7 Incredible Benefits of Doing a Social Media Detox

Thinking about taking a break from social media? You’ll definitely be convinced after you’ve read about these 7 incredible benefits of doing a social media detox.

It’s difficult to imagine our lives without social media. Scrolling, checking and liking has become part of our lives. We spend hours every single day absentmindedly scrolling through our feeds. For most of us, it’s literally the first thing we do in the morning and the last thing we do before we go to bed at night.

It wasn’t any different for me.

Deep down, I had known for quite a while that I needed to take a break from social media, but I never really wanted to give in (I mean, how on earth can you do without social media these days…?). I also started to become more conscious about social media. And I slowly began to realize that social media had become more of an addiction than that I was actually enjoying it.

So I decided to do a social media detox (okay, with a little help from my husband who kept insisting I should finally do it).

At first it was difficult, as I found myself automatically reaching for my phone to check my socials multiple times a day (or hour…). After a week or two I realized that I wasn’t really missing social media and my desire to check and scroll had mostly disappeared. I slowly began to experience the benefits of my social media break, and it was exactly what I needed!

Since you’re reading this, I assume you’ve been thinking about taking a break from social media as well. Maybe you’re not sure why you should do it or what it can do for you. That’s why I want to share 7 incredible benefits of doing a social media detox.

Ready? Let’s get this (detox) party started!

Related:

• How to Do a Social Media Detox The Right Way

1. Mental Clarity

Mental clarity is absolutely the number one most important benefit of doing a social media detox, if you ask me.

When you’re scrolling through your social media feeds, you read and see a lot of different things. Most of it is random stuff that you probably don’t even want to see, from people you most likely don’t even know that well. It’s unnecessary information that clutters your mind and that takes up space in your head that you could’ve used for other things instead.

Before doing a social media detox, my head often felt foggy and my mind was all over the place.

After a couple of weeks of not using Facebook and Instagram, I noticed how much more headspace I had. There was no mental fog anymore, at least not much and not that often. My mind felt clear for the first time in a very long time.

Believe me when I tell you it’s an amazing feeling! With a clear mind you can take on the world.

2. Better Focus & More Productive

When you’re working on something and you’re trying to focus, social media can be a BIG source of distraction. Especially if you’re a procrastinator, grabbing your phone to check your social media is the perfect thing to do to distract yourself from the task at hand, am I right?

Time flies by, but at the end of the day, you haven’t really done much.

When you’re constantly switching between checking your phone and the task you want to do, it’s difficult to really focus on what you’re working on and get it done. It’s kind of like multitasking: you need time to adjust when you switch from one thing to another and it’s not actually productive.

When there is no distraction from social media and your mind is clear from all the clutter it causes, it’s much easier to focus on what you want to do. I’ve become much more productive. And it’s also easier for me to get in a state of deep concentration and fully focus on what I’m working on. 

It feels good to finally be able to get things done!

3. Not Feeling so Overwhelmed

Let’s be honest, spending time on social media can be quite overwhelming. The notifications, the messages, the hundreds of different kind of posts, the pictures…..

Your thoughts are constantly pulled into different directions, kind of like the ball in a pinball machine (that’s literally how I feel when I spend too much time on social media…). It’s complete information overload for your brain.

On top of that, social media is good at drawing us back in (ever noticed how Facebook bombards you with emails if you don’t show up?) and keeping us engaged by letting us think that we’ll miss something if we don’t check in regularly. And that’s where our FOMO comes in.

No wonder you feel so overwhelmed!

One of the benefits of doing a social media detox is that you won’t feel so overwhelmed anymore and your FOMO will likely disappear after a couple of days.

Doesn’t that sound good to you?

4. Not Comparing Yourself to Others

There’s no denying that the comparison game on social media is strong. You’re constantly seeing what other people are doing, how amazing their life is and how successful they are. It’s easy to get influenced by that.

Whether you want to or not, you can unconsciously start to compare yourself to what you’re seeing on social media.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know all too well that what you see on social media isn’t always the real story. Yet, you can’t help but feel that you need to be more successful too, that you aren’t doing good enough yet, or that your life sucks.

It’s terrible to feel like that, I know.

Taking a break from social media means that you can get away from comparing yourself to others for a while. It has helped me in creating a stronger relationship with myself and to appreciate myself and my life more.

Related:

• How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

5. Feeling Better

Social media has a BIG impact on how you feel. But when you’re using it multiple times a day, you probably won’t even notice what it does to your mood.

I didn’t, at least.

But when I stopped using social media for a while, I noticed a huge change in how I was feeling. I felt better, happier and more positive.

When you take a social media break, you can focus more on yourself and doing your own thing, instead of focusing all your energy on what other people are doing. And that feels good!

No comparing, no overwhelm, no negativity. Just you, yourself and your happiness.

So, if you’ve been feeling stressed out or overwhelmed lately, now’s the perfect time to do a social media detox!

6. Being More Present

I never realized how often I wasn’t truly present in the moment, until I did a social media detox. 

There are so many beautiful moments that pass us by because we’re busy scrolling and liking. Or because we feel the need to capture everything perfectly to share with our friends on the gram (I know you’re guilty of this more often than you’d like to admit, so was I!)

We forget to enjoy the moment and it’s such a shame!

During my social media detox, I really felt more present and I started to appreciate the moment more. The need to constantly check my socials during a social get-together with friends or a family dinner, is gone. And it actually annoys me now when I’m having a conversation with someone, and the other person pulls out a phone.

It’s the little things that you now get to appreciate and enjoy more and it makes all the difference. Don’t forget, happiness is in the small, simple things.

7. More Time

Ever had a good look at your screen time? Eeeeuh, yeah….

Seeing how much time you spend on social media is confronting. And it’s probably not something you’re very proud of. But it’s a good indicator of the amount of time you can spend doing something else when you do a social media break.

Less time on social media = more time to do other things.

There’s always something we tell ourselves we want to do, if only we had the time…

What’s that thing for you? Write a book? Start a business? Learn how to sail?

Whatever it is, you’ll have time for it now (so no more excuses not to do it!). It’s honestly incredible (and a little bit shocking) how much more time you’ll have in a day if you do a social media detox.

Believe me, you’ll wish you’d done it sooner!

Just one more thing…

I think we can all benefits from a social media detox once in a while. Most of your social media habits are unconscious. Doing a detox creates more awareness around your habits and helps to hit the reset button.

I hope that after reading these 7 incredible benefits of doing a social media detox, you’re convinced to do one yourself! If you’re still not sure where to start or how to do a detox, check out this article I wrote.

So tell me, are you going to do a social media detox now?