list for the specific kind of information I want. It’s allowed me to stop endlessly scrolling through Twitter with no real purpose.
Yesss I keep meaning to make twitter lists!!
More Hannah it took forever when I first made them but it was definitely worth it! Now I just make sure that whenever I follow someone I add them to the appropriate lists
I wish instagram had the same kind of option !!!!
I'm going away camping soon with my partner and we've planned to have our phones on only for emergencies/needing to find places etc. I cant wait as I know I use my phone more than I need too.
Hi. :D Just a tip, and it works for me:
I don't have Instagram, nor Facebook, nor TH-cam app installed on my phone. When I ever want to wander around, I use the browser :D this way, I can still reach them, but it's limited and hard(er) to reach. :D
One of the most helpful tips I've read on youtube comments somewhere is to turn your phone into black and white mode! (triple click the home button on an iphone and select colour filters)
it still lets you see the content and follow what your friends are doing but is WAY less engaging and addicting so it's easier to drag yourself away. These apps are all designed with bright colours to keep you there as long as possible so anything to make it more visually boring is really helpful!
I periodically take social media breaks! I find that once I get used to it I don't miss it as much, when I redownload I tend to use less, and then I gradually fall back into my old patterns and the cycle repeats. But I think that cycle is ok!
Definitely agree that it's not just influencers that are performing their lives on social media. As a bit of an overthinker, I often second-guess myself before posting despite mainly just posting to my friends (e.g. is this fake? is this glamorising something? is this overly negative/positive) and I think it's just because in an in-person conversation you wouldn't feel this same kind of "performance anxiety".
With Covid-19, social media has been ~interesting~ too. Seeing so many people ignoring social distancing, I've found myself wanting to influence people in my life to take things seriously somehow. But then that would feel preachy. And then that gets me thinking about how (to some extent) we all have some level of "influence" on social media because we are naturally influenced by our friends and peers.
I've been having an especially hard time with social media the past few months.. I really want to use it as a source of entertainment and distraction in little in between moments, but it was making me feel so consistently bad that I couldn't really handle it anymore. I deleted instagram/twitter a few times indefinitely. The first couple times ended up just being a day or a few days, but now I've had them off my phone for over a month. I worry that I'm isolating myself even more (in addition to physical pandemic isolation) by doing this, especially bc I have social anxiety and my impulse is to avoid & isolate myself when social situations make me uncomfortable, which for me is an unhealthy coping mechanism, so IDEALLy I think I would find a way to be on socials to get the connection but without feeling shit. So far it's been all or nothing. I really really miss being up to date on trends/memes (lol), feeling connected to random people's lives, and all the jokes and humor. But the constant over analysis of current events that aren't necessarily relevant to me was just TOO overwhelming for my poor empathetic little brain. So anyway. Here we are, a month or so in, off social media, missing it a bit, enjoying it a bit, wishing there was a happy medium !!!!!!
SAME. It’s a real conundrum that the apps that connect me to people, let me see what’s going on in their lives, and generally make me feel good, also expose me to all the crap going on in the world, which turns my anxiety up to the max. I think time limits are key to keep me from falling into the infinite scroll, but I’m also prone to ruminating once I get off the app. So basically I need Facebook to come up with a way to filter out everything that isn’t family/friend pictures, heartwarming animal videos, and memes.
I love this kind of videos where you dive into deep topics. Thank you for sharing your experience. When you said you realiced you felt like shit after scrolling on Instagram for a while I was "god, it happens to me too and I've never known why". This videos make me think about living my everyday Life more conciously
I love that this video popped up right now because I’m in the middle of my social media break week and I feel SO GOOD, so I’m loving seeing this video! 💛🧡
I can’t wait to see how your break from social media went!! ❤️ I think it’s good to take a break from it and have a nice mental reset! I’m planning on deleting some of my social media accounts permanently before school starts, it’s too toxic for me
I've also had some struggles with getting sucked in by social media. for me it helped to narrow it down to just one social media app. I only use instagram, and I also make sure that the majority of my feed consists of friends or 'real people' instead of influencers/companies
One of the things I've done to prevent pointless scrolling (mainly in a not-always-at-home kind of situation) when I'm in a place where I have waiting time is that I always have at least one ebook on my phone. That way, I can get into the habit of deciding not to open up social media when I'm feeling drawn to my phone and can use the time in a more productive and fulfilling way. Plus then I can continue reading the book on another device if I want, and being able to get and start reading a library book instantly is my favorite thing.
I also sort of had to take this week off social media (because of poor connection) and i totally related to feeling shit the moment i started scrolling again, so interesting. I mostly fear missing out on what people are up to (mostly my friends), but also a weird feeling of guilt or worry that i'm not showing other people where i am or what im doing. Also i really like the idea of making it a conscious and purposed decision to go on instagram or twitter and find control there. Great vid!
Social media is yours to curate. I noticed it too- certain types of accounts or people always posting a certain type of content used to make me feel rubbish. So I've been trying to curate a space of things that don't make me feel that way. And just generally- im following some celebrity that always posts douchey pics that i roll my eyes at- hey! This is my feed- unfollow. Such a great thing to realise. Like on Tumblr- if you dont like or its just annoying seeing a type of content- filter it out- thats completely fine & completely your choice. You are under no obligation to follow anyone.
(It does take a while to be aware & unfollow ppl if there are more personal ties & im not totally there but its really good to be aware of & start doing)
I found a lot of good Ted Talks about how social media is designed to be addictive, and how unhealthy it can be for our mental health. It's pretty interesting. So after I found those, I went off social media for a few months and it was the best thing and I felt so good and more relaxed. I did feel a little "out of the loop" for a bit in the beginning but that went away after I realized that if I were to go back on just to see, it would be the same stuff being posted over and over. I love how it connects us, but it is very toxic. It is mostly a highlight reel... controlled and edited content. If that is all you're consuming on a daily basis, it starts to get to you and make you feel like crap for not looking a certain way or living a certain way. I'm definitely going on another break soon. Love this video btw!
As a ‘normal person’ that uses social media I took 3 months off social media and honestly it the most greatest, relaxing thing I have done! I am however back on there now but I have put a time limit on my socials for an hour and half a day and I have it switched off from 9pm-7am it definitely helps a lot particularly if social media plays a huge part on mental health, however I do still notice that I compare and look on other people’s profile even if I don’t follow them, I have to keep reminding myself that those people i look at only show their highlight reel and nothing else it’s hard nowadays I feel like cos I feel the pressure to be perfect when I know I’m not 🤷🏻♀️
Such an interesting video! Would love to know what new outlets/ newsletters you end up finding as I would love this too! I worry that we all end up having the same opinions when we get news from Twitter or Instagram because the news always comes with someone else’s opinions that you end up reading. If it was just the facts then we could read it and make up our own minds x
This video could not have come at a better time for me, I’m a week in to quitting social media for a month and so many things you’re saying are really resonating!
this couldn’t have been posted at a better time. i start class again on monday so you’ve inspired me to delete apps for the first week of school!
I deleted Instagram and Facebook fully in January, and it is amazing. If people really want to find me, I have a large family and friends since grade school - they can find me through them. I have a problem scrolling aimlessly through Tumblr and TH-cam, but I'm working on it. It makes my work life easier to, having no public presence where people can find me easily.
This is actually so similar to my experience with social media over the last few weeks! I finally deleted twitter and Instagram from my phone because I was sort of accepting that they overwhelmingly sparked feelings of insecurity in me. At the same time, especially in terms of twitter, I feel like it’s the only way for me to stay up to date with the more radical political/ cultural perspectives that I’m interested in. What you said about subscribing to particular newsletters etc is a great idea. My job had absolutely nothing to do with social media and honestly this is kind of important to me because my relationship with it has been so fraught for so long. Thank you for talking so honestly and insightfully about this as I think it’s something everyone deals with to different degrees.
I did a social media break when this whole lockdown mess really took off so from April until last week, I think 1st August I had deleted Insta, Twitter and Facebook off my phone and never looked at the web versions. I felt like my brain needed to decompress from all the overwhelming stuff I seeing and hearing. It felt good to not feel the need to look at phone every hour or so.
Happy for you!!
I feel you on this one. Instagram eats up my time and always makes me feel like shit. I have actually deleted it several times, but I keep coming back because of home workouts and probably also FOMO (I follow a bunch of people whose TH-cam videos I watch and they will mention something they posted on Instagram)
The feed is fine, even the stories, but sometimes I end up in the suggested posts and that's bad. Since I'm looking into workouts, they will show me posts about dieting and weight loss (while I'm on recovery from anorexia and still pretty much underweight). Also I end up reading comments, just yesterday I saw a funny post about a child doing acrobatics while breastfeeding, which my son does all the time, and there were like 279 people judging that person for nursing a toddler.
Idk I think it's a certain need to feel connected but then remembering that a lot of people in the world are actually shit. I don't mean to be negative, but some time alone with our thoughts does so much more for us than consuming the ideas of others..
But anyway, thank you for sharing! I think I'm going to try it as well.
I stopped using Facebook about 4 months ago, I was just sick and tired of reading the narcissistic posts and comments that no one would actually say in real life to a person in front of them.
Am I missing out on things? Probably. But I can honestly say not having the weight of thinking about what idiots who I don't know and don't care about on my mind is so freeing. I'm reading more, studying more, doing things that actually have value to my life instead of mindless looking at other people's lives and opinions. I'm not entirely off social media by the way, I still use Twitter and look at Instagram, but my follow list on both is low and only relevant to what interests me.
If you need social media for work that's fine, if not step back, you don't have to leave all the apps, but evaluate which ones bring you joy and benefits and remove those apps or followers which don't. You might be surprised just how much better you feel.
Edit: Fixed the autocorrect that made Instagram into Instragram 🤔
I've been on a twitter and insta break since the start of the month (hoping to go the whole month!) and it's been alright! most of my timeline is a lot of feminism and anti-racism activism and its quite exhausting as a black woman to see trolls saying sexist and racist things to be reactionary all the time and I needed a break. I love social media as a way to share knowledge and resources and even just to share your life but sometimes taking a little pause is necessary! :)
IDK if you've read "how to not always be working" but it speaks to this!!!
Social media breaks are so useful. I always go off social media (including youtube) when I go on holiday, I find it really helps me reset and properly enjoy myself. When I go back online, for the first day i'm in awe of all the new content I can catch up on, but after that I slowly feel myself slipping into old reflexes and overall feeling kinda shitty.
such a good idea!!
thank you for reminding me that it's been a while since i cried my eyes out while watching make happy
I cut down a lot after I didn't have WiFi for a week and noticed how much better I felt. This video inspired me to use the digital balance settings on my phone to set time limits on my apps and hopefully remind me to use them less. So we'll see how that goes!
I'm currently on a social media break, done it for about a week now and it's going well so far. I dont miss it, I'm happier to not be on it and I haven't become jealous of my friends having lives :)
Love this video! I don't work in social media so I have the joy of regulating based on what I want to access in my free time. But one big help for me was deleting twitter. Twitter seems to be a bit of a shouting box and I felt like it just wound me up. I get my updates from news sites and follow people on Instagram that share important stories that the news doesn't cover. I think it helps me to formulate my own opinions instead of following the ones with the most likes.
Love what your doing Hannah, I am going to investigate patreon ❤️
This new channel of yours is honestly a blessing. I love the content you come up with!
I deleted Twitter about a month or so ago as it was just such a negative place to be and I needed to take a step back from that for my own sakes and I have yet to reinstall it. I haven’t found myself ‘lost’ without it or that it adds anything to my sense of day. It’s quite refreshing really I just need to get over this sense of fear of missing out with instagram that I want to know what all my friends are doing and finding inspiration from the people I follow so I can delete that too.
I really enjoy this self-reflective content Hannah! I think you just inspired me to delete Instagram for a while too.
I am actually currently writing my Master thesis about Instagram Addiction and specifically examining how a users followed accounts/content might affect this behavior. It's super interesting, and I'd love to share the quiz (which I know you love taking haha) once it is ready :)
damn cool!! best of luck with your masters, sounds interesting!
I gave up social media for the first two months of 2018 and it was really eye-opening. When I returned to it I deleted most of the people I followed. Now (thanks to the android well-being settings) I have social media on a 1 hour daily limit and I have it blocked from bedtime til midday to stop me from scrolling first thing in the morning.
i took a two week break from twitter last month, i use it a lot for friends and keeping up to date. i found myself wishing i took longer off it, 'cause the moment i went back to it i had that feeling of shitness again, but like you said with social medias being the only outlet to finding this info, i kept wanting to rely on it for just that but the endless scrolling, and that feeling of wanting to be active/see what i was missing was source of my shitness feeling. now i've just put that timer on there, so lets see how that goes.
In 2016 I deleted my FB, Instagram & Twitter accounts. This was due to the hate and outpourings that came about because of Brexit. I also disconnected my TV from live broadcasting for the same reason. For about a month I felt withdrawal symptoms which surprised me and not reaching for my phone or switching the TV on left me with a lot of spare time. Moving beyond that I feel I am the best version of me that I have been in a long time. I still interact with the world but on platforms I have control over and that works for me.
I almost never scroll through social anymore. I mainly just check stories or notifications. When I scroll now, I very quickly feel bothered. And it's not necessarily the types of posts. It's just the mindless distracting of my focus. I don't know how people pressure themselves to post something every day.
i often delete all my social media (twitter tumblr instagram and youtube) for a couple of weeks during exam season at uni and it’s a godsend!! i started doing it so i could concentrate more on my revision and exams without being distracted while at the library, but i didn’t realise how much extra stress i was getting just from being on social media. For anyone else who experience so much anxiety and stress around exams I would definitely recommend !!
ooh good shout and great discipline!
I can definitely relate to finding myself scrolling on insta way too many times every day, but it's also the way the app has been designed for us to use it. I highly recommend Cal Newport's books, specifically on Digital Minimalism for going into more depth of why and how we use social media the way we do.
Ooh thanks for the rec!
Thanks for sharing, especially the tips and tricks. Confession time: I tried to do several hiatus from Social Media before, because I spend waaaaay toooo much time on Instagram and TH-cam. (To be fair, it's really only those 2 platforms for me). Every time I failed miserably and barely got through the first day. That fact really got me thinking... I want to try again and maybe think more about alternative activities when I'm itching for Social Media time 😁
I am currently not using my social media. I use, of course, apps like Whatsapp - for communication with the rest of the world -, but it's been a couple of months that I don't post on instagram and I just put a picture on stories on the day of my birthday and answered some birthday messages. I deleted my twitter completely, so there is no turning back to that now and my screentime is mostly used to watch youtube videos and chat with my friends. The reason I did that is because of the isolation I was consuming a lot more time using my phone and it was giving me so much anxiety and I was getting more depressed than I usually am. So, I just let it go, and even though I miss a little bit, especially to see what people are doing in their lives, I do not want to go back to use it every day. It consumes too much to be there and I don't have the energy or think it is really necessary to have a presence online - not if you are a normal person like me, I understand having to have a presence online when you're a creator! ANYWAY... this was a rambling session, but just wanted to add as well that I really love your videos and I consider your videos part of my routine, like if you were my friend and we were catching up! So lots of love and take care
yesssss! my biggest tip is to identify which app is causing you the most turmoil... best thing for me was deleting twitter from my phone. yes i still go on there, but it is more of an effort when it is safari and so i'm less likely to find myself logging in throughout the day. i identified that for me, twitter was the most destructive to my mental health as it is normally the most vicious + i get in rabbit hole of people arguing. instagram for me is less destructive mainly down to the people i follow, ticktock is the same aswell as its largely positive posts that pop up!
if anyone is struggling please sit back, think about which apps are hindering you the most/causing you the most anxiety and cut it out! it doesnt have to be alllll apps forever!
been watching you for a while now hannah, and as a fellow short brown haired, big boobed jewish gal i identify with some much of what you talk about! anyway... keep it up! mind dump over!
love the mind dump! that's such a good idea about putting up that extra barrier for you to access twitter
@@morehannah definitely! eventually you forget about the app, and only go on it intentionally rather than out of habit!
The number of times I checked social media for no reason during this video is a problem. I wish I could just completely ditch social media but it’s by far the best/easiest way to keep up with people, whether that’s creators or acquaintances or friends. One thing that I have done for some time is really limit how many people I follow on each platform and curating only what makes me feel not-shit but instead of endless scrolling I just find nothing new has happened since I last checked 5 mins ago. Another good thing I did was after having a mini-breakdown 18 months ago was set up a completely private no followers/no following twitter account where I just vent like a mini diary to me and me only - that *really* helps - turns out I don’t need people to read/respond whereas it’s more upsetting if there are people who *could* respond but don’t (e.g. if I’m having a difficult day and need a virtual hug)
Yeah it’s the mindless checking!! It’s such a new human habit so surely we can unlearn it???
I give up social media for lent every year so for about 40-50 days. It is so good. I have timer on my Instagram and Facebook but only for 35 minutes a day. I feel so much better for it.
I had a social media cleanse at the beginning of this year! It was a month-long cleanse in January. Because I was stuck at home the entire month, the only thing I'd do was scroll on my socials. At the time, I was also struggling with body image issues, so I was obsessed with comparing myself and how I looked to others. On top of that, I was experiencing some heavy FOMO. I decided that in order to get out of that funk I needed to step away and clear my head. I started exercising, meditating, and eating healthier by the time I was finished! I still get some cases of extreme social media binging, but I've gotten much more conscious about it.
That’s amazing! Damn I don’t think I could do a month (business wise). I honestly think I could personally but I’d be scared about what it would mean for my career.
More Hannah Have you seen Matt D’Avella’s video? Highly recommend! th-cam.com/video/cNFdjP_F9sU/w-d-xo.html he didn’t think he could do it either!
Ooh I haven’t. Will give it a watch!
It must be so odd to know that thousands of people are going to see your Instagram like I literally cannot imagine that so I'm not surprised it stresses you out.
As someone without a following it feels very much like a shout into the void every time I post on socials. On Instagram I use it to document certain events and it's helpful to keep a timeline e.g. went to lake district with boyfriend for 4th anniversary in 2019. It's also useful for my friends and fam to keep up with (as is Facebook, yes I still use it). I had Twitter when I was 14 - 17 and that was "shout into the void" territory and I deleted it when the Cringe Wave came over me and I realised "omg this is going to be on the internet forever" so yaknow, my emo phase didn't exist ;) haha
I deleted Facebook and Instagram just before lock down (this year's yardstick) after going "yeah I'll make a start on dinner" at 6pm and looked up two minutes later at 8pm. I haven't put them back in, but I notice my main want for it is when I'm bored (I will scroll through TH-cam videos) and when my darling boyfriend is knee deep in a reddit chat and ignoring me at the pub. 🙄
Honestly even you just saying that it must be weird knowing thousands of people will see my photos I’m like “OMG thousands of people are gonna see them” 😱😱 I cant even imagine that many people
@@morehannah woops sorry! 😅
I just removed all apps on my phone that present a significant time suck for me. I deleted all of my social media accounts over a year ago, but still spent a ton of time on my phone each day. Mostly on TH-cam. I uninstalled TH-cam, a game, and my web browser. If something is important enough, I can get on the computer to look it up. I am hoping this will make me happier overall and help combat the phone addiction since I have been doing three to five hours of screen time each day.
Yeah that makes total sense and if you need to look something up you can just make a note of it in a notes app and then look it up later ☺️
i deleted the twitter and instagram apps when i went on vacation a few weeks ago, haven't looked back since! i haven't opened instagram in ages. you kind of stop having the social media fomo once you've been off for long enough and realise your life quality doesn't actually diminish from not being completely up to date on all the internet drama and terrible things happening around the world :D
Yeah I think there’s this idea that your life is better and you are a better person if you know about EVERYTHING but that’s just unsustainable
Can you please make a video rounding up some awesome non-mainstream news sites you find?! I agree--I'd love to replace some of that social media time with supporting actual news sites to get the info missing from mainstream news!
It was really interesting to hear your thoughts and experiences. That's a good experiment. I also have this habit of just taking my phone and scrolling... If you want to try and use social media like the people that don't use for their jobs you can try and make an account that doesn't connect to your name and try and post there for fun! I've heard other people with a following do that and they love it! ❤️
My relationship with social media is weird. Im 21 and for me not being active in social media is something normal, the only platform I visit almost everyday is youtube. The curious thing for me is that my friends and peers thinks its super weird. They cant understand how I dont use it more often, some people thought it was even shady that i didnt use instagram or facebook and that the oldest posts were years old. Some people even thought I had a creepy vibe or something worth hiding because I don't share my life or want to see what other people are doing every single day. I dont use them because ive never liked them, thats it.
This is such a great idea Hannah! Very interesting to see what your outcomes were after this experiment. If you got a lot out of it, then perhaps more no-screen time would be good for you! I know it would be great for MANY people :P
You can even try be intentionally mindless to relax as long as you notice where your your emotional ladder is heading over the time you are spending scrolling- if you find your mood dipping again into the realm of shitness, you pull yourself out for protection❣️💕
💜😍🧡 Thank you for your insights and wisdom darling xxxx
I'm on one right now...partially! I'm still looking at my feeds but I'm NOT replying, commenting, liking or posting to ANY off it! I'm experimenting to see if I can eventually get to the point where I just don't look at it at all! Baby steps I guess?
I recently got fed up with how much I was on Facebook. I decided to set a 2 hour time limit on Facebook via Screen Time. AND turning off the notification bubble for the app. Amazed at how much less I go to click on Facebook.
Omg turning off notifications has been such a game changer. I recently did it for twitter and haven’t looked back.
I turned off all notifications on my phone except for FB messenger and what’s app because I was looking at my phone constantly. I still need to work on just picking up my phone to scroll endlessly and the need to post. It serves no purpose!
i am waay too addicted to my phone. putting it in another room, turning it to grayscale, and deleting distracting apps (and then re-downloading after a day or so) helps sometimes
I reorganized my apps to all be hidden within bins/categories and it really helped with those reflex pickups because the apps we’re right there
no one would notice if I "took a week off from social media" :P but I love the way you think about things Hanna and happy that your doing something for you.
I love this video! As someone who follows a handful of influencers/content creators/people on the internet and as someone who works in social media for my job at a non-profit, I’m always so interested in the discourse surrounding social media/social media breaks! I enjoyed hearing your insights. Somethings I thought of while watching: 1) the podcast Rabbit Hole by the New York Times. I just started listening but if you’re interested in the internet I think you found intriguing. 2) I have separate social media accounts for when I wanna follow people idk in real life and people I know irl. It kinda helps with the comparison trap, cause people I don’t know irl I feel leas bad when I compare myself because I KNOW they’re curating whereas my peers I feel like they “curate” less so I feel like I can actually compare myself to them... anyways thanks for the video! 🧡🧡🧡
Omg that’s so interesting you recommended the rabbit hole podcast! I’d never heard of it before but was speaking with a friend this evening who recommended it too!! WILD!!
More Hannah woah!! I only got about half way through listening tbh...the format is kinda discombobulating (lol) I think it might be better as a video than a podcast format. Still recommend for the ideas/themes though!
Absolutely loved the deeper chats, extremely well said! thank you so much for these insights
I want to do a pretty embroidery of "The dread doesn't control you".
When my smartphone broke in 2013 I had to use an old Nokia and it was such an eye opening experience. Before I hadn't realised how much time I spent on my phone and how much it stressed me out. Every time I got a notification I had to check it straight away and I had some serious FOMO. I felt so much more relaxed and destressed with an old phone that I've never gone back to a smart phone. It takes a bit more planning (e.g. look up where to go before I leave the house and looking at physical bus time tables and be prepared to wait) but it's so worth it, I'm so much more mindful now. I also have a very low phone bill (because I don't use any data and barely even text) and I never have to buy a new phone when mine break, people are very willing to give me their old ones for free. I have probably saved thousands of pounds in the last 7 years.
The FOMO is so real
Have you done a vid on how you organize your apps?? Would love to see how that’s evolved, I’m trying to figure that out for myself
Have you ever read The Circle by David Eggers? Because everyone should tbh. They way you talk about ‘the dread’ just made me think of it.
loved this video hannah! would love to see a follow-up video on obtaining trustworthy news from other sources besides social media, and how to have a healthy relationship with news consumption. when i took my social media break (back in january) i found that to be the hardest part of it and would love to hear more of your thoughts on that! (or if anyone here in the comments knows about some sources/digests, please let me know!)
yes please people in the comments help us! I'm subscribed to a couple of the guardian's newsletters but I also know just getting it from one source isn't great but then is getting like 5 daily news emails better than being bombarded by news on social media?!?! I don't know!!
@@morehannah !!!! right. i'm thinking maybe scheduling 30min-1hr of news-reading a day? the important thing will be curating a solid list of news platforms to read/watch from. kind of simulating evening news? but then i'm afraid i won't have a wide enough scope? or maybe too wide of a scope? i honestly don't think human brains were prepared to have to absorb as much information as we are fed through social media lol how can this even be balanced???
P.S - i got my common room pin in the mail last week and i love it! hope you're doing well!!
i really loved this video ! it felt very personal and like we were skyping and talking as friends :)
This is something really interesting. I've had an instagram as a freelance illustrator but been taking a break from it during lockdown just because I've been struggling to be creative at first so had no content. Meanwhile start of lockdown i decided to creat a bookstagram again just to have an outlet that I was really into when I couldn't go out and ive realised that I'm getting really bad habbits transferring from my relationship with my work instagram to the book one. Such has hunting for followers, sticking to a posting timetable etc. I've chilled out about it now and am enjoying it more. Also it made me realise this bad feelings I get from social media, so i just decided to unfollow accounts that I found were triggering that inside of me.
Yeah it's so easy to get sucked into a pattern of consumption and posting that we didn't consciously choose!
@@morehannah I sometimes get moments too when my phone isn't on my desk that I have double tapped where it should be. When i do that its the biggest sign that its time to stop! 😅
Thank you for sharing this, Hannah. I have decided to restrict my app time to see if my wellbeing improves.
I took a week off instagram and tumblr (facebook is almost a nothing app for me unless I'm posting and youtube is okay and i never use twitter) like 3 weeks ago. I'm part of a fandom on tumblr and a big part of my explore page on instagram is also about this fandom. One of the actresses from the show passed away around 3 weeks ago and it hit me hard, and it was all over instagram especially, and tumblr for 5-7 days so I deleted the apps once I knew she was dead so that I didn't have to be inundated with posts and pictures of the late actress and to protect my mental health. It lasted for around 6 or 7 days but it was a v good idea. I haven't even really started scrolling properly on instagram again because it's gotten boring (at least I'm part of a community on tumblr and have convos and things to engage in).
(Also if people are interested I'm talking about the Glee fandom and the late Naya Rivera).
I’ve never done a full social media break but I have deleted Instagram for months at a time because when I’m struggling I find it to be a way that I torture myself with the endless scroll.
I put the screen time function on for 10am-8pm everyday so that when I click in the app I have to go out of it or choose “use for 15 minutes” and it closes after that!
I would LOVE your perspective/response to the book How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell from both a personal and professional perspective. It looks like a small pretty book but is jam packed with thought provoking stuff I've really had to gnaw my way through (in the best way)
Honestly, I couldn’t finish it. I found it way too dense.
I find it really helpful having 2 phones. I use an old phone with a pay as you go sim card for my work stuff which only works on wifi so is cheap. Means I can't take work with me when I go out etc. which is perfect for me! I only use this for work social media. Then I use my personal one with an app blocker so there's only a few hours a day I can go on social media. It helps stop my mindless scrolling...though even though I know my app blocker is turned on my muscle memory stil tries to open social media!
Thank you for this video! You have inspired me to delete Facebook and put a limit on Instagram ❤️
I find deleting the apps and then just using social media on a normal web browser on my phone is much better because the interface isn't as smooth. So then when I do go to use it I get fed up before I get hooked into constant scrolling
I normally do a lot of photography, and I've pretty much stoped in lockdown.
I’m kind of similar I don’t have a following but I get such anxiety from Instagram I literally only go on it now if someone I love has posted something I want to look at cause I always felt pressured to post and to like others posts however I use Facebook and TH-cam everyday and feel completely calm and it’s my way to relax I feel like there’s some sites which are just made in a way that makes everyone feel compared while there’s others which you can spend time on looking at memes or your loved ones posts (or for me dance mum videos 😂) 😊❤️
Thank you for this, your honesty and your brains!
News is exactly why I stay plugged into instagram also!! I would love to find out if you find a news outlet to replace that
So my cooking timer broke last week, and just as you describe that you found yourself reaching for your phone, I found myself reaching for my cooking timer. I do this at least once a day, and it always irritates me to have to go and look for my phone. The worst is if I'm washing at the same time, bc I always use the timer on my phone to remember the washing, so then I suddenly have to be very aware of the minutes on the clock to not ruin my food. What I'm saying is, I rarely use my phone. It's more like a pair of earrings; I always wear them when I'm out of my flat, I might fidget with them when I'm nervous or bored, but usually they just exist. I do listen to a lot of audiobooks, but I don't count that as using my phone, bc I litterally only touch the phone to start and stop the book. Twitter is my prefered social media solely due to the non endless scrolling (it might help that I only follow 20 accounts..). I prefer to live under a rock, the most important stuff will reach me anyway, but I will listen to the news over the radio quite regularly except now during summer break.
i was just thinking maybe i should take a social media break and then i got weirdly panicky about the thought of missing whatever was going on on twitter (i've made some new friends there recently and because they're new friendships i don't want them to forget about me lol) so i think that's a sign i probably should take a break? this video has made me think about some stuff. also the common room rules
also highly recommend making a spam insta that you put on private and just let your friends follow and post whatever the fuck you want especially if you want to use instagram like a "normal" person (although if you're trying to be less reliant on social media that might be counter productive
Yeah the personal/private insta does keep coming up in my brain.
And if you want to take a break from twitter but scared of losing friendships I’m sure they’ll understand if you decide to take a break and either you’ll speak to them when you’re back or chat on a different platform?? I dunno... I don’t understand gen z sorry daisy 😂😂
More Hannah my brain works in mysterious ways it doesn’t make any sense 😂
Being mid forty my go to social media app is still Facebook (although also use Instagram, TH-cam, Discord etc) and it took me a while to realise its peoples perfectly photoed or edited life highlights, not every day reality.
When I scroll social media, I don't feel like shit. I feel like the world is in shitstorm.
I took some time off social media for 2 things: when I saw that I was constantly reaching for it to fill bordom and when I felt like I was constantly comparing myself to my friends and peers. I logged off and deleted the apps and just never went back on for most of them 😂😂. I don't really feel the need to reinstall the ones I didn't. I honestly felt like a huge weight was gone from my mind when I'd done it. Ive been debating on wheather or not I should go back onto Insta but I dont need or have the urge to join like I used to. The fomo is there but its breaf and fleating.