Taking A Break
Written by Noyonika Sircar
Social media has become an inevitable part of our daily lives. It commands our everyday actions and makes our life highly dependable on the course it takes. The pandemic and the lockdown have viably shifted our whole life on the internet and fixated our ways of functioning on social media statistics. This might get overwhelming at times, taking a toll on our mental health, taking us further away to disconnect from our real world. This urges us to take a substantial amount of break from social media, for qualitative progress in our life, something that is not measured by everyday social media likes and analytics.
If you are still not sure, here are a few reasons why you should take a break from social media:
- you have started comparing yourself to others
- you are mindlessly scrolling through the feeds
- you have continuous urges to stick to your phone
- it is the first thing to which you wake up and the last thing you see before you go to sleep
So, how can you take the necessary steps to a social media break?
1. Restrict the time allotted to social media
It is very important to identify which social media platform consumes the most part of your day. Figure out and then set your goal, the more realistic one, which you can follow. Social media detox takes time and is also one of the ways to check on yourself, your mental well being and your daily routine, without social media reliance. Setting a weekly or bi-monthly milestone rather than deactivating yourself from social media platforms is more progressing than immediate plans of social media disappearance because relapses are likely in more spontaneous plans. Track your social media time and assess how much time you spend on social media. This will keep you posted with healthy breaks and will be a radical way to check up on yourself.
2. Set your intentions and read them every day
Deciding on your goals in real life is crucial because it sets a new path with social media absence. The clarity gives you the realizations for a social media detox, reminds you of your purpose every day, and tells you constantly to not be tempted. Relapse is a part of this detox but reading the purposes sets a reminder inside you, to give you the reasons to refrain from yourself. This self-set boundary will be a great step to organize life and listen to your needs. You can also set social media-free days if you feel that a long break will be a bigger commitment. Always choose quality over quantity!
3. List your self-care routine
Self-care is a primary goal of social media detox. Mood-boosting activities will help you fill the social media void that will be very recurrently visible in the immediate days. A few of the self-care options include :
-going for a walk
-reading a book, not of your genre
-cooking your favorite meal
-writing in your journal
-meditating
-listening to uplifting podcasts
Lastly, turn off your notifications on the phone. The best way to indulge in everyday life will be to take some time off from even your emails and messages by limiting the notifications and living in the moments.
The notifications often disrupt the way our natural life takes a course so switching it off will be a wise start to letting you take charge of social media, and not the social media take charge of you.
