I dumped Facebook and Instagram and haven’t looked back
Ditching social media definitely has it’s benefits. This is why I ditched Instagram and Facebook, and how life has changed. I have zero regrets.
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LIFE without Instagram and Facebook is possible.
In fact it really is damn good.
About six months ago I decided to make a snap decision and kill myself off Instagram.
With the click of a few buttons on my iPhone is shut down immediately.
I’d had enough of it.
Too much of my day was spent scrolling through Instagram numbing my brain and snooping into other people’s lives that I really didn’t give two hoots about.
And I confess I was a serial poster of Instagram stories, I loved putting things up showing that I was out and about.
But I came to the realisation that it was adding no value to my life whatsoever.
Do I really need to know what some washed-up ex-Married At First Sight star is drinking or where they’re partying in Bali?
Do I really care who Miley Cyrus is dating this week?
Nope.
I did not need to tell my few hundred followers knowing what I was doing all the time.
Instagram was a complete waste of time and adding no value to my everyday existence.
My decision to shut down it down came many years after I ditched my Facebook account.
That too was chewing into my personal time and really not giving me anything back.
My parents don’t use social media and it’s refreshing.
To find out what I’m up to we pick up the phone and have a chat, or catch up in person.
And the same should go with friends and family who really care about you.
Sure we’re all timepoor, but it’s a quick way to work out who really is interested in what you’re doing.
I decided it was back to the old-school way of telling people who wanted to know what I’d done on the weekend or where I went on my last holiday to ask me.
It’s actually nice to talk to people – not post – and find out what they’ve been doing.
There’s a bit of mystery too, if you really want to know what someone is doing you’ll ask.
Sadly I think social media is killing off face-to-face conversations, it’s all too easy to know what someone is up to without asking a single question.
But that’s not to say all social media is bad.
I still use Twitter and LinkedIn – mainly for work.
This is useful and I get a lot back from it, but of course it can too numb the brain.
Those weekly screen time updates phone users get revealing how much time they’ve spent on social media can be scary and a rude awakening.
SOPHIE ELSWORTH IS NATIONAL PERSONAL FINANCE WRITER.
sophie.elsworth@news.com.au
@sophieelsworth
Originally published as I dumped Facebook and Instagram and haven’t looked back