I Deleted Social Media For The Summer. Here's How it Went

If you’ve been around you already know that I deleted social media for the summer. If not, you can read more about why I did it here. Basically, I needed a reset. Technology is such a huge part of our lives, I just needed a reset to sort of do a tech detox. And what better time than summer when I could make all sorts of new memories with my boys, and get outdoors, and all the good things!

Family photo on the zoo train with no social media

So, how did it go with no social media?

The short answer is good. Totally worth it and you should try a tech or social media detox if you haven’t. Read this book for huge insights into it. There’s also this podcast if books aren’t your thing.

At first it was weird. I feel like we have this compulsion almost to be checking or just looking at our phones. There was also a lightness that cam from it. From not feeling tied in any way to a phone because I wasn’t “allowed” to be on it.

I spent time cleaning the house like a crazy person. I read a ton of books, and did fun activities with the kids.

The thing with technology and especially with social media, is that it is designed to be addicting. It’s designed to keep you on the app. So if you aren’t careful, picking it up to look at one thing can easily turn into 15-20 minutes. There’s also this concept that they talk about in the book I mentioned above where if we check email or social media, etc. in the middle of working on something, even just for a few seconds, our focus is drastically reduced for a good amount of time after (you can fine the actual numbers in the book).

The flip side to social media

So the other side to social media is the connection. I am currently a stay at home mom living in a somewhat new to us place with no family or support system around. We have made a couple friends in our neighborhood, but that’s it. So, I noticed myself missing the connection with other moms by not being on social media. However small the connections are that we are making online, they are still there. They are nowhere near a substitute for real life human conversation, but it does provide that sense of not being alone.

On that note though – I only talked to a few people from my social media accounts while I wasn’t on social media. This is in NO WAY stating that any of those people are less than friends or not good people or anything like that. We all have our own lives, problems, and things to think about. But I think it is a great reminder to be cultivating friendships and relationships that exist where you are, in real life.

I think it’s also worth noting that we just moved to Denver a year ago, and it’s just us here. Not having those connections feels harder than it might if you were located near all of your friends and family. And again, should we all still be making better efforts to talk to each other through Facetime or phone conversations or even texts, yes. But it goes back to everyone has busy lives.

All in all I think it’s always worth reevaluating your technology use, and using a detox to maybe take a more minimalist approach to it. I don’t think that technology and social media are inherently bad things, in fact I think they can be great things. But nature is better. People are better. Getting outside and having real conversations with people are things that will benefit you way more than any piece of technology ever can.

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