Recently I started frequently doing a social media detox for my mental health. What prompted me to stop using social media was a comment I made about the importance of Flouride as a former dental assistant on Tiktok. Hundreds of people attacked me saying I was wrong and stupid and that I wasn’t to be trusted.
I felt so sick after mentioning I meant no harm in multiple comments and just deleted Tiktok altogether. I later did research and I’m on the fence about fluoride but that’s not the point.
When I deleted Tiktok I also deleted all other forms of social media. I was social media-free for a whole month and in that short time, I was extremely productive and was able to spend lots of one-on-one time with my son.
My mental health was boosted and I was overall feeling happy. After the month I downloaded social media again to build my business and not long after my mental health started to decline.
I finally decided to do my research on the benefits and negative side effects in hopes to see if there was any actual research done about this. Turns out there is some research done about it.
First, what is phone addiction?
According to Addiction Center, “phone addiction is the obsessive use of a smartphone. The behavioral addiction is often dubbed as “nomophobia,” or the fear of being without a mobile device.” That sounds like a lot of us. I’ve even heard people mention that they simply could not live without their cell phone which points to what… ADDICTION!
In the same article, Addiction Center mentions “The devices are carefully designed to be hard to put down. Through its colors, sounds, and vibrations, the technology purposely keeps its users engaged. According to former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris, features like “pull to refresh” were inspired by slot machines and other casino games.”
Honestly, I’m not surprised that cell phones were literally designed to be addictive. However, it’s really scary to me that we are subjecting our children to these devices and starting their addiction young. Hell, I was one of those kids! My dad would hand us his IPad to keep us quiet and entertained anytime we went to visit him.
For me, this led to addiction throughout my teenage years especially and ran into adulthood.
I am just now actively working to make my phone a healthy tool rather than an addiction that I feed into without thinking.
Healthline talks about phone addiction and states; “It’s worth noting that there are some important similarities between cell phone overuse and behavioral addictions like compulsive gambling.” They state that the similarities include:
- loss of control over the behavior
- persistence, or having real difficulty limiting the behavior
- tolerance, the need to engage in the behavior more often to get the same feeling
- severe negative consequences stemming from the behavior
- withdrawal, or feelings of irritability and anxiety when the behavior isn’t practiced
- relapse, or picking up the habit again after periods of avoidance
I don’t know about y’all but some of these symptoms seem very familiar. I think I’m calling myself out here. This is just very interesting information!
Soo… What are the negative side effects of Phone addiction?
Doing research on the negative side effects really hit home for me. I really struggled with many of these issues throughout my teenage years and really didn’t realize it may have been caused by my phone addiction.
According to Addiction Center, the following are some of the side effects that may be caused by phone addiction:
- Sleep deficit
- Lower concentration
- Creativity blocks
- Aggravated ADD
- Anxiety
- Reduced cognition
- Stress
- Loneliness
- Insecurity
- Impaired relationships
- Poor grades
- Psychological disorders
Unfortunately, it may also lead to more severe symptoms such as GABA Dysfunction, a decrease of grey matter in the brain, and suicide.
It breaks my heart to know that this wonderful piece of technology is also extremely harmful and even deadly. No wonder taking a short break from my phone changed my mood significantly.
What is Social Media addiction?
Social media addiction goes hand in hand with phone/screen addiction. If you have a social media addiction, you have a phone/screen addiction. However, that’s not necessarily true the other way around. You can have a phone addiction but not a social media addiction.
The Addiction Center talks about this in their article titled Social Media Addiction.
“Social media addiction is a behavioral addiction that is characterized as being overly concerned about social media, driven by an uncontrollable urge to log on to or use social media, and devoting so much time and effort to social media that it impairs other important life areas”
Social Media Addiction -Addiction Center
Immediately after reading that, my first question was how can I check if I have an addiction to social media? Well, my friend, addictioncenter.com has us covered with 6 questions you can ask to determine if you or someone else has an addiction.
- Do they spend a lot of time thinking about social media or planning to use social media?
- Do they feel urges to use social media more and more?
- Do they use social media to forget about personal problems?
- Do they often try to reduce the use of social media without success?
- Do they become restless or troubled if unable to use social media?
- Do they use social media so much that it has had a negative impact on their job or studies?
Now, in my experience with social media addiction, I noticed that when I turn on my phone the one thing I do automatically without even thinking about it is check social media. If you find yourself on autopilot immediately going to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc… then you might have an addiction!
What are the benefits of a social media detox?
All of the benefits of social media detox will be from my own personal experience. I wanted to show how much it has positively affected me so that you can relate more to someone who is just like you!
Positive benefits of a frequent social media detox:
–So much more free time (check your screentime in your setting and be shocked)
–Increase in productivity due to fewer distractions
–Increased happiness from avoidance of constant bad news/comparing yourself
-More inspiration to continue with side hustles
–Overall more quality time with family and friends
–Learning that it’s okay to be by yourself without distractions and learning what you love again.
-More time to find more cool hobbies or revisit old hobbies
-Offers optimal time for you to grow as a person and do better in life
–Helps get you out of your house and out into nature/social events
–Better overall sleep (because your brain isn’t receiving too much blue light)
–Realizing just how much time you wasted after the “screen fog” lifts
How can I do a social media detox??
Well, my friend. Here’s where my personal experience and knowledge come in. I have been addicted to social media since about the age of 13. I remember my social media main choices at that age were Google+ and Facebook (helloooo does anyone remember Google+??).
Social media and screen addiction had me in a chokehold for 5 years straight and I started wiggling out of the grasp at around 18 (still addicted but not quite as severe). Now at the age of 21, I’m forming a healthy relationship with social media by doing a social media detox frequently.
I have multiple ways I’ve tried to break free from this for my mental health and my journey started when I asked myself one question.
How much of my life am I wasting on social media?
Now here come’s the hard truth. Life is short and spending the majority of your day staring at a screen is terrible for your physical and mental health. I want you to keep this article open so you can continue reading but I want you to go right now and check how much you use your phone. Go into your phone settings and search screen time. A setting with detailed information on how much you use your phone should come up.
When I finally asked myself how much time I wasted on my social media I got a whopping 8 hrs a day on my phone. This news was absolutely devastating. Am I really ignoring my son for this long every day? I truly thought I prioritized one-on-one time with him… However, I realized that I’m not only using my phone around my son, I spend a lot of my ME time on my phone. My precious alone time is spent on my phone! What quality of life is that?
8 hours a day is equal to 2,920 hours a year wasted. Think of how many meaningful moments could have been lived if it weren’t for my phone.
Here are the two ways I suggest you do a social media detox
The choice you choose really depends on your level of discipline and impulse. Some people simply cannot just clear their phone of all apps upfront. This process can take some time, but I personally think this detox is worth it. I always end my detox feeling much happier and more productive than ever. Also yes, I mean for you to delete those mobile games too.
1. Slow and steady social media detox
This detox takes more time than option #2 because it’s a gradual removal of your apps so that you aren’t removing your apps cold turkey. This is my least preferred method because I find that I often become even more addicted to my phone until all apps are deleted.
Step 1. Start by deleting 1-2 apps/games that you often find yourself wasting time on. You can either start with your least favorite apps or start with the ones you’re most addicted to.
Step 2. Continue deleting apps every 2-4 days until all non-productive apps are deleted.
Step 3. Log out of all social media in your browser to prevent you from using social media through a loophole. The point is to not use it at all, remember?
Step 4. (Optional) Keep a journal before and/or after deleting apps to track your mood as time goes as well as your productivity level overall. Most of the time my mood and productivity level gradually go up over time.
2. Cold Turkey social media detox
This is my favorite and most productive way to do a social media detox because it doesn’t give me time to re-think the idea. Often times we are so addicted to the apps on our phones that if we do the detox slowly rather than abruptly, it may cause us to prolong the experience and avoid the much-needed detox.
Step 1. Delete all apps and games. Delete anything that is causing you to waste time on your phone.
Step 2. Log out of all social media on your browser for the same reason above.
Step 3. (Optional) Keep a journal tracking your mood, productivity level, and how much you’ve gotten done. Often times you’ll feel happier and more productive.
Now what?
You may be wondering “What the hell am I supposed to do now that I’m not looking at my phone 24/7?” Well, the answer varies from person to person. I’ll make a list showing what I did with all of my free time after months/years of procrastinating.
–Catch up on cleaning around the house
–Focus on self-care and healing
–Pick up new productive hobbies (Such as sewing, knitting, art, reading, hiking, yoga etc…)
–Start/continue a side hustle
–Spend more quality time with loved ones
–Make each day intentional and enjoy what life provides
-Journal and work through things you often distracted yourself from
-Work on finding what you would love to do in life
–Attend a local class
The possibilities are endless with the extra time you have on your hands. Before my most recent social media detox, I was spending up to 6-7 hours on my phone daily. That really ate up any of the free time I had after my son was in bed or napping. As well as causing me to neglect myself and basic self-care just so I could watch some Tiktok and snoop on other people’s profiles.
How did this change my life?
When I’m using my phone too often, it feels as if there is a fog around my life. I find myself comparing myself to everyone else and just simply never living my life.
Most of my time was spent inside, on my couch while I scrolled on my phone for HOURS. I don’t care what anyone says, the amount of screens we have now is the new Zombie apocalypse.
I’m still working on being more productive and spending more time outdoors rather than cooped up inside. However, just a few days into every social media detox I’ve done I realize how much wasted time I spend on my phone. I realize how negatively my phone has affected my life and how much time I spend procrastinating when I could have been so productive.
The main reason I did it is that I don’t want to look back on my life when I’m old and grey and realize that I spent the majority of my life not living it. I don’t want to come to the realization of how many memories I could have made or how much further my life could have been if it wasn’t all because of the stupid device in my hands.
Remember, prioritize living and not scrolling.
Life is too short to be wasting away… You owe it to yourself to take control and change your life.
I truly hope this helps someone with a screen addiction…
Please comment below if this article was helpful. I know that I was stuck in that cycle for YEARS. Hell, I still am… I often find myself redownloading all of my addicting apps and slowly feeling my happiness decline. Don’t be like me.
Check out some of my other posts!
I did one form of self-care daily for just one week and this is what happened.
How I’m finding myself again in Motherhood
How to Survive the first year of Being a Mom.
Thanks again for reading!
With love,
