Adios, Social Media
Recently, more people are deciding to delete their social media accounts for good as they’re starting to realize social media’s harmful effect to their mental health.
After a couple of weeks, they reported that quitting social media has brought them tremendous benefits, including:
- being more productive with their time.
- Not comparing themselves to other people.
- Becoming less materialistic.
- Being more present and at peace.
Why Is It So Hard To Quit Social Media?
Simply put, our brains hate breaking out of old habits. They like the comfort of repeating the same familiar behavior over and over again, especially when that behavior produces a positive feedback.
What social media does is take this basic fact and crank it up to a hundred. The reason why we get easily addicted to social media is because our brains release “feel good” chemicals called dopamine and serotonin every time we get likes and followers. Social media companies exploit this natural chemical reaction in our body to keep us on their platforms.
Our minds are basically being hacked by over a 1,000 programmers and designers on the other side of the screen.
What This Article Will Cover
In this article, I’m going to show you how you too can quit social media step-by-step and take back your life. We’re going to focus on quitting the three biggest social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Deciding to quit social media is not easy. It’s going to take every ounce of your willpower to push through. But once you start this journey, you’ll notice the quality of your life becoming drastically better.
With that said, let’s get started.
1. Let Your Friends and Colleagues Know That You’re Quitting Social Media
Before you pull the plug, let your friends and co-workers know that you’re quitting social media. That way, they’ll know how to reach you other than by social media. It’ll also let them know that you didn’t suddenly ghost them, which can create an awkward situation. The best thing to do is to clearly communicate that you’re quitting social media.
During this stage, your friends and co-workers may be concerned as to why you’re making such a drastic change. After all, who doesn’t use social media these days? You can take this opportunity to share your feelings about social media and why you think quitting is the best choice for you and your mental health.
2. How to Delete Social Media Accounts
When you’re finally ready, here are the steps you can take to delete your social media accounts.
How to Delete your Facebook Account:
- If you’re on your Facebook App, go to Account Ownership and Control and tap Deactivation.
- You can follow the instructions on how to delete or deactivate your account.
- Note: Once you delete your account, there’s no going back. All of your photos and posts will be gone forever. The good thing is that Facebook allows you to download every single photo that you’ve ever uploaded. If you’re interested in saving all of your photos on Facebook, Click here to get started.
How to Delete Your Snapchat Account:
- Unfortunately, you can only delete or deactivate your Snapchat account from a desktop browser.
- To get started, click here and sign into your Snapchat account. Tap “DELETE MY ACCOUNT” and type in your password.
- Once done, your Snapchat account will be deactivated.
- After 30 days, your account be permanently deleted as long as you don’t log in.
- Note: You can also make a request for your data just in case. Make sure that you receive your data first before you delete your account.
How to Delete Your Instagram Account:
- Unfortunately, you can’t delete your account from within the Instagram App. You can only delete them from your mobile browser or desktop.
- To delete your Instagram account, head over to the Delete Your Account page from your mobile browser or desktop.
- Once you’re on the page, select an answer from the dropdown menu next to “Why are you deleting your account?” and re-enter your password. You can only delete your account after you selected a reason for deleting your account.
- Click delete and you’re done.
- After 30 days, your account will be permanently deleted, which means you won’t be able to log back in.
3. Unsubscribe to emails from Social Media
There’s still a little bit more that you need to do after deleting your social media accounts. Companies like Facebook and Snapchat don’t give up easily after you delete your account. They like to guerrilla market to ex-users with updates about their friends to entice them back on the platform.
After deleting your accounts, make sure that you unsubscribe to any emails from Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. If you need to, you should also add them on your block list. This way, you don’t have to worry about them sending you a random email that might tempt you to go back. As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind.
4. Find a community that’ll keep you accountable
After deleting your social media accounts, it’s time to find a community that can keep you accountable. Finding a community that can keep you accountable can help make the transition to quitting social media a lot easier. You can find people on Reddit and Youtube who share their advice on quitting social media for good. I also recommend reading up on social media critics like Tristan Harris and Jaron Lanier if you need motivation to stay away from social media.
Whatever you choose, the key takeaway is to find a community of people who will encourage you to stay quit. You might also find that these communities don’t have anything to do with social media at all.
One of the communities that helped me was a subreddit about old people giving their advice about life. Their advices were so simple yet profound (“You may have some great friends at 14, but the best friends you’ll have when you’re 24, 34, 44 are almost certainly people you don’t even know yet”). They changed how I think about myself and my life.
You should aim to find a community that can help you see the bigger picture in your life beyond social media. Once you do, you’ll realize that uploading pictures and getting likes on Instagram are not as important as you once thought.
5. Find a meaningful hobby to replace your social media addiction
Now that you’ve finally quit social media, it’s time to find a hobby to fill in the gap.
According to a study, it it takes about 21 days to fully form a new habit. This means that the first 3 weeks of quitting social media will make or break you.
That’s why it’s crucial that you start finding a new hobby as soon as possible so that you don’t accidentally fall off the bandwagon.
If you need help finding new hobbies, here are some things that you can try:
- Gratitude journaling- This is one of the best ways to practice being present and fully alive now that you quit social media. You can write about things that you’re grateful for and be truly immersed in your life. Studies have shown that gratitude journaling can help you sleep better, lower your stress hormones, and boost your overall mood. If you need help starting a powerful gratitude journal that you’ll actually keep, you can check out my article here.
- Running- Running is a great hobby to take after you quit social media. Running not only helps you look fitter, but it also gives a stronger willpower during hard times, which means it’ll be easier to fight back the temptation to go back to social media. If you’re not used to running everyday, you can start with a light, 20 minute jog. You’ll start to see the physical and mental benefits in just a couple of weeks!
- Reading- This is one of the best things to help you stay busy and mentally sharp. There are a lot of online reading communities such as Goodreads that can help you keep track of the books you read. Ultimately, reading can help you stay stave off the temptation to use social media.
- Cooking- If you love food, then this might be a good chance to learn how to cook. Now that you quit social media, you’ll have more time to learn new recipes to impress your friends and families.
- Quality time with loved ones — When was the last you actually sat down at the dinner table and had a meaningful conversation with your loved ones? Now that you’re off of social media, take this time to finally connect and learn more about your loved ones, whether they’re your family, spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend. You might even find it delightful to start a hobby with them. This way, you connect more with your loved ones and start a hobby that’ll keep you busy.
I hope these five steps can help you break your addiction to social media. I wish you guys nothing but luck on your journey towards a healthier life.
I hope you guys have a great day. Don’t forget to smile 🙂
Originally published at http://peekingbuddha.com on September 27, 2020.
