If you follow me on any of my social media platforms, then you may have noticed that last week I decided to take a social media detox/break, call it what you will and along with that I also took a blog break. For my first post back, I thought i’d kick it old school and just have a chit chat with you on why, what I learnt and how i’m feeling about social media now that i’m back.
For a while now I’ve felt somewhat lost and in a major rut with the entire blogging world, social media and just everything online if i’m honest, and for me it felt like a bit of a wake up call. Why was I forcing myself to post content on platforms that aren’t giving me any joy? The answer to that in a short way is, I don’t know. But what I did know was that it needed to stop before I began to post blog content just for the sake of it. During the summer months of last year, pretty much every blog post was forced in some way purely because I didn’t want to leave my blog with no content, but truth be told I really wasn’t enjoying blogging and it really shows in my content if you go back and read them. There was no passion, no enthusiasm, or if there was it was so forced because in reality I just wanted to give up. Having said that, I am glad I did force myself to blog through it because I don’t know if Style & Splurging would be here today, but i’m not proud of much of the content I put out during the summer months.
For me blogging and social media have always been a release, a release from my day to day and a way to express my passion outside of my day to day job, but as of late that has not been the case and I just needed to step away to remember there is life outside of social media, and that I don’t need to post every last meal that I eat on my Instagram stories, as much as I love Instagram stories!
If i’m completely honest, I haven’t missed Instagram or Twitter one bit whilst I’ve been away which has come as a massive surprise because I really thought I would struggle as a lot of my friends do refer to me as ‘the biggest social media addict they know’ but i’m really proud of myself for actually coping pretty well this far. It really allowed me to just open my mind a little more and realise how toxic some social media platforms can be, especially Instagram. I’m somewhat done with trying to grow a following on Instagram and I really cannot be bothered to let it get to me that i’m only posting a couple of images each week. I want to enjoy using these platforms, and going forward that is what i’m going to do.
Since logging back into my Instagram and Twitter accounts I’ve found that my general feelings and attitude towards both platforms has completely changed, and within just a few minutes of logging back in I wanted to log back out. I won’t go into specifics, but being greeted by probably the worst blogger drama i’ve seen in a while just reminded me how much I hate negativity and how toxic these platforms can really be, especially to your mind.
Going forward, i’ve already vowed to myself that I won’t be scrolling endlessly through Instagram and Twitter of an evening, and I won’t be putting in any effort to try to grow the platforms anymore. I want to enjoy them. I don’t want them to feel like a chore, and I need to remember that blogging is not my job. It’s my hobby and that’s the bottom line. A hobby is something you enjoy, not something you have to do.
I’m thinking of doing another post in a few weeks time on how you to can take a social media break, because I know for some it’s not that easy but sharing my tips on what I did to stop myself from logging back in, and what I did outside of social media to pass the time I think may be helpful.
Have you taken a break from social media recently? What was your experience and reasons behind it?
