Advice, Being Single And Happy, Body Image And Confidence, Self Care, Self Improvement

Quitting Social Media Might Help You Live a More Fulfilling Life

bubblebathselfempowerment

It has been about 6 months since I’ve been on Facebook, besides a few messenger messages from friends. The only reason I stopped going on Facebook at the time was due to time constraints.  I haven’t missed it and I had an aha moment one day about it.

The aha moment was about when I used to feel sad on the weekends because it felt like everyone was with their other half doing fun amazing things while I was all by myself.  I couldn’t figure out why I felt this way when most of my life I’ve enjoyed my alone time.

Then one day I read about FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out.  It is caused from being on social media and seeing many post the best parts of their life.  You are left comparing your ‘bleak’ life to their ‘exciting’ life. I never really thought I was comparing, but in hindsight, I think I was.

I was giving 2-3 hours of my time to Facebook scrolling through seeing what my friends were up to, reading memes, being bombarded by ads… you know the drill.  It was all distracting me from things I could be doing… something fun, reading, learning, writing, being productive, spending real time with family or friends, visiting places, decorating the house, cooking something good, making my own memories, LIVING A FULFILLING LIFE, rather than using my time to see other’s memories and be completely distracted.

By the time I got off Facebook, my mind was all over the place with the huge variety of all the posts that I was scrolling through.  It was hard to think of anything I wanted to do and I didn’t have a lot of energy left to do the things that might cross my mind.  It led to a lot of unproductive and unfulfilling days.

Before we had social media, we focused more on ourselves and our own lives creating a great life.  Now we are thinking something like… “Shelly and her husband just got a boat and are having so much fun in it… I don’t have a boat, or a even a boyfriend :-(”  If we didn’t expose ourselves to this, we’d have time to be making our own fun and dreaming up new goals such as buying a boat.  We’d be very involved in our own lives, like we used to be.

After being off Facebook for 6 months, I don’t feel the sadness on the weekends anymore.  I’m excited to be working at goals and doing fun things. My mind is completely focused on my own life and great things are happening because I’m putting energy into my life, rather than wasting it on social media.

I’m fortunate to be old enough to remember my life before social media came along.  I had hobbies I was passionate about, I was planning road trips and taking them, I visited friends and family, I was always involved in improving my home, trying new recipes, growing gardens and using what I grew, taking dance classes.  I don’t recall feeling like someone else’s life was better.  I was just totally into my life and my family.  I was fulfilled.  Yes, I still had problems, we all do and will, but I was much more fulfilled. I feel like I’m getting back to that and love it.

I’m not going back to social media.  🙂

If you decide to quit social media, I wouldn’t expect immediate results.  It will take time to adjust to a new routine and having more time to yourself.  But the more time passes, you’ll adjust and create other things to do with your new spare time that will be more productive to your life bringing you happiness and fulfillment.

~ Monica

Monica’s Art

 

 

Published by bubblebathselfempowerment

The pandemic brought a lot of awareness to me about climate change, food shortages, how quickly our hospitals could colapse and more. This has sent me on a mission of becoming self-sustainable, empowered and working to help heal the earth. That is what the focus of this blog has become. The main way I'm working at this is through building a food forest and documenting as much as possible in hopes to inspire others. The more of us that do this, the more it will help heal the earth. When we buy produce from the grocery store, it was grown through monoculture, and that leads to use of chemicals that goes onto our food and into our planet, destroying soil. If we grow our own through permaculture (a food forest), we give the soil health. We also give ourselves health by growing organic foods and herbs that contribute to our health. There's a lot more to this, but this touches the surface. I'm only one year into this but my food forest is growing. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

22 thoughts on “Quitting Social Media Might Help You Live a More Fulfilling Life”

  3. it is so easy to compare each other’s lives with others – you really do not know what goes on behind closed doors, but of course the media, the tv shows and such is just always greener on the other side, good for you really. I made a new one JUST for John and his school only allowed such F E W E S T people, only his pics, I just have to try not to scroll down. its a AWFUL way to keep up with people and keeping in touch and also MAJOR time waster

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  4. PS my goal on my bullet journal – NO social media including Snapchat which I deleted, deacatived my instagam like last year, my fb is gone, but my messenger is still running (you can deactivate fb and keep messenger), I don’t have any other social media, including marco polo

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  6. I haven’t completely gotten off fb, but have cut back drastically! I could really care less if I ever open the app again. It’s funny—some of my friends have to text me to even let me know they have tagged me in something, to check it out. I just got tired of all the negativity, complaining, judging, gossip and trivial things. And the very people who complain about all the drama around them, are the very ones who create it and complain about it on there! Always commenting and stirring things up on other people’s posts about something controversial. And when someone don’t agree with them, the other person is being overly dramatic. 🤦‍♀️ I learned to scroll and not comment on most of the posts anymore. WP has been a different kind of social media. There are really great posts, stories and positive attitudes for the most part! I love it here! It’s a great supportive community! 🙂

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    1. I completely agree. The only thing I miss about FB are my close friend’s positive updates about their life, but there’s so many distractions that it’s not even worth it for me to open it anymore. I LOVE WP. To me it’s more reading, writing, getting educated, sharing opinions, making friends and being able to pick and choose what you read. I don’t really relate it to social media for some reason. Thank-you for commenting!!

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  7. Fact.
    We all indirectly cause depression to people (friends/followers) who sees our updates and post on social media. And this is a ripple effect phenomena because they all repeat same envious post sharing depression automatically.

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  9. Amen! This is part of why I made the decision that I did just yesterday. Nice to see another who thinks like I do. Like you, I have no plans of going back. I, too, grew up without social media, and I finally had a revelation that I was just wasting too much time on it. I already feel somewhat freer. It’s actually quite liberating to throw off those social media chains.

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    1. For me, my life has filled in with much more fulfilling things, like this blog and I don’t have the time or desire to go back. And, there are a lot of people on this same wavelength. When I wrote this article, I found a bunch more like it on WordPress. I hear about people giving it up all the time.

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  10. Sage advice! I got off Facebook in August of 2020 because I could see how the politics of the virus were about to explode, and I didn’t want to end up hating my family and friends for it (I believe the powers that be have designed social media/algorithms to cause this very reaction, and I’m not going to be a part of their divisive propaganda.) Last month I made an account for my blog and will use it to promote my reviews as it is a great resource for that, but hope to never use a personal account again. I feel so much happier and less stressed after making this wise choice. My son and husband agree that I am more cheery because of it. Glad to see that you were so ahead of the game on this!

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    1. Seems there’s always something exploding on Facebook, even before Corona. I haven’t experienced any of the Corona issues on Facebook because I haven’t been on there, but I can only imagine. I agree with you about using it for business. Like you, I made an account for my blog, but I rarely even look at even that.

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