HAPPY DETOX ! . . Try disconnecting for 30 days without telling any of your friends and see what that feels like. Social Media will never play a fundamental role in my life.

Try disconnecting for 30 days without telling any of your friends and see what that feels like. It was difficult detoxing Social Media as a IT student.

Oh sorry , let me start from the beginning .


This article is divided into four parts--

1. Why I detox Social Media ?

2. Truth about quitting Social Media.

3. Benefits of doing so .

4. Moral of my story. 
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 1. Why I detox Social Media?

Before you claim, I am a Demi-god for detoxing the most omnipresent phenomenon of the 21st century, let me clarify by saying that I was never a fan of social media. When I say Social Media, I mean the 4 big giants — Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. I deleted my Facebook app from the mobile and pretend that I had never been so addicted to it before. I didn't quit using twitter because the habits of scrolling the bottomless page hasn't been left till . But after a week I began to move outside without grabbing a phone and then I realized now it's a time to deleted twitter too and I deleted. 

Sometimes I wonder why I dislike Social Media. Everybody I come across wants to click, share, like and chat incessantly. I got annoyed by all these things and decided the hard step which had change the prospective of my life .

I have always loved technologies such as Smartphones, TV’s, Laptops, PlayStation, Home-Theater systems. So my dislike for Social Media is clearly unusual.

People spend upwards of 2 hours on different social media platforms. Teens spend more time socializing online than in person. No wonder the depression rates are so high worldwide.

However, the main purpose of this article is not to explicate the dangers of Social Media but to paint a clear picture of what to expect during this detox period.

2. The truth about quitting Social Media.

“Who the hell are these people???” I asked myself incredulously while going through my Facebook friends list . Sometime I feel like why I am sharing my life with of half forgotten 'friends' if i don't even remember them? I got annoyed at that moment .I always want to delete my account but as an IT student , it would be hard to delete permanently  however, because at the time I thought I would need it later. For the time being, I wanted to get out.

 

 Sometimes I feared of being “Forgotten and Friendless”.Within a few days, I laughed out loud at the naivete of that thought.

My good friends are still in touch with me on Telegram and we occasionally  chat and have talks . I am perfectly fine to let go of the lightweight “friends” I had on Facebook.

3. Serious Benefits 

I will briefly touch upon a few of the transformational changes one can expect when you drown out the external noise of Social Media.

A. You stop falling for the Appearance bias.

"We see people not as they are, but as they appear to us" 

When you have been disconnected from social media for as long as I have, you gradually realize a particular irrationality of human beings — Appearance Bias. 

Appearance Bias in social media means that we immediately believe the image or post we see is true and honest.For example you see your friend posting a selfie with their partner at somewhere and you automatically assume that he/she is not only having a wonderful life but also having a much better life than yours . Whether or not they are really having a better time than you , you automatically feel that though  (you can never know his painful life and hidden pain behind that smile). 

This is one of the more deleterious side-effects of social media . Since Envy is a part of our human nature , we cannot help but think that others have it better than us.

I am at a stage in my life that if I see a person regularly posting selfies then I automatically assume that that person is looking for validation through likes. Either way, social media detox will make you indifferent to such posts.

If most people share a particular news article, we automatically assume that it must be true. Just reading the headline of fake news is harmful to the society. And I find this more harmful. 

B. You develop empathetic skills.

I was reluctant to include this point because I was unsure whether this is because of my social media detox or my mindfulness habit.

If you have been increasingly socializing online, I can bet that you are weakening your empathetic muscles, which require frequent in-person interaction (or training) to decipher facial gestures . Instead, if the only emotions you notice , are the emoticons you send in your messages and text . This is probably the main reason for depression because they don't feel connected to anyone and they feel of ignorance if someone doesn't talk to him/her as they thought they should. 

But worry not, you don’t really need to delete your social media accounts to improve on this. Just spend time observing people when you are out in the public. Stop grabbing for your phone like an addict. Better yet, leave your phone in the house when you’re out for a walk. 

C. You are invincible to viral outrage.

Ahhh. My favorite benefit of social media detox.

No subliminal advertisements beckoning me to buy useless stuff. No politician trying to manipulate and exploit me through outrageous statements. This is the definition of peace in the 21st century.Also, as I don’t know the political views of my friends, I am better off than most people because I don’t need to argue with my friends or unconsciously judge them. I simply accept them and understand that people have a right to their perspective. 

Now I don't want to feel superior than other in any talks , probably I used to think why the hell he/she is making me down . Now I begun to understand the real meaning of being great and the definition of greatness which is " If he/she wants to make you down then why not being down than them  if they feel good." By wining in unnecessary and pointless chat doesn't make you high or low to them . 

This is what I exactly learned . I learned the natural environment rather than artificial environment where I was living before between the fake post , memes and unnecessary video. 

One more point I realized is that 99% of the news out there doesn’t really matter. The reason most people follow news religiously is because they want to seem smart and well informed in front of other people. Besides, it's also a great conversation starter. 

4. Moral of my story.

Well, the moral of the story is that there is no moral of the story. I just wished to share my experience without Social Media. Moreover, since I did not delete my Facebook account and merely deactivated it; I don’t really know if I quit or if this is a detox for an indefinite period. Honestly, I don’t even care. Social Media will never play a fundamental role in my life.

If you are not particularly interested in sharing photos or your own thoughts, opt out of Social Media completely.  You can fill that time with literally anything you want — develop creative skills, read, write, etc.

If you feel that social media is crucial for maintaining relationships then, let me clear , partners doing live-in are also having breakups, and you think you'd have break-up after quitting social media . You should try being physically presence in relationships rather than having emoticons emotions as I already mentioned . 

And guess what? Unless you are a small celebrity/writer/blogger, nobody will notice your absence. This is not because you are unimportant but because most people are too self-absorbed to care about what you are doing. They only care about how they are being perceived. Save yourself from this misery before it’s too late.

In conclusion, I’d say my social media detox wasn’t as successful as I had hoped it would be. There is a degree of freedom and mental space within me that, in my humble opinion, isn’t available to the average Facebook user who spends 2 hours per day on the app. Even though I haven’t achieved Newtonian levels of focus and productivity, I feel much calmer than before.

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Give me your prospective about the article in the comment below. . .