Imagine the following situation.
You have woken up fully rested, with great mood and determination to do your best! You have been very productive, completing all tasks and even squeezing in a 30-minute workout session.
So you think you deserved to scroll your Instagram feed. As soon as you log in, you see that your neighbor is having a vacation on an exotic island. Your ex-colleague has finally landed her dream job. And later, there is a photo of your childhood friend posing in a perfectly fitting swimsuit.
Although you are happy for those achievements, you suddenly start comparing yourself to them, questioning your career choices, feeling unlucky that your vacation was in the countryside and feeling guilty for eating that doughnut.
It may as well be that you need to have ‘ a social media detox’ and re-establish harmony in your life. Considering these signs as red flags:
- You constantly compare yourself to others
Social media is essentially a well retouched highlight reel of people’s lives, but it shouldn’t make you feel inadequate or dissatisfied with your own life. Nobody posts about divorce, sadness and hardship, but those things are still happening. If you’re having a difficult time remembering that nobody’s life is perfect, despite what they post, it might be time to take a break.
- You are annoyed about anything you see online
From politics to oversharing to cat memes, you find yourself angry or annoyed at what you see on your timeline even if it used to entertain you. Maybe you’re stressed out by what you’re seeing because you’ve taken too far in mindlessly scrolling your feed?
- You start freaking out if you can’t check your timeline
Especially after you have just posted your selfie or shared big news. Do you find yourself itching to see how many likes the photo of your pet got? Do you have trouble concentrating on the meeting after not having time to write that Tweet? It makes sense to log out for several days and avoid social media for some time
- Social media are the first thing you check in the morning and the last you check before going to sleep
80% of smartphone users check their phone within 15 minutes of waking up. This habit has been linked to increased stress and anxiety, not to mention it hijacks your time and attention (and probably makes you late). Looking at your phone before bed has also been shown to overload your brain, making it more difficult to fall asleep.
- Social media is not fun anymore
Being active or even having an account is not an obligation. Social media platforms were designed to be entertaining, fun and interactive to be able to keep you as long as possible on the platform thereby satisfying the advertisers need to show you adds. If it’s lost its joy perhaps it is because you are the product, and maybe it’s worth stepping away from.
