Another Social Media Break

About two weeks ago, I decided to indefinitely pause social media. So no apps on my phone and no web bookmarks for Mastodon, Bluesky, and Reddit. To visit them, I would need to manually type the name in the browser search field. My reasons are typical; despite some minor benefits, social media isn't exactly healthy or useful. I figured minimizing this area of my life would free some head-space for better things (like blogging).

At first, I noticed my mind would automatically think, "Check the socials." It was a habit. But I would deny the urge, causing a moment of classic yet mild FOMO. Yeah, but I'd like to see if someone "liked" or boosted a post of mine or maybe left a nice comment. Social validation is a thing. Still, I resisted. And soon (about three days later), I hardly noticed or thought about social media.

One way to erase an unwanted habit is to replace it with something better - rather than leaving a void. So when my mind would think to share to social media, I would instead remind myself that whatever thoughts I wanted to put into words could (and probably should) be posted on my blog instead (if not dismissed altogether).

So the mental energy and physical effort of posting to Mastodon, for example, would be channeled to my blog. The nice benefit is that I should be better able to manage my blog and maybe even improve the quality of my writing (one can hope).

Another concrete benefit is increased ease after posting. Once I hit the publish button on my blog post, that's it, I'm done. No longer do I jump hurdles to then copy the link and share my post to multiple social media accounts, where I would take time to think of a blurb, type the hashtags, and paste the link. It's a small thing that adds up to noticeable relief.

Those are the immediate effects I've felt since ghosting from the social sites. Sometimes I still feel an urge to go and check them to see "what's up" and if I missed anything. Or maybe some folks are missing me; I doubt it though. So far, I'm still resolved to focus on being active on my blog instead of social media. It's still the open web after all.

I'll try to keep it up for a month and then go from there. My hope is to reclaim more time and headspace that I used to give to social media and, in turn, find more enjoyment in better things. Or maybe I'll just chill more. That way, I should be better fit to do the things in life I can't really break from.