Everything You Need to Know About Social Media Detox and My Experience

My 1 Week Social Media Detox [Mistakes, Experience, Learnings, Benefits, Etc]

1 Week Social Media Detox

With the current advent of technology, social media promises that it would bring us closer to our friends and the people all around the world. Do you think so? I sure do. A news from the other side of the world would be instantly available to you in just a few minutes. However, only if you use it properly that you would achieve such feat.

With that in mind, I know that I am not using my time wisely on the internet bubble. I did the social media detox because of a lot of reasons on which I will discuss below. This article is about how I did it, my experiences, mistakes and more about this challenge.

Before everything else, I would like to put the highlights here in an FAQ format for you to get the most important information here as fast as possible.

How Social Media Detox helps?

Social Media detox helps and gives numerous benefits, the following are the benefits you can get:

  1. Better Mood in General
  2. Mindfulness in your environment and yourself
  3. Increased Concentration and Productivity
  4. Increase in Willpower
  5. Helps reduce stress and anxiety
  6. Will help you realize the value of self respect
  7. It will help appreciate the Value of Time
  8. You will have a Better Sleep
  9. You will generally have mode energy throughout the day.

More information on there below.

Is Social Media Detox Good?

Social Media Detox is good for us. Sometimes we just have to have a little break from technology and appreciate what we are experiencing right now. Furthermore, it helps us disconnect for a while because most of us tend to compare ourselves to others which social media detox addresses.

How do we detox from Social Media?

The easiest way to detox from social media is to quit bit by bit. Here is a step by step guide for you to follow:

  1. Unsubscribe and unfollow people you don’t care about
  2. Don’t use social media until 9AM
  3. Remove apps on the Phone Lock Screen
  4. Put Your Phone in Black and White Screen
  5. Once you get comfortable, don’t use social media till 12 noon
  6. Find an Accountability Partner
  7. Start Limiting your usages like videos and tweets
  8. Try to not use social media until dinner
  9. Start Looking for the Apps You Need
  10. Completely Uninstall the Apps You Don’t Need
  11. Don’t use your phone in your bedroom
  12. Have Real Social Interaction
  13. Use App Blocking Softwares or App

With these steps, you will find that you can quit social media easily and maintain it. Because most of the time, we tend to slip back up to our old habits.

Should you take a break from social media?

You should take a break from social media if you are experiencing stress and anxiety from using it. Things like comparing yourself to your colleagues can be a big sign that you need a break. Also, think of a break when your sleep is deprived due to frequent usage.

How can you enjoy life without social media?

You can enjoy life without social media by starting to have real interaction with the people you care about. Plus, when you start social media detox, you will experience how good life is without comparing yourself to others. Just the peace of mind you get on quitting will make you start appreciating and enjoy life.

Can You Live Without Social Media?

Dr. Cal Newport is a living example of a person who lives without social media. He is one of the most productive person you will ever see and he attributed that in not having any social media accounts. Not only is he very productive but he still gets relevant news unlike what people thought.

You can find me reviewing his book here: Deep Work Summary


Now that we have discussed some of the key takeaways from this article, let us start explaining everything from my experiences and tips for you to start doing social media detox the right way.

What is Social Media Detox?

So what is social media detox? As the name implies, it is giving a brief amount of time to have a rest from social media.

There are tons of reasons to try this one out and I am proud to say that it has been a success from my part as I am quite sure that I noticed some differences in my work performance after the challenge.

As for my knowledge, there are two types of social media detox available to be tried today. I would just name them the easy and the hard mode. I used the hard mode where I went cold turkey for the whole week.

I thought can take on the hard challenge since I’ve also recently finished a 90 day no gaming challenge which also changed my life. I am confident that finishing the 7 days is much easier than the 90 days (I couldn’t be more wrong! Trust me that it took a lot of willpower in order to quit social media for just 7 days. Especially the first 3 days.)

If you are interested in knowing more about my 90 days no gaming challenge, you can check my other article out. It is a lovely challenge and I am happy to say that I am now free from video games. Here is the link: 3 months no gaming challenge

So to continue, there are two types of social media challenge that I know of. One is the hard mode which you would go turkey, another is the easy mode which comes in steps.

I also did the easy mode earlier this year, but I do think that the benefits are not as much as what I experienced when I went hard mode. Regardless, this is a must try and it doesn’t hurt much of your social life. 🙂

In summary, the Easy mode is divided into 7 parts.

  1. Day One: Unsubscribe and Unfollow People You do not care about in Social Media
  2. Day Two: No social Media until 9 AM
  3. Day Three: No Social Media until Lunch
  4. Day Four: No Social Media Free before Dinner
  5. Day Five: You are only Allowed to View 3 things in social media (Videos and Posts)
  6. Day Six:  You are only Allowed to View 1 thing in social media
  7. Day Seven: No Social Media for the Whole day

Note: if you experienced that some benefits even in this mode, chances are you are addicted. There are many more symptoms that you are addicted to social media such as you can’t go the whole morning without your phone on which I am guilty of.

7 Days No Social Media Challenge Easy Mode

Why did I decided to do a Social Media Detox Challenge

Maybe the same reason as to why you are checking this article out in the first place. I just know that I am addicted.

I am someone who can’t get up my bed without first checking out my phone. I know that there is something wrong.

I also have an online business where I need to build. Without motivation and proper time management, I wouldn’t be able to succeed. So I need to get free from the shackles of social media ruining my time management.

So I really need to have some more motivation and to manage my time well. I am someone who keeps waking up at 4:30 in the morning but ends up working just a few things. I know that at average, I spent around 4-5 hours on the internet watching YouTube videos, checking out Facebook, Instagram, and twitter.

If those time even only half were spent on creating more content for my online business, that’s 14 hours which is enough for me to make 10-12 articles. If not, I could just read a book and widen my knowledge on things I am interested about.

There is also another reason that I need to talk about. You see, not just my time management skills are broken to the bone, but also my concentration. I can’t concentrate on doing my work with checking my Facebook feed. Then I would scroll mindlessly for 5-15 minutes then come back to work only to find out that I need to set my pace again.

This happens every single time and my concentration are all downhill. I know I could finish a 5 hours worth of work in just 2 hours if I am just focused on tasks.

I need to break the shackles. I need to have a proper time management. It is no use to force myself to wake up at 4:30 in the morning everyday and just waste is checking out my social media accounts.

I need to change. Not now that I am working for myself that I should slack-off.

Other Reasons Why I started this Challenge

  • Holiday Season is a perfect time to do these things, I don’t get a lot of emails so I don’t need to worry much. People are on vacation so they won’t call me when something’s up. I can just concentrate on the challenge itself.
  • I did a dopamine fast on the first day, which would hit 2 birds in one stone. More about it later.

Follow me After my Social Media Detox

How Social Media Ruins our Lives

Before I start this, I have to say that I am in no way an advocate of quitting social media all over for good. If you want to quit social media forever, then that is all up to you. However, I still know that social media is very helpful for everyone. You can communicate with your friends, loved ones and connect with strangers with the same interest with you on social media. It is a very helpful tool. But as with everything, everything that is too much is bad for you.

The problem is that social media has been very addictive. There are numerous studies pointing out that it changes your brain chemistry similar to how addiction works.

Why are they very addictive? Well they need it in order for them to earn money.

Social media runs ads which you should see when you browse your Facebook feed, or even the advertisements you see before you start watching a YouTube video. If there are no people to see those ads, they won’t earn any revenue. Do they make it to the point where you have to check it out regularly in order for them to have some income.

To do that, they hire some people who do research and see what would get you hooked in social media. Even if you will be addicted. It is now considered to be a social drug where people are so addicted that they can’t live a day without it.

As for me, it is true. There a lot of people saying that they are not addicted to Social Media, but if you tell them to stop using it for just a day, they would just say that is insane. That you would miss out a lot.

Know what? I did not missed a lot that whole week.

Because most of the things you will find on Social Media are Shit news (Sorry for my language) . In fact, it is estimated that you could only find 1 useful news for every 100 not useful ones on the internet. Now, how much time would that take just for you to get the important one.

What’s more is that your productivity is severely hurt. It is not just your time management getting a huge hit, but also your concentration in finishing a task. I noticed that I was able to finish a task with half the time during and after the detox.

That is a very big life hack for me as I need to be fast and efficient in my Job. It gets a lot of things done, but there is one more reason why social media is ruining our lives.

Look at it this way, you are browsing people traveling the world, having their dream car, having kids, getting their first home and whatever it is that looks like they are being successful in life.

Look. Nobody is posting the challenges they face, their mistakes, whatever it is behind the scenes. They are just showing the good things about their life. In the end, the one viewing it would feel envy.

By comparing yourself to them, you will lose motivation and hope that might even lead to depression. Why? Because you are seeing the people around you succeed and you are there sitting in your couch giving them some like.

My question to you.

Are they also human like you? They make mistakes. They also face challenges in life. We live in the same planet. You should know that nobody will post on Facebook how miserable their life is. It will always be how lucky they are.

There might be a chance that the post you are comparing yourself to is the best day of their lives. How would you compare your ordinary day to their best day?

The more you compare yourself to them, the more you will lose motivation.

I was once there. Looking at how people bought their new homes, getting their dream job, everything good happening in their lives.

But now, I try my best not to. Yes, I said try. Because on the social media era, getting 100% away from that is almost an impossibility.

Will I stop comparing? No. I am still comparing. Not the others, but I am regularly checking myself out if I make progress. That’s what these past few months have been for me.

But remember not to compare yourself to others. Try your best not to. Quitting social media for a brief amount of time would help you rewire your brain.

The Rules I’ve Set for Myself in this Challenge

Since I’ve known the detrimental effects social media has done to our lives, I have decided to do challenge. However, since I have a business online and I have a language exchange partner in which I study Mandarin with, I have to set some boundaries.

To start, I’ve decided to remove the following social media apps on my Phone on December 25, 2018.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Facebook Messenger (My Mistake)

If you are using different social media platforms, then you would have a separate list from mine. However, there is app that I shouldn’t delete and that’s WeChat.

As I said above, I use it with my language exchange partner. We talk for an hour every week so I can practice speaking Chinese.

Limitations

So here are the limitations or the things I could still do. I am a blogger so I still need to use the internet or I can’t manage my own business.

  • WeChat is Allowed – Just to chat with my Language Exchange Partner
  • I can open my Email once a day

That’s it. However I should’ve added Facebook messenger in it as I will explain later in the next portion.

My Experiences During the Challenge

My Experience

Here comes my experiences while doing the 7 day social media detox challenge. I will do my best to write here all of the things I encountered during the challenge. I hope this helps you out too.

My Experiences while in the Challenge

Day 1

Today, I woke up and had the immediate urge to open my phone. I felt empty that my hand is not holding unto something the moment I got out of bed.

I’m looking for something that I know I just want to check my social media accounts. I know that I shouldn’t. I should resist.

So instead I got up and stared at the wall. Nothing I could do. I tried to keep busy so I meditated for 15 minutes.

This is also the day where I decided to go on a Dopamine Fast. The reason for this is one of the requirements for such is to stay away from social media. I will create an article about my experience with it soon but for a simple introduction, it is like the ultimate version of a social media fast but only for a day.

If you are interested in what a Dopamine fast is, why and how I did it, you may check my other article out: Dopamine Fasting

Since I am in the challenge, I can’t do a lot of things. I can just write in my journal and I actually wrote 5 pages on it.

I also got to sleep a lot during this day.

Dopamine fast also doesn’t allow me to go on the internet. So imagine what I felt that time, I felt like a sage on the woods. Well that’s day 1. The urge to see social media is not much of a problem except in the morning.

Day 2

I noticed something.

I get the great urge to see social media on 2 circumstances. Either I am bored, or I just woke up in the morning.

The difference right now is that since my Dopamine is finished, I can use my email account and cellphone. What’s great is that I deleted my social media apps.

The problem with this is i still have access to the internet. I noticed that I created a habit where I instantly make a new browser window to open Facebook or YouTube when I’m bored to hell.

So in this day, I started to get more conscious of my behavior. I sometimes slack off a bit and I accidentally opened the social media websites but I immediately close it when I become aware.

I just realized how powerful the habit it. I need to break it.

So overall, this day is twice harder than day 1. Simply because I now have access to the internet which put my habits in place. I suggest that you should always be aware. Be present and proactive as said in the book “7 habits of highly effective people”, there is a part where the author said about the importance of being proactive.

Don’t let the your monkey brain control you. Strengthen your inner self and meditate. I saw how important that is on Day 2.

Day 3

If you are going to ask me which day is the hardest of them all, it would be the third day.

I don’t know why but I feel a very strong urge to check my social media accounts this day.

I get the feeling of I am missing out a lot of events with my friends. I do not know what is happening but I am scared that I do not know what is happening around me.

Combine that with being bored and you get the strongest urge to check your social media accounts.

I pressed on. I read a book. I finished one during this time. I finished reading 2 books during the whole challenge.

However, my concentration this day is way out of line. I can’t concentrate because I have a very strong urge to check my social media accounts.

I pressed on because I know that it for my own good. I need to do my best as I have always needed to know what the other side of the tunnel feels like. I know I can do it.

In fact, my main motivator that day is that I was able to finish more tasks waking up at 11am without social media than waking up at 4:30AM with social media. Imagine if I combined the two?

Now, I need to get through this. I need to. I have to. There is no slacking off. I need to muster every willpower I have.

To be honest, I’m scared that if this took another 3 days, I might fail the challenge. Willpower is finite. I just hope that it gets better.

Day 4

If there is something I have to say about this day, it is that  all of the cravings in browsing my social media accounts are all gone.

I was able to get up of bed without thinking much about my phone. I was even surprised that I noticed that I haven’t picked out my phone even at noon.

I totally forgot that I have a phone. I just wandered around my home for awhile and read a book.

This is completely different from yesterday.

Is it that my willpower skyrocketed that I do not care about my phone? Or I just moved on and my habit of checking out my phone is gone?

I have no idea. What I know is that I don’t have the urge to check my browser anymore. I even forgot to check my email this day. I just read a book, watched “Friends” the TV Series, and moved on with life. I am a fan of that TV series BTW.

However

The problem is that at night, I have to go use Facebook. Why? Because I love to travel and I plan to go travel to Hong Kong on January 7-11, 2019.

I have to book some plane tickets and hotel booking. The problem is I can only contact my companion (Cousin) on Facebook.

I am on a dilemma. Since I deleted Facebook messenger on my phone, I don’t have any means to chat with him other than opening Facebook on my computer.

You see, that’s the mistake I was talking about. Leave messenger in your phone. There might be some emergencies where you need to check it out. Regardless, let me continue with the story.

So I have no choice, I opened Facebook to ask him on his personal details because I need it to book some tickets online.

However, after that. I mindlessly scrolled through my timeline. As I regained my consciousness, I immediately logged off.

Its good that I encountered this on the 4th day where I don’t get much urge anymore. If I have to book the plane ticket on the 3rd day, I guess it would be a different story.

Just remember that if your monkey brain suddenly lets you check your social media feed, once you regained your consciousness, just remember to log off immediately.

In the end, if only I did not remove Facebook messenger, I wouldn’t had logged in on Facebook to see my feed.

Its good that the remaining days stayed the same. A few to no urge at all on checking out my social media accounts.

Day 5-7

I don’t need to enumerate the things on Day 5-7 since it is pretty much the same.

I don’t have the urge to check my social media accounts anymore. I just get off bed, do some meditation and then proceed with my life.

Since I am always on my own these days, I was able to do a lot of self thinking. I even thought of a lot of things to make my life after the challenge more productive.

For example, Instead of sleeping again after waking up in the morning, maybe the problem is that I don’t get exposed to the sun as much to activate my circadian rhythm.

So from now on, I decided to go outside for a 5-10 minutes walk in the morning every time I feel sleepy.

Now, I feel like I am not in the shackles of social media anymore, I have a better control on my life.

To maintain this, I set a rule where I can only check social media out after I am finished with my work.

That way, I will not have any guilt using the platform. I am using it as a reward for my full day of deep work.

Benefits on Quitting Social Media

10 Benefits I’ve Experienced on Quitting Social Media ( Social Media Cleanse Benefits)

I had a lot of benefits not just on my mental health but also on my general well-being while on the challenge. here are some of the benefits that I’ve noticed right after the challenge. I hope these will also give you the motivation to try this one day.

1. Better Mood

I was able to self-reflect on what is currently happening on my life. I had some thinking and started to compare myself from the time where I felt so down.

After much realization, I found out that i am making progress myself and with the benefits of much more concentration, focus and time, I could turn my life around even more these coming months.

I am hopeful. I regained hope that I can do it. I don’t compare myself to others anymore. I am giving myself a challenge. A challenge to myself on being better each and every single day.

I won’t stop hoping for the best. With that much thinking, I was able to get back on my feet.

In the end, I had a better mood, concentrated on the future, and able to look on my past with nothing but satisfaction and determination.

2. Mindfulness

Within the challenge, I was able to be more concentrated on tasks. I was able to concentrate on things that needs focused on.

I was able to train my brain that when I mindlessly open my Facebook tab, I would immediately close it.

With time, I was able to control myself more. I can now go through a task continuously without checking my social media accounts.

I admit that I get the urge, but my willpower also skyrocketed.

3. Concentration

This goes in line with being mindful.

Once I became mindful of the things I’m doing, I was able to be 100% concentrated on tasks that I can finish work fast.

Increased concentration also made me different inside, I feel like my eyes are only looking forward. I don’t know why but it is really awesome.

4. Willpower Increased

As I said, I noticed that it is not only that I can resist social media, but also I can do things that usually requires me a lot of willpower to do.

For example, I tend to continuously finish a lesson on my Japanese learning app and study Mandarin Daily.

The old me would only do it for a day then leave it for 2. Its just that when it is on my schedule, I have to do it. That’s all.

With my willpower increased, I was able to do more tasks and be able to move forward as a rapid pace.

5. Less Anxiety

Because I stopped comparing my life with other people, I was able to reduce my anxiety level.

Now, I started to be hopeful on what the future has to offer on my life. I started to challenge myself to be better everyday.

Not comparing myself to others really brought a different view on a lot of aspects in life.

With these in place, I was able to appreciate what I have and got some self- respect

6. Self- respect

With less anxiety on what the future has to hold, I am hopeful on what is about to come.

I’ve come to see what is different from the time I was a few months back where I got nothing to be proud of.

Now, I have an online business where I earn money.

What’s more is that the more I give effort to it, the more I will sow in the future.

I know that before, but this time I got a different perspective. When I start concentrating on myself and not on the people around, I was able to focus.

I was able to allocate my time and energy in the right place.

7. Learned the Value of Time

So now that I am able to be extremely bored for a week without social media and the dopamine fast, I learned how important time is.

Trust me, once you get extremely bored because you got nothing to do, you will realize how long a day really is.

If you are just going to waste it on something useless, you still don’t understand the value of time.

It is something that the richest can’t buy. So why are you wasting that precious moment comparing yourself to others?

Why are you wasting it browsing on some crazy unimportant news?

Trust me that once you embraced boredom while on the challenge, you will sure know how important time is.

Now that I learned more about the importance of time, I can’t help but to make each and every day of my life productive.

For which, I always prepare my next day with a journal and a to do list. Very helpful to skyrocket my productivity.

8. Better Sleep

I admit that social media ruined my circadian rhythm. I am someone who would want to sleep at 10pm only to find out that it is already 2ma and I am still awake.

The problem with that is that the next day would be completely useless since I feel groggy.

With social media controlled, I was able to stop using whenever I want to. I do my best not to get hooked.

In the end, I get a deeper sleep every night so I always wake up feeling 100% refreshed!

With that, I get more motivation and energy to conquer the day.

9. More Energy

This goes in line with the one above. With a better sleep because of not using social media and my realization that I need to walk for at least 10 minutes a day outside, I was able to bring back my circadian rhythm into place. I have a better sleep every night and I get refreshed everyday.

This means that I have more energy to do things in a day. Combine energy with willpower and concentration and you got the whole package.

I was able to do 2 days of work in a day right now. I also fall asleep like a baby at night.

My Life After the Challenge

What I learned from a Social Media Detox

Here are the things I’ve learned from the Social Media Detox Challenge.

1. Value of Time

As I said above, I learned how important time is. Once I fully embraced what boredom is like, I was able to see a different perspective in life. I was able to see how long a day is and why am I wasting it just scrolling it around Instagram.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things that are valuable in these social media platforms such as your close friends, relatives or just the people you actually like. It is just you need to delegate a certain time for things.

There is a time for working, eating, playing and browsing your social media feed.

Once you know the value of time, you will understand how important this is. As I will explain later in this article why.

2. Mindfulness is Important

With my concentration increased, I was able to see what I am capable of once I give my 100% focus on things at hand. I was able to be mindful of what is happening and what I am doing.

In return, my brain gave me more mental power to finish tasks at a faster rate.

After realizing my capabilities, I was able to respect myself even more.

3. Do not Compare yourself to Others

As I started to not compare myself to others, I was able to see my own achievements myself.

I generally became happier, and proud that I’ve made such tiny steps forward and was able to give myself credits on making a good job.

I was able to notice that like me, the people around me are also on some life challenges.

And the way to go forward is for you to bring yourself forward. To focus on yourself in achieving that next level.

What are your goals? dreams? plans? Are you doing something to make them happen or not? Start by first have a self-assessment and you will find your answer.

And once you find your answer, do something about it.

Because in life, there are 3 things you could do.

One is you can do something about it, another is that if you can’t do something about it for now then get over it. Never ever whine about it.

As long are there is something you can do. Place your chin up and start moving towards your goals.

4. Not everything that feels good are good for you

Even if out brain loves things that feels good for you, such as sweets, junk foods and social media. They are not all good for you.

Social media is good in moderation. Too much will definitely affect your mental health in a serious manner.

A helpful video in YouTube is great to increase your knowledge in certain aspects. A 5 minute funny cat video will not hurt much because it is fun to watch.

But if you are going to spend the next 5 hours of your life watching YouTube videos, that’s a different story.

Remember that in this life, in order to make something big, sacrifices are necessary.

That means you could skip a party or some vacation with your friends. But think about how a few sacrifices would bring you more things in life in the future.

Because you should always remember the meaning of sacrifice.

As I define sacrifice as:
“Sacrifice is something that you need to give up for now, for something better in the future.” -Jason Ong

Wow! That just popped out of my mind. I love how being concentrated can give me those deep thoughts easily.

5. Respect for my own self

As you probably notice by now, the ultimate thing that I’ve got from the challenge is I was able to respect myself.

This means that I respect my time, energy, money and everything I have and had until now.

I now use my social media accounts wisely and once I am done with it, I will close it immediately.

I began to respect my dreams and why i should strive to move forward.

My time is valuable and I should not be wasting it on something not worth it.

I began to appreciate everything I had. With my self respect in place, I was able to increase my self-esteem and self-worth to the next level.

Ultimately, it gave me confidence to share what I know with the world. I know that not everyone will like my style of writing since I like to write thorough articles. As you can see, there are already 5,000 words in this article and I’m not done yet.

But I know that some of you will like how genuine and thorough I am in my journey. I want to help you guys and I want to give you my 100%.

If you don’t like my style of writing, I’m sorry. But I know that there are some people out there who is going to appreciate how honest and thorough I am in writing my articles.

Tips if you plan to do the Challenge

So do you also plan to do the challenge? Or are you reading this because you are already in the challenge and in need of some motivation?

Do not worry since I got you covered. Here are my tips for you if you want to start and finish the challenge.

1. Prepare a week or a day before

This is something that I should’ve thought of before starting the Challenge. A day before, you should start unfollowing or unsubscribing to people you do not care much about.

Give yourself some time to think and to gather some motivation and willpower to this task. Think that it will be all or nothing. That you have to do it, no questions asked.

Once you get yourself mentally prepared, the odds of finishing the challenge will dramatically increase.

2. Set some boundaries

I’ve set some boundaries such as I can use WeChat because I need it for my language exchange partner and E-mails because well, I need it for work.

Set some boundaries so you know when you are going out of line. This will give you not just the proper knowledge on what you can do, but also to give you ease of mind when you accidentally opened something.

For example, I accidentally opened WeChat. I know that it is allowed so I will not feel guilty. That way, I can still continue the challenges

I should’ve allowed Facebook messenger for emergencies though. That was my mistake. If you want to use Facebook Messenger, set it as a boundary.

3. Delete the Apps

Delete the Social media apps on your phone. This would prevent the temptations to open them while on the challenge. You will appreciate the value it can give once you are in the challenge.

You may download them again after the challenge.

4. Expect to encounter some bumps along the way

There are times that my habits made me go to my social media accounts instantly when I got bored. Especially on the 3rd day when the urges are really strong.

When that comes, just be mindful and when you noticed that you relapsed, just close the browser and continue with the challenge.

Look, expect it to happen. You’ve been using it mindlessly for years.

But do not curse yourself for failing. It would really happen. The purpose of the challenge is not just for you to learn the impact of Social media, but also to have a difference perspective on your life.

It is like when you are driving and you accidentally slipped to the other lane, would you just stay there? Or you would bring yourself back to the right track? Think about it.

Continue and expect bumps to be along the way. If you do hard mode like mine, You would see the difference in about 5-7 days.

5. Embrace the Boredom

Chances are you mindlessly scroll though your social media feed when you are extremely bored. Why not experience that boredom so you can rewire your brain?

When you get bored, those are the times where the urges will come hit you like a truck. Embrace them and just sit in a chair comfortably.

Once you have taught your brain a lesson that boredom does not equal to social media, you are on the right track to independence.

Do I Recommend it to you?

It depends, if you think that social media is affecting your mental health or you are just using it each and every time you are bored, then something is wrong.

First, you need to assess yourself. If you think that your productivity gets a huge hit because of it, I recommend you to try it.

If you think that the cold turkey is really hard for you because of your job, why not try the easy mode. It would still give you some benefits.

Once you encountered the benefits even on just using the easy mode, try the hard mode. That would give you 100% more results and a new perspective in life.

But think of it this way, it is just a week.

If you did not have any results after a week, then fine leave and don’t look back. A week is not much.

But if this 1 week will bring the rest of your life to the next level, what would happen?

I do think that a 1 week sacrifice is not that much, and you should try it out and see for yourself.

So, it actually depends on you. I can’t force you to do something that you do not want. But if you want to see the other side of life outside social media, I encourage you to try it out.

Final Thoughts

I am just one single man that explained everything I know about the social media detox. This article is in no way complete. There are a lot of people out there who are professionals and experts in the field. But not me.

I am just someone who had a great experienced in the challenge. Someone who is once like you who uses social media for a whooping 5 hours every single day.

What I wrote here is everything that I can share with you to give you motivation, information and whatever it is to thoroughly complete this article.

If you have any suggestions and things you would like to add, why not comment down below? I would appreciate what you think and I would like to have some more friends. 🙂

But before I end this article, I would just like to share something with you.

Life chart

This is a life chart of a 90 year old man that I made. Each square is equivalent to a month of a person’s life.

As you can see, it is not that big. To further make it worse, not all of us would reach the age of 90 and we have already consumed some squares depending on our age.

So I would end my 1 week social media detox challenge with a question.

“Now that I’ve made you realize how short life is, do you give your time the attention it deserves?”

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