Maybe you won’t be able to post a good picture of yourself in a deliberate attempt to get your ex’s attention, or maybe you’ll miss out on the latest selfie of Kylie Jenner and her enormous lips, but you WILL come to realize the prevalence of beauty that is way more important for your well-being in a dimension outside of the screen: the actual world. Crazy, right? And, as a growing woman, discovering things that’ll help you develop and become the bright, young leader (aka Beyoncé/female President/Queen of England) that you were meant to be, is SO much more important! You’ll be surprised at the amount of beauty surrounding you away from the screen.
Social media has become an integral part of our every day lives. Many different people rely on it for many different reasons, as it has oddly become somewhat of a foundation for our social lives. Considering how addicting social media is I’ve always tried to minimize how much I use it. While I’ve never succeeded for a period of longer than two days, I finally built up the willpower to go about my life without it for a significantly longer period of time. While my social media break did not last suuuper long, it did last a whopping twenty-one days. Considering it takes 21 days to break a habit, that’s pretty impressive, right? Here are a few things I realized without Instagram filters, cliché tweets, and SnapChat BFFs:
I talked with strangers more often
And I don’t mean this in a creepy way. This would happen at random times like waiting in line or even just walking through the grocery store. Whenever I’m not looking down at my phone, the opportunity to practice what it actually means to be social arises. Studies have shown that people who converse with strangers daily tend to have higher levels of happiness, which I totally agree with. Engaging in a friendly conversation with a random person can literally make my day. Ever heard that people who engage in social media daily tend to have higher levels of happiness? Not I.
You stop caring about what goes on in other people’s lives
Really though. Yes, I do care about people. I genuinely enjoy being in the presence of good friends and family and hearing about what is going on in their lives. However, when it comes to constantly seeing someone’s next personal achievement that they’re most likely trying to boast about via Facebook, you become more focused on that more than your own. That’s great that you’ve made a 4.0 this semester, or landed a corporate job in some big city, but how about you enjoy your accomplishments with your loved ones instead of telling 1,000 people you barely know? With social media people are able to literally create facades of how they want to be perceived, showing only the good aspects of their lives. When we are constantly exposed to this we become distracted from focusing on our own goals and accomplishments, hindering us from reaching our potential.
With that being said, you start focusing more on your own life
This one I thought was the most important. Your early twenties are when you need to focus on yourself, your development, and your future the most. Whenever you stop seeing the goals and accomplishments of other people, you start focusing more on your own. My strengths and positive qualities really came to light whenever I started focusing more on my own life rather than constantly being exposed to that of others. I developed a stronger drive and sense of motivation. Focusing on my strengths, setting goals, and making accomplishments was unexplainably rewarding.
There are fewer distractions in your life
I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. Deleting social media allowed for more studying and more sleep. Going to bed without the urge to scroll through Instagram and Twitter before I could go to sleep was a whole lot more relaxing. I’d study without having to resist the urge to check the latest updates on my Instagram feed or who has been snapchatting me. I got more studying out of my study sessions. The need for a social media spree was nonexistent and it was great.
Living in the moment feels much greater done than said
This is so, undeniably true. Whenever I’d travel, do something fun, spend time with loved ones, or eat a nice meal, strictly focusing on the experience rather than focusing on getting a good “snap” or on which Instagram filter looks best made the experience a heck of a lot better. Soaking in the beautiful moments life provides us with is so much more fulfilling when social media is out of the picture.
I encourage everyone to take a break from social media for as long as you can. You’ll be amazed how enjoyable life can be in a light different than the one coming from the screen of your iPhone.