In June 2017 (two and a half years ago as I write this post), I stopped using social media for a month. After that month, I was able to keep my usage to a minimum, specifically on Facebook and Instagram.
There are two main reasons why I did this.
First, the primary reason I stopped was time. Wasted time. Scrolling through hundreds of posts of things that had nothing to do with my life. Going down the rabbit hole of reading comment after comment on my posts or on others.
I was going to bed late, sometimes very late, regardless of the fact that I had to be up at 6:00 or 6:30 the next morning. Every spare second when I had a lull at work or I was sitting down to eat or I had a half hour to do nothing was spent scrolling on my phone, clicking on posts, pressing Like or one of the other reactions.
Time is precious. You have about 1,000 minutes a day to do things. I was spending up to a third of that on social media with absolutely nothing of importance accomplished.
Second was the content. Most of it was harmless but it was also pointless. These posts were of other people’s lives, most of whom I barely knew or didn’t know at all. They were my “friends” only because they had asked to be.
This content was something that I had no need and no desire to be reading. Yet, there it was, in front of me, so I clicked.
Occasionally, there would be negative posts or comments, particularly in some of the groups. It was just people being jerks. Nothing was directed at me. But the posts were in my feed, so I read them.
What kept rattling around in my brain was “Why am I reading this? What does this have to do with me?”
Epictetus, a first and second century Stoic philosopher, said:
¨If a person gave away your body to some passerby, you’d be furious. Yet, you hand over your mind to anyone who comes along, so they may abuse you, leaving it disturbed and troubled — have you no shame in that?¨
So I stopped…sort of.
Here’s how I did it for Facebook:
I unfriended every person whom I did not know personally or with whom I was not particularly good friends. That dropped my friends from over 400 to under 100.
I unfollowed every single remaining friend, no exceptions. I even unfollowed my parents and my daughter! Sorry, guys. It’s not personal.
I unliked every single page.
I unsubscribed from every group except the two dog rescue groups that I work with locally.
That’s it! Now, the only things I see in my Facebook feed are my own posts (Facebook memories), posts from the two dog rescue groups (one or two a week), and ads.
For Instagram, it was even more extreme. To my knowledge, Instagram doesn’t allow you to follow someone without their posts showing up in your feed.
So I unfollowed everyone. I mean everyone. I was following ZERO people. The only things in my feed were my own posts. I’ve increased that to 11 people now: Family members, two close friends, and one rescue group.
(UPDATE: Instagram now allows you to “mute” a person’s posts and stories without unfollowing them, similar to Facebook unfollow without unfriending.)
Checking social media is now a once a week thing for me. Facebook and Instagram combined take up about five minutes of my time per week. Most of the time, when I check them, there’s nothing new to see.
Oh, and they’re not on my phone. I only look at them using a web browser on my iPad or my computer.
I was very surprised how easy it was once I got past the first month but that first month was hard. I kept touching my phone, even picking it up and opening it, before realizing I didn’t have those apps anymore.
This is not for everyone, by any means. I don’t need either platform for work. Also, I believe I had a problem with using these apps. Call it an addiction or whatever you want. Certainly seemed like an addiction to me. Some people don’t have that problem.
But, I would challenge anyone who’s thinking about it to at least set up the Screen Time tracker on your iPhone (or the equivalent on Android) and see where you’re spending your time. I think you might be surprised.