What I Learned From My Social Media Cleanse

When I first started my social media cleanse, specifically from Instagram, I never imagined it would last this long. It’s been a little over four months and I thoroughly enjoyed my stress-free summer! I was able to focus on myself, my family, and learned a few things.

The problem wasn’t really Instagram…

…it was me. Instagram didn’t solve my problem of putting my phone down, at first. A week into it I was still constantly on my phone but instead of scrolling through IG I was instead browsing Pinterest and leveling up pretty quickly in candy crush. 😉

But by the second week and definitely the third week, Instagram didn’t even cross my mind until one of my friends or family members brought it up. I was able to get back into a routine of eating right and working out. In fact, I lost 15 pounds. But that didn’t take up all of my time. Of course, I wasn’t running on the treadmill all day long. I blamed social media for being lazy when really it was just about making myself give working out a priority. 30-45 minutes in the mornings and I was done and free to go about my day.

I felt out of the loop.

I actually missed seeing what everyone was doing. Of course, I checked the blogs of my favorite Instagrammers for the latest updates, but I still got the sense I was missing something from behind the scenes.

I missed sharing!

I worked on a few projects during my cleanse, and I caught myself wanting to share the process multiple times. Sometimes, all I really wanted to share was the latest binge-worthy Netflix show or newest drama on tv, but still, I really missed sharing.

No one cared.

And neither did I.  A better way to say it, might be that no one seemed to notice. Busy lives, busy days, etc. it was easy to carry on with life without social media. It made me realize just how many hours of the day social media was taking up in my life and other peoples. We are so overloaded with everyone and anyone, it can be hard to focus.

Instagram is easier than blogging.

Just as I realized how much Instagram and social media takes up my day, I also realized how easy and important it is. It’s much easier to pop on Instagram, share a few details about a project or my latest Target find than write a full blog post. My goal during the cleanse was to continue with my blog, and I did for a while but eventually gave it up.

Overall I learned a lot about what is important – like my health, putting my phone away, and not stressing the small stuff when it comes to social media. Lately, all we hear about is the “algorithm” and its effect on bloggers and influencers. Completely giving it up helped alleviate that stress for me and now I’m just happy to be back!