When my very best friend Tatiana Regan announced to me that she planned to give up social media I was astounded, this was a girl who lived on her cellphone, constantly updating her Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Twitter as though her life depended on it. In truth I really didn’t think that Tatiana Regan had what it took to give up something which took up so much of her life but just a week later and she did it, deleted accounts and apps, and went cold turkey. That was a year ago today and she has done amazingly to stay away for so long. I know many people who have considered this and here are Tatiana’s righteous reasons for doing so.
Mental Health
The straw that broke the camel’s back for Tatiana Regan was when she realized just how much damage social media was doing to her mental health, something which studies can now back up. Tatiana was on a week long vacation in the Amazon and as such couldn’t login to social media for a long time, it was here that she noticed something different. Instead of waking up and being instantly miserable at looking at other people’s ‘perfect’ social media lives, she was waking up and feeling like herself, focused on challenges and goals for the day. Tatiana says she considered just giving it up on mornings, before understanding the full scale of the problem.
Present But Never There
Our friends and I used to often joke about Tatiana who would happily put photos and content on her social media channels about ‘meeting up with the girls’ yet in truth she was locked on her phone the whole time. This is what happens so often with social media, people wish to tell the world about their amazing experiences but in truth they aren’t experiencing them because of their quite clear addiction to their social media channels. This isn’t to say that all social media use is bad of course, but for Tatiana things had gone too far.
Obsessed
Tatiana never wished to make money or a business from her social media channels but, like many who are addicted, she craved new likes and followers and would be desperately unhappy if something didn’t gain the traction which she hoped for. So much of social media is vacuous, a like from someone who you don’t even know, who may or may not have actually liked your post, yet you get hung up on these metrics. If you are like Tatiana Regan was and getting hung up on these things then it may be time to take a break from social media.
Worries
Social media has brought the world closer together than ever before and this means that we instantly hear about issues all over the world. Tatiana began to get worked up and worried about things which she couldn’t change, simply because of how exposed she was.
If you have any of these issues then take a break from social media like Tatiana did, it has certainly helped her.
