Social media is at the centre of so much of our free time,  constantly associated with doom scrolling, algorithms, hashtags, and so  many other buzzwords. Recently, I was talking with a few of my roommates about what we like to do when we’re overwhelmed or stressed, and we  came to the topic of our socials. For the last few years, I have seen  countless “taking a break from social media” posts, but I’ve never taken the plunge. This got me thinking about my lifestyle without it. Would  really be so different from now?

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1. How does deleting social media benefit mental health?

FOMO, we’ve all experienced it, but  social media has brought it to a new high. Seeing our peers, or even  strangers, doing everything we could dream of is exhausting and makes it feel like we’re doing something wrong. The reality is that social media is a place to dump your highlights and the most exciting things you’ve  done, not your typical day-to-day activities and definitely not your  struggles. So, by engaging with social media too much, there is a  constant need to compete and compare our lives to what is posted. By  reducing social media, there is less to compare yourself to others on  and you can focus on how much you enjoy each moment rather than saying  things like, “but I could be doing this instead,” or “I wish I could do  that.” In a world where everyone is trying to keep up with the latest  and greatest, it can be easy to forget about our own success. Platforms  are designed to hold your attention, making them large distractions or  digital noise. Less time on social media platforms can help increase  productivity in our daily routines and allocate more time to  self-improvement activities like learning, hobbies, or quality time with loved ones.

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2. Where to start?

Defining social media is a challenge, what really counts? This  can be largely dependent on what you hope to achieve with this social  media detox – limiting doom scrolling is what I chose – because it  changes the goal you’re setting. Once you’ve identified what you plan to focus on, find what apps or sites are directly impacting the issue and  then decide what is not as directly, but still, impacting it. Those main apps will be on the delete list and the other ones will go on the timer list. Next, set a time frame, maybe it’s a week or two of fully  deleting. As for the timer list, set a timer for 10-15 minutes when you  go to use these platforms. For me the delete list apps were TikTok and  Instagram and I noted I frequently get sucked into the rabbit hole of  Pinterest when I get bored, so that was on my timer list. The key is  being realistic about what goal you are setting and what you can  accomplish, even if that means starting small and adding more  afterwards.

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3. How did it affect me?

After a week of not using social media, I found numerous  benefits; my sleep quality was better because I wasn’t scrolling late at night, going out with friends was more engaging, staying in didn’t  leave me feeling like I was missing out, and my overall screen time was  lower. I also noticed a few downsides though and I think that’s because  while I was ready to set aside my social media, my communities weren’t.  Many business and universities use social media platforms as a fast way to distribute important information about events, closures, and other things; by deleting my apps I was missing a lot of community-based  events that I would have liked to know about. Finally, I had to be  honest with myself, sometimes I snoozed those timers on my Pinterest  scrolling, at first that left me feeling pretty guilty, so I settled on  only using Pinterest once everything I needed to achieve that day was  finished and rewarded myself with a ‘cheat snooze’ to compromise.

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4. Managing social media usage moving forwards.

Moving forward I am implementing somewhat of a gameplan to  manage my socials based on what pros and cons I took note of after this  mini experiment. The apps I found useful –even after deleting – could  come back, but I used the screentime feature “App Limits” to restrict  how much time I could spend on them. There is really no need for more  the 20 minutes of TikTok per day in my life! Although I wasn’t very  strict with the timers on Pinterest, they were a useful reminder of  whether I was using my time as effectively as possible, so I’ll keep  them and try to only use it once all my work is done.

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5. How to make your own gameplan:

Make a pros and cons list for each of the apps you deleted OR list what benefits they offeredAssess if there are any apps you think you can let go of – ones you don’t need to reload onto your device at allIf there are apps, you want to redownload:How much time do you need to spend on them? This can be time for staying up to date on events or other information OR just for entertainment (it is totally okay to just scroll, as long as it isn’t  replacing other things you could be doing)Set an App Limit or timer!Other things you should finish before using these apps?Make a to-do listSo, what will your gameplan look like?