AFJ Digital

I have lived many years online and on social media. For the longest time, it was fI have lived many years online and on social media. For the longest time, it was fun and made an impact on my life. Social media is why I have a spouse, a career, and more connections that have stayed connected. It’s also helped me stay up to date on current events and gain insights and tips from other people’s life experiences.

Now, social media makes me tired.

This shift for me started as early as 2018 after I was let go twice in three years. It was then that I realized that my life is more than my job and I needed to figure out what my life was without one. I used the time away from work to discover new hobbies (gardening, bird feeding, walking, strength training, and reading) and I enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to be online for work. It was then I considered that maybe I should shift more of my work toward content writing versus social media management.

Years later during the pandemic mid-2020, I was eager to try something I hadn’t done before: get off social media platforms for a few months. I suffered a miscarriage and between that loss and everything else going on, I was motivated to go cold turkey. It was very tough the first week to fight the urge to login to one of my accounts, but it only took a week to get over it. I didn’t find myself missing it at all except for major updates from friends, so I returned a few months later feeling refreshed and eager to limit my consumption on a regular basis. I had already taken Facebook off my phone years prior and didn’t miss it, so I cut back more. I went from three social media apps on my phone to only one now, and I’m considering taking that off too. The idea of not having any social media on my phone is freeing.

All of these decisions have been years in the making, but the sudden exodus this month made me think critically about how I want to change the way I’m online this year and moving forward. 

The problem? It’s part of how I make a living, and that is specifically why so many people have had a tough time cutting back. These platforms are tied to our livelihood and we don’t know how we can move forward when our audiences are still there, even if it is less frequent. We are figuring it out in real-time and I will likely continue to figure it out for the months to come, but I do know a few things I want to do:

1. I want all social media off my phone. I’m tired of constantly checking it, pulling myself away from things that matter, and not appreciating the present moment.
2. I want a break from social media except for LinkedIn, which surprisingly still has value to me. I’m not sure how long the break will last, but hopefully a few months at least.
3. I want to be more proactive about spending time in-person with people and building community. My goal is to get coffee once a month with someone, if not more frequently.
4. I want my website and my business page to continue to be my communication channels. If you subscribe to my blog, you’ll get these blog posts sent via email as they’re posted.
5. I want to aim for less frequent, but more impactful content in 2025. I made this prediction late last year and today, this sentiment couldn’t be more accurate among marketers and friends.

When I decided to veer from social media for my career, I was scared about the repercussions of how it could impact me. Now I’m grateful for putting my mental well-being first and making that tough choice.

This month showed us in real-time how social media platforms can negatively impact your life mentally and financially. Today, I’m more determined than ever to manage my social media consumption on my own terms.