I feel so passionately about the subject of the impact of social media on our mental health that I felt compelled to share it here.

I’ve been on a Social Media Fast for the last 17 Days and it has been wonderful.
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 I have watched interviews with some of the people instrumental in designing social networks and they are designed to get your brain addicted to the rewards of getting likes and comments from your posts.

I also find it fascinating that many of the people who have developed the technology would not allow their children to take part because they know how addictive and harmful it can be.

We are doing a social media fast as a group and one person even said: “I won’t eat for 21 Days, Just don’t make me give up my media!”

He wasn’t alone.  Numerous people have said how difficult it is to give up social media because it’s their distraction from feeling alone.

Social Media is designed to get its users addicted.  I’ve noticed when I have been inactive for a day or two, I’ll get a number of alerts about what I missed and the longer I’m inactive, the faster those notifications come.

Can Social Media be positive?  Of course but like anything when you do it too much it begins to induce harm.

I’ll say it Point Blank:  Unplugging from Social Media for a few days may be the healthiest thing you do for yourself this year

  • Get off  Twitter to not get lured into the outrage of the day and latest crisis before tomorrow’s outrage of the day and crisis that will not be solved in 260 Characters.
  • Logging off of Facebook to avoid the drama of political arguments, fairy tale lives, insecurity, and comparison.
  • Deleting Instagram to avoid comparison to highlight reels and people starring in their own bootleg reality shows.

In my Time Away from Social Media: 

I find that I am far more productive and producing results that matter in my ACTUAL life. 

I seem to have more time…When you think about it, that 20-30 mins you spend scrolling the timeline adds up.  That’s time you could be using to talk to your actual friends or cleaning out a file drawer.

I feel less scattered.  Let’s face it: Social media is distracting and all over the place.  It’s so noisy and you begin to think:  “Well should I be doing this like that person or maybe I should do that.”  Without it, you focus on what you’re doing without all the noise.

Challenge

I’m challenging everyone to a 7 Day Social Media Fast.  Start with 3 Days if you need to but at least once this year go on a 7 Day Social Media Fast and observe your results.

I truly believe Social Media and the effects of too much screen time may be the next major health crisis we face as a country.  As it stands now, there’s been a push in the mental health field to advocate for people to cut down on screen time.