Do we need to stay updated about everything in life?

Three months have passed, and I was not using any social media platforms. Today, I’d like to share my experience with it here. I just thought about how our lives would be without social media.

Day one: I’ve uninstalled all the social media apps from my phone. On Instagram, Facebook (someone stole my account already, I don’t care now), Twitter, and WhatsApp, I’ve blocked all my contacts who were all posting statuses regularly (just to avoid knowing about what’s happening around me) I hold on to What’s App for any urgent task like sending documents or reaching out to my friends who are abroad, or else I would have uninstalled that too.

I used email and text messages alone as my primary communication medium.

I was allowed to watch only random episodes from the Friends series during the weekdays, movies from my watchlist during the weekends (these are also not the latest), and songs from Spotify.

Let’s get started.

Why was I doing these things?

If you know me in person or are a regular reader of my blog, you may remember me as a person who tries to limit my social media usage in my daily life in whatever way it’s possible, and this post is the extreme outcome of it. These are a few posts for starters: Why Tik Toks, IG Reels, and YouTube Shorts so addictive? , Rewire your interests and attention in social media, 5 Convincing ways to limit your social media usage, and Stop consuming and start creating

The main reason for doing this task was to free my mind from the unwanted news. Those petty issues make my depressed brain clumsier.

But it turns out that even good or important news is extremely hard to reach my head these days. Not only does startling news make our brains upset, but a piece of delayed optimistic news is also good for us.

So, how was my life without social media?

It sounds like a pretty old fellow thing, but personally, I liked it a lot.

• Not overloaded with much information—for example, in the Stock market. I just realized during this sabbatical from social media that I was loaded with lots of information on stocks before, and that made me make a lot of stupid investment decisions (frequent sell or buy). It’s better to put your investment in automatic mode ( SIP) and never touch it until your yearly audit. Having that information was a waste of my time, and it was not needed at that moment. I now release that I was consuming finance content just because of the FOMO effect (I will come to this later).
  
  
• You can watch a good movie without any spoilers or even knowing what genre it is about. Recently I watched a movie with zero exposure to the film, that movie is Por Thozhil (a classic David Fincher kind of making), which surprised me more. Another fun thing that happened was, I got to know about Naa Ready Tha lyrical song from the Leo movie, and Kaavala from Jailer from one of my friends after it reached fifty million views.
  
  
• It’s hard to believe this, but I get bored sooner than ever before during this break, as I can’t waste my time on scrolling feeds or YouTube shorts. So, I ended up doing my regular tasks like going to the gym, reading books, preparing my food, and going to bed on time. I noticed that I was checking in on these things regularly without skipping. I guess social media is the indirect root cause of our procrastination.
  
  
• Your private life won’t be a public gallery anymore. When we are extremely happy or during travel, we want to make that moment memorable, so we tend to share it as a post or a story. Instead, I am writing those moments and pictures to my future self as a journal in the Day One journaling app, where I can also share my most personal experience without any fake “happy” moments.
  PS: You won’t be taking pictures to look flawless just because the location looks good, or you’ve got a nice outfit on.

Are there any CONS of not using social media?

• If your survival depends on it as a social media influencer, unless there are no cons, I could find one by not being on social media.
• You’ll be missing a lot of updates about you and your friends. It’s your choice to check once a week, and I prefer not to know about any of it.
• You’ll cut off some of your connections, you’ll be constantly communicating with your family, neighbors, or at work alone.
  
  

My realization from this social media detox or sabbatical would be that we all stick to social media for one main reason: more than crashing our time, we always have the fear of missing information (FOMO) even if it is unwanted for us. Whether you consume content productively, just be on social media to know about current affairs in the country, or just follow celebrities for fun. We tend to consume them because of FOMO, as we want to know everything.

What if I don’t know how the recently released movie did at the box office? Or What’s the trending thing going on in social media? Thinking that you’re missing any information may make you guilty that you’re not on trend and, in turn, compensate by consuming a lot of social media.

So, who cares about it? Seriously, they’re not going to make any difference in your life. C’mon, switch it off and do what you like.

I’ve been without social media for 3 months, there’s nothing wrong if you’re not up to date. There are more pros than cons to being without them. Nowadays, people are performing one another on social media rather than as a communication medium, so I guess it’s better to step away.

It’s extremely hard to hide from social media in this tech-dominated world. However, hereon, I am going to turn this detox switch on and off whenever I require a break.

Things I’ve done may sound stupid to you, but I’ve got to feel how our parents were 20 years before, and I’ve also done something that the current generation can’t experience or can’t even think about.

Until next time,
Peranesh xx