The benefits of social media break

Why I went MIA on social media

At the end of the 2022, I decided to spend a few weeks doing absolutely nothing. This coincided with me deleting social media apps from my phone in an attempt to cure my addiction to mindless scrolling.

In recent years, I wasn't too active on social media and I've never ever felt FOMO. Addiction to scrolling formed as a response to stress and brought me no relief whatsoever, so I decided to boot the annoying habit with radical action. Since for some people Instagram is their preferred method of communicating with me, I checked my DMs once a week using a webpage. I noticed that it's pretty much impossible to scroll on the web version, let alone get addicted to it.

After a few months of silence, I didn't feel like coming back, although I re-dowloaded the app to create an account for my business. I was tempted to announce the launch of Being Beyond Infinity and my coaching practice but even that wasn't a good enough motivation to return to social media. From the start I knew that I didn't want to market my work on socials and created the website for desktop and not for mobile. So, I respected the stubborn resistance to sharing glimpses of my life and stayed away from Instagram for good.

Going MIA did not affect my relationships in the slightest because all my friendships exist in real life and we don't even follow each other on socials. I did not miss birthdays, house warmings, or weddings, because people I care about know my phone number, not my Instagram handle. Without social media and its false sense of belonging I made it a point to see friends more often.

Mindless scrolling through endless adds for cat beds and sweatpants got replaced with hours on Duolingo. Whenever I felt stuck in my writing, I opened Duolingo app and did a French lesson. Because I felt like I now had more time, I started watching French TV shows and YouTube videos and connected to Francophones on Tandem. It is safe to say that hours I used to spend on Instagram went into language-learning activities. After a few months of dedicated work, I reached B1 in French and even learned a little Latin.

I also improved relationship with one and only person I truly care about, my cat. She is a skittish little rescue with PTSD, severe anxiety, and a mad fear of humans. After I rescued her when she got hit by a car as a kitten, she spent her entire life indoors showing no desire to leave her kingdom of soft blankets. After quitting social media, I began going for little walks with her, getting her used to the great outdoors. Over the course of months, she went from being terrified of every outdoor sound to a confident puma lying on the sun, watching the planes, ekkekkeing at birds, and stalking geckos.

I became much more grounded and content. Without an input from other people's highlights, micro brags, and downright lies I found myself more grateful than ever for the life I have built for myself. Whenever I needed a validation, I turned inward. The ever-present inner commentator who (since the time Facebook became a thing) mastered the art of comparison finally shut the fuck up.

In the six months I've been unplugged, I started my business, created a website, wrote a bunch of articles, learned French, did research for a screenplay and wrote the first draft, finished semester at University, wrote a book proposal, started working on a book, reworked book proposal and started over with the book, began playing tennis weekly, started dating, read more than 20 books, changed my diet and tried a bunch of new recipes and cuisines – to mention but a few fruits of this break.

Will I ever return to socials? Honestly, I doubt it. I trust my gut and my gut tells me that I am better off unplugged. Every few days I would quickly check if the three people I am interested in posted anything new, flick through DMs, and exit the app. Today, I am happier I've ever been in my entire life. Does that have anything to do with being inactive on Instagram? I suspect that it does.