Season 4 – Episode 9: Social Media Detox

Social Media is a good and bad thing at the same time. It’s good because if you are someone like me who uses it to enhance your business it is much needed.  It’s also bad because you sometimes consistently feel like you are not good enough from the constant “body goals” to “relationship goals” to even seeing a friend get married on Facebook and comparing your life and yourself to whatever you see. Social Media can really put you in your feelings and make it hard for you to get out of them. It is statistically proven that it is a big cause of my generations depression and anxiety as well as the generation under.

It’s the constant pressure of trying to look “perfect” to those you know and those you don’t know. “stunting for the gram” is what I like to call it. You want to make sure that what your viewers are seeing is the “authentic” you and get a lot of likes and engagement. The thing is yes a picture is worth a thousand words but it’s not worth much if the pictures constantly lie. Trying to be “authentic” and “pose” at the same time is a waste of good energy.

This post is dedicated to giving you tips on how to detox on social media and to keep your sanity while using it.

Tip One: Unfollow/unsubscribe to every person or brand etc that makes you feel like you are not good enough even if they are friends and family. Most of the time you can’t even see all those posts at one time due to following so many people. For example, I went from following 1600 people/brands on Instagram too now only following a little under 800. I also unfriended a few folks on Facebook and unsubscribed from newsletters I never read. This part of the detox is important because you don’t want to compare yourself to every post that that person or brand uploads.

– I found myself comparing my life, what I owned, even who I knew, etc one too many times and it took a toll on my self-esteem and how I presented myself to others. My thoughts were usually “I am not pretty enough, don’t have the best body, or even I wish I had the money to do what they are doing or go where they are going” repeat after me. . . THIS IS NOT HEALTHY, THIS IS NOT HEALTHY, THIS IS NOT HEALTHY. The easiest way I found to start to get rid of those thoughts was to unfollow and unsubscribe to things that have festered those thoughts in my head in the first place. –

– I am not saying it’s those people/brands fault but I do think as an Influencer or brand that things are still taking the wrong way and out of context, so we have to watch sometimes what we do and even say. AKA Think before acting on an action or before saying anything. – 

Tip Two: Take a break across all aspects of social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc) You need to refresh your mind, body, and soul and reconnect with who you are and what your end goal is and to really figure out why you are using social media. Just enjoy your life as best as you know how with no interruptions.

– I found when taking at least a week or two breaks have truly helped with reconnecting with why I choose to use social media and what my end goal really is. It has also helped me decide on the different strategies I want to use when it comes to marketing and exposing myself and brand –

Tip Three: Find some inspiration but not by social media. Leave your house and take a walk, go to a museum, go to an art gallery better yet, go and socialize and meet like-minded individuals who will inspire you to do the things that you have always wanted to do. Live in the moment and soak it up, do things that will make not only your heart happy but your soul. These are times that you won’t be able to relive. Its ok to snap a picture here and there but don’t upload immediately wait until your break is over.

– When I was living in the moments with friends and family, I realized how much happier I was, I was able to have better conversations, meet people, and really soak in the bliss of life. The one thing I constantly did that helped me detox is taking baths with bath bombs, candles, and music it was something that not only helped me detox from social media but to also relax from day to day life –

Tip Four: Listen More and Talk less, not only do I say this because this is a lesson I am currently learning. I say this because it’s essential to the process of slowly not letting social media run not only my life but yours too. Listening to whats around you and the people around can truly bring you far. Listening to stories of the people around really humble you and make you realize that everything we see online isn’t really true and it’s up to us to decide what we truly want to believe.

– Sometimes I talk more than I listen due to being excited about a topic or whatever it is I’m talking about. Listening more is a great trait that will help you with not only a detox but with everyday life. While on my detox I spoke to a friend who I haven’t seen in a while and we just caught up she told me everything that was going on in her life and it was humbling to just listen to her and her story. It made me realize how much of social media was taking up my time and how much I was missing and hearing things around me. –

Tip Five: My final tip is to monitor your time on social media, I know it sounds crazy and it sounds like you are monitoring a child. However Think of it this way social media could be your kid and you could be feeding your child’s mindset of all types of things like nudity, crude jokes, self-esteem etc. Social media is all about instant gratification and the more instant gratification you feed the more you will want it. Social media will truly have you thinking that everyone gets what they want when they want, which is why I say to monitor your time, your eyes can be deceiving.

– It’s better so you don’t waste so much time watching people be fake, then doing what you actually want to do and have a real life that doesn’t need to be documented. Just a reference I have monitored my time to only 1 hour a day on all social media outlets. (I am still working on it, I’m going a bit over but its a place to start)  –

I hoped this blog post was able to teach you something or that you were able to take something from this. This was something I was struggling with before I wrote this and I hope you all enjoyed it. 

Until Next Time

XOXO

Teri Michele

Coat – Asos Similar Here (I’ve got my eyes out on this one) / Boots – Timberland Similar Here/ Shirt – Thrifted Similar Here/Jeans Forever 21 Here/ Bag – Alexander Wang Prisma Similiar Here (It’s just a little smaller)/ Watch – Apple Here

Photos By: Zeraya