Taking a week away from all social media

For the last few weeks or so social media has honestly become quite overwhelming for me. I found I was following way too many people, who weren’t really bringing much to my life (that sounds so dramatic haha), I was using it way too much and with my art Instagram I found I was getting too focused on the numbers.

So, to remedy that I decided it would be nice to just have a total detox from all social media for a week.
Instagram. Twitter. Snapchat. TikTok.
& This is how it went!

How difficult was it to stay away from social media?

The only thing I was ‘worried’ about with not using social media was honestly just the boredom? Which really shows how much I use social media. Whenever I’m bored, clicking on Instagram or scrolling TikTok are my go-to activities and so not being able to use it was kind of ‘daunting’ (for lack of a better word – I promise I wasn’t that obsessed)? Especially because I also wasn’t doing any artwork which is usually another huge use of my time.

But. This was actually surprisingly easy?? It meant I had so much more time to actually focus on other activities, I discovered new past-times and also was so much more productive in doing my summer work. I ended up finishing the business summer work which has taken me so long because I wasn’t clicking on Instagram every five minutes.

What did I do instead?

BOOKTUBE.

GUYS I LOVE IT.
I can’t believe it took me so long to actually watch booktube but I’ve had a great time these past few days just binging videos from the new channels I’ve found.
Please send me your recommendations and your favourite channels but at the moment I’ve literally just been going through Fictional Fates catalogue of videos and I’m having a great time haha.
_{I know this is technically social media but I don’t count it because I just use it like Netflix and I’m not interacting.}

THE SIMS 4

I’ve had Sims 4 for a year or so now (I’m reinstalling it though because I had CC problems) and I love it!
This week I’ve spent so much time on Sims 4 it’s ridiculous. No regrets though :)).
_{Also I’m so annoyed because I finished the post and the formatting and then it deleted half of it so that’s greatttt. It will probably be a lot shorter now because if I’m honest I can’t be bothered to rewrite it all. Love you WordPress :).}

ACTUALLY READING

Who knew that actually reading rather than constantly switching over to Instagram would give me more time to read??
This week I finished up Little Women which I’ve been meaning to reread for ages and I’m also currently reading/almost done with How To Be Remy Cameron which I’m loving!
+ Not books but I’ve also had more time to read The Economist and Refinery29 Money Diaries, both of which I always enjoy reading.

SCHOOL WORK

Apart from my uni personal statement (which is still non-existent oops) I’ve actually managed to finish up the summer work I’ve been set which is great. It’s taken me ages but once again, who knew actually focusing and not picking up my phone every two seconds would mean I get it done?

What have I learnt?

• You can actually be more productive when you’re not picking up your phone all the time. Who would have guessed it.
• Numbers on social media aren’t everything. For those of you who don’t know, I run an art Instagram and offer custom artwork, and so numbers on that social media account tend to be a big focus for me because obviously I want to grow the account. Taking a break from it was my biggest worry because I didn’t want my engagement (and therefore sales) to drop but taking a break just made me realise that I don’t care that much? it’s really not a big deal. So I think from now I’m just going to be seeing it as a hobby and fun! E.g. If I don’t feel like doing a drawing one day, I just won’t. Rather than forcing myself to do one because I don’t want to skip my posting schedule. You know?

Would I do it again? 110% yes.
It was honestly so refreshing to take a week off of social media and I’ll definitely be taking breaks like this more regularly. Even if I don’t go completely cold turkey I’ll be using it a lot less for sure.

Have you ever gone on a social media detox? Would you go on one?
Who are your favourite booktubers?!

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