Life is Not Your Instagram Feed.

written by Kate H.

Social media is all-consuming. We check it when we get up, throughout the day, and before we go to sleep. What I did not realize until I went without it was how liberating it could be to not look at everyone else’s lives all day. When you let go of the attachment to others’ posts, you allow yourself to live life for YOU – not anybody else.

I decided to go without social media for a month, and it made me realize how much I really looked at posts. I spent so much time on my phone when I could have been doing things that make me happy. All of the “little” breaks I would take throughout my day really added up, and without social media to distract me I became much more efficient too.

I was also happier and had more confidence. This change was somewhat odd, because I thought social media made me happy. In reality, it made me second-guess myself. I would look at what others were posting or what they looked like and think that I should be like that too. Social media tends to make us desire to look alike and act alike in pursuit of being “normal.” But what is actually “normal” is to be different. It is good to be different. When I didn’t have the posts telling me what to do or what to look like, I was able to just live my life how I wanted and not compare myself to others.

There are many benefits to social media too. It can help you stay informed socially, politically, and economically, which makes conversation and relationship building much easier. There are also many accounts dedicated to positivity and that post light-hearted images or quotes. These accounts can put smiles on faces or even encourage you if you are feeling down. These are the accounts you should follow, not the ones that make you question yourself.

While on social media, it is crucial to remember that people do not typically post the negatives in their lives. What you see are the highlights. If you see these highlights at one of your lows, it makes it that much harder to remind yourself that the person behind the screen has hard times too.

Two suggestions that have worked for me to lessen the pressure from social media:

Only follow accounts that make you smile.

You don’t need to follow the friend of a friend of a friend who lives in your city or the person who posts extremely edited pictures. These posts will not do much for YOU. Instead, follow your close friends, food accounts, or little positivity pages.

Don’t let social media be the first thing you see when you wake up or the last thing you see before you go to bed.

Our days are packed with fulfilling experiences to appreciate and you should not delay the start to your day by looking at social media. Similarly, the time before you sleep is the perfect time to take a deep breath and give thanks for your day without cluttering your mind with other people’s experiences. Also, you will most likely get more sleep which is an added bonus.