Social media detox - mental health feeling good!

[Maria53]

I work in marketing and I'm required to spend almost the whole day on social media. We also work with influencers and I just found the whole thing really vacuous and shallow. I think it also impacts on you being constantly bombarded with all these perfect lives which is mostly fake.

Anyway I caught up with people on Christmas day and have kept off Instagram, Facebook etc since then. I feel SO much better. Reading more, going to spend the weekend cooking & doing some artwork.

It has really made me realise how much I dislike working on it all day every day. Anyone done anything similar? Not sure how long I'll stick to it, we'll see.

The other issue is my employer still requires us to use our personal phones. This means that I get bombarded with ads related to my work out of hours - never happened before remote working.

I’ve cut my fb list and am following almost no one now!

Yes it is cutting my use and making me feel a bit better but it’s a hard addiction to crack!

@bytheby I take it you don't work with that same business anymore (if you arent spending the time on social anymore)?

Before this job I was a teacher and loved the human interaction all day long. Obviously this is quite a good job to have for stability at the moment but I am thinking I want to get away from a sedentary online job when it is safe and I can.

All the show off posts were getting to me as well. Oh, you've made your third artesan chocolate of the day? I don't care. Congrats for staying strong!

*hot chocolate....

Fb was never much of an issue for me because I'm only friends with people I know and like. But Instagram, Twitter and even mumsnet is different. I regularly take little breaks, it does help with my mood and productivity!

I deactivated Facebook and deleted my Instagram at the beginning of december but I was having a bit of a wobble with the fomo till boxing day when I got some sad news via phone call about a friends passing which made me realise I'm still very much available and can still get in touch for the important stuff. I'm looking forward to actually catching up with people instead of seeing flashes of the showy stuff.

I did a full month off Mumsnet and Facebook in July/August (couldn't go fully offline as I like strava and communicate a lot on WhatsApp) but just removing that genuinely lifted my mood and I felt less bored if that Makes sense.

I'm doing it again in Jan for the month, I'm having a full food, alcohol and social media detox starting 1st