At what point in your life did you ditch all SM?

[justanothermanicmonday1]

light hearted

Just that really.

At what age did you completely ditch all social media and never looked back?

Was there a specific turning point that made you do it?

I haven't had FB in about 8 years. However, I still have instagram.

Problem is, I find myself comparing myself to what my other friends and family are doing and I end up feeling less than. I know people only show the good "moments" however I know this isn't healthy so I think I'm going to delete my account.

I'm about to have my second DC, and me and DP have made a lovely little life for ourselves. So im wondering if it's just raging hormones at being 8 months pregnant or whether anyone else feels the same towards SM?

Thanks :-)

Never had Twitter, or Instagram, or Twitter.

Have an ancient Facebook account I don’t post to, but log on to follow pages about local events and to keep an eye on acquaintances.

I use my LinkedIn regularly.

I’m in my late 30s.

For me it’s not the comparison but the absolute waste of time scrolling through other peoples waffling on.

it’s more the addiction and FOMO that drives me to want to quit.

Oops, I meant Tik Tok, not Twitter twice…

Wow. Good for you. I admire this. Not sure if that's sad or not considering it's perfectly fine not to have any SM.

I'm mid 30s and last year I spent 4 months without any SM and it felt great.

Fell pregnant again and reactivated it to let family & friends know who live abroad etc who I keep in touch with on instagram. Now I'm just like what's the point.

Oh god. I couldn't agree more. I wish there was a "like button" 😆 glad I'm not the only one who feels this way!

Surely anyone who has really ditched all social media will not reply as Mumsnet is social media?

There are plenty of pages of people waffling on on here to scroll through . . .

(It's the only social media I use though)

Haha good point.

I did mean instagram, twitter & facebook.

MN is SM, posting here = you haven't ditched SM

Well, I haven't ditched anything yet lol.

This for people who have had Facebook, twitter & instagram etc. I'm not that pedantic!

Ditched it all age 22, now 28. Mumsnet doesn’t count as it’s anonymous. Mainly here for moaning and recipes.

I can’t stand how self centred, contrived and cringing people are on FB, IG, Twitter etc.

Mumsnet is the most addictive of all IMO!

I ditched FB March this year and I've not missed it. People keep saying oh we miss you on FB, no you just miss knowing what I'm doing nosy beaks!
I have an Instagram account that I don't use. Twitter account I don't use and I've never been on Tik Tok. I do spend far too much time on here and it's probably time to detox for a while or strictly limit screen time again.

Couldn't agree more regarding Mumsnet.

Can I ask, was there a specific reason you deleted everything, or was it for mainly the reasons you just stated?

I like FB to keep up with what friends are doing. Less keen on insta. Don't have twitter or tiktok.

Ah I can understand why it can become addictive!

Exactly this. That's the main reason why I reactivated my Instagram last year. They missed seeing what we/DC was up too. But I'm thinking now, when I deleted it these people barely checked in with me and vice versa ... we have each others numbers!

I’m in my late 30s.
Never had Twitter.
Left Facebook in 2015 (when I got married, I felt I was building a life and didn’t particularly want to share that teenage exes or uni mates I hadn’t seen for a decade). Left Instagram last year - don’t want to post pictures of my children online, but the urge to compete and essentially show off e.g. a nice holiday or them dressed up looking angelic was a lot! I didn’t follow many ‘mumfluencers’ and had a private account but now, a year later, it feels weird that I knew what people who I’ve never met’s houses looked like, if that makes sense! It has also weeded out some friendships that were just mutual ‘likes’. I feel good for having done it.
I use LinkedIn sporadically for work.

I feel exactly the same in terms on Instagram. And I relate and understand to everything you have said. We're away on holiday for a few days to visit family, so could be the perfect time to just delete & unwind.

And I was discussing it with my partner and he even agreed it was time for me to delete it. It becomes super addictive. X

No specific moment, but had been using less and less and ‘doom scrolling’, comparing myself to other and coming off feeling worse and having wasted time. I don’t think it’s good for mental health, mine was the first generation to use it before anyone knew how toxic it could be.

It was organic rather than a conscious effort, didn’t use then deleted a long time later. It’s great, I don’t feel the need to keep up with anyone and impress people who don’t matter to me.

Not missed it for a single second.

I came off insta and FB around 2 years ago … I’d just had my youngest and was going through some bad post partum depression. SM was not helping me - I felt everyone was out there loving their post covid lives while I was a sleep deprived, overweight and overwhelmed mess. I’ve lost touch with a few people since doing it but I now don’t miss it at all. Life is much simpler now and less vanity driven now.

I'm so sorry to hear about your PPD struggles and I really hope you're doing better.

I felt the same about social media after had my DC last year, now I'm heavily pregnant with no2, I don't want to feel that way!

I ditched it all when I bumped into people irl that I hadn’t seen for over 15 years and they referred to my toddler DC by name and were asking me about things that were actually happening in my life currently at the time. I realised they knew too much about my life and it was because of my SM, it really freaked me out.
Since coming off it I have realised I was also over-invested in people I never see. When you take a big step back from it you realise how fake it all is. I rather concentrate on the people I have around me who I see and are genuinely interested in me and vice versa.

Wow.

I'm so glad you said this because this happens to me. This must be the norm now. But it's really unsettling. I've deleted it now. Feels good!

I came off when I became single and started dating and everyone would look up your profile beforehand and I didn't like that.

I also realised that although I had hundreds of friends on social media, actually in real life, there weren't that many true friends and I wanted to focus on them.

So I ditched all of it in around 2018 and I've never gone back. I'm 50 now and the only reason I slightly missed it was seeing pictures of my overseas family so I created a WhatsApp group where they could send me pictures.

My life is so much richer without it. Focusing on real life people has been invaluable!

Before I deactivated FB I added a post to say if anyone wished to keep in touch here's my number. When I first did it people thought I had deleted and blocked them, so instead of asking me, they just assumed. How pathetic is that? It's so far from real life its ridiculous. There was also a family member who's posts got me riled up to a bristly frenzy it was crazy. Said family member is a woe is me poster, when I know they are no where near as bad as they make out to be.
It does show up the genuine people who will keep in touch and who's friends with you to be nosy. X