From Social Media Addictions to Detoxes

Every year, since the creation of social media, people have annually spent more and more time attached to their phones. According to Statista, social media is currently eating an average of 153 minutes of our daily lives. Considering the growth of past years, this number will only continue to grow.

The usage of social media has grown into such quantity that for some people it has become a serious problem. Getting addicted to social media is a real thing, and the topic has started to be seriously addressed in society and media. Social media addiction has even been lifted to be considered as an equally severe addiction such as addictions regarding intoxicants or gaming. The addiction can be defined to consist (for example) of the following behavioral patterns:

Active addiction: Posting and/or reacting and commenting constantly and not being able to stop

Passive addiction: Browsing social media feeds constantly without being able to stop

Social media addiction is usually strongly related to the identity, network, and relationships of the user. People have a need for staying connected to others, which is easier than ever through social media. Usually, this kind of sociality and willingness to stay connected is seen as a positive thing, which might make recognizing an addiction a bit more difficult. Also, as nearly everyone from our social circles is in social media, it might be hard to recognize how much social media actually is too much or if one should reduce its usage. Especially the feeling of FOMO (feeling of missing out) makes it difficult to stay out of social media.

While getting addicted to social media has become more and more common, at the same time a growing amount of social media users have started to realize the impact and role of social media in their lives. More and more people encourage people to take a break from their social media usage with the help of social media detoxes. Detoxes are shorter or longer periods of time during which people do not use social media applications for a while. The picture below presents some of the reasons for considering quitting social media, summarized in a study made by ORIGIN.

But what are the actual benefits of quitting social media for a while?

Sense of time

In researches about people on social media detox, all the candidates noticed that they had significantly more minutes in their day. Without constant distractions or possibilities of checking a feed, they felt like their productivity increased and they managed to get things done faster than before. On the other hand, on some tasks, they noticed that not being efficiently connected to, for example, team members slowed down their work in tasks that required remote co-operation.

Adjusting to the new pace of the day was difficult for many at first. At first, some felt anxiety and tried to fill the new empty time with some substitute activities. When time passed, people started to feel calmer and more relaxed and got used to the slower pace of life. After accepting the boring moments, also creativity increased significantly.

FOMO and self-esteem

At first, many detoxers feel some FOMO of not seeing what is happening on social media. However, in the long run, social media detox actually reduces FOMO as one can’t see what everyone else is doing all the time. Social media is full of polished images and stories of other people, and it is proven that especially young girls suffer under great pressure as they constantly compare themselves to other people. For this reason, for some people cutting off social media can be sort of a self-esteem booster.

After the detox

After the detox-period, some people have given social media up entirely, but most people feel happy to return to it. However, after such a trial, it is very common that the way of using social media changes significantly. Many people who tested detox ended up turning off notifications or deleting some apps they noticed to be quite unuseful. For example, after detoxes, many people tend to delete the Snapchat app from their phones entirely. Others decide to “clean up their feed” and start following fewer people so that the amount of content would not be so vague.

All in all, I wouldn’t suggest giving up social media in modern society — after all, it plays a great role in the way we communicate and work. However, social media detoxes can be a great way to understand your own way of behaving and using social media and help reducing its usage in a way that suits you.

Sources

Broadband search, Average time spent daily on social media, <https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/average-daily-time-on-social-media#post-navigation-11>, Accessed 30.11.2019

Lepik K., Murunmaa-Mengel M., 2018, Students on a Social Media ‘Detox’: Disrupting the Everyday Practices of Social Media Use, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13472-3_6

Suvi Uski/Päihdelinkki.fi, Someriippuvuus, <https://paihdelinkki.fi/fi/tietopankki/tietoiskut/toiminnalliset-riippuvuudet/someriippuvuus>, Accessed 30.11.2019

Tromholt M., 2016, The Facebook Experiment: Quitting Facebook Leads to Higher Levels of Well-Being, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, Vol. 19, №1, DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2016.0259