What if we took a break from social media?
As a minimalist, it’s really hard for me to be okay with keeping up with social media. To be real with you, I just reopened my Facebook account January of 2015 to share my move and travel journey to South Korea with close friends. It had been 5 years since I had a Facebook page and the hiatus was amazing.
During the 5 years I …
- Did things privately
- Experienced life with greater focus
- Found pride in exclusivity
- Saw who my real friends were
It felt good to not go on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook because I was unplugged from a lot of unnecessary information.
A lot of people talk about not owning a TV anymore and how rewarding it is to only watch what your favorite shows on Netflix, Hulu, etc.
What if we did the same thing with social media?
Is it really necessary to have 5 or 6 different social media accounts?
I know many of you run social media for business purposes or blogging, just like me. But I’ve always wondered what would happen if many of us did away with the excess and only focused on what we needed with socials…
So I did an experiment. Last month I got rid of my Pinterest app on my phone, only checked my Facebook once a week (Wednesday’s) and checked tweets/ managed Instgram three times a week. Since then, I’ve felt a lot less stressed and overwhelmed managing my blog and brand, but I also discovered that I really didn’t need it!
Sometimes we tend to fill our lives with unnessary fluff to make it feel like we are actually doing something productive, when it’s the opposite. When you’re everywhere, you can’t truly be anywhere effectively (a gem shared to me by Benjamin Hardy). But needless to say this works for some people… and that’s okay. But just what if, you also tried my one month using less social media experiment?
The possible benefits include:
- More time to refocus on another project
- More time for kids or family
- More time for yourself
- More time in the present moment
So here’s the challenge- for the next week, pick only one day to go on your social media (if you run a business this can be done by automating your post).
See how you feel after and share the results of the challenge below. Rather you’re with this idea or not, we can all agree that unplugging is as powerful, if not more powerful, than being engaged.
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Originally published at www.hellocharmaine.com on January 12, 2016.
