Let’s just admit it, okay.

Everyone needs to go on a social media detox. I’m not just talking about book bloggers, bloggers or any book readers. I’m talking about every single person who is on social media.

Don’t worry, I’m not here to preach and you’ve probably heard and ignored it when people tell you to take some time off your phone so if you want to ignore me too, then that’s okay, I don’t mind.

In this post I want to talk about why a social media detox is especially important for bloggers. This was inspired by my own recent detox where I deleted almost every social media app from my phone.

Nope, I’m not kidding.

Let me just give you a little background. So about a month ago I was really stressed out and tired with life in general. My studies were overburdening, my comeback on the blog was demanding and the type of news I was hearing about just didn’t help. I also have high anxiety so my brain automatically multiplies every little thing x1000. Yaay me!

With all that stuff going on it was getting really tiring to hop on from one social media site to the other while promoting my blog, checking everyone’s messages, keeping up with my Instagram feed and what not. I swear half of my life was spent scrolling and refreshing and it gave me huge headaches. What I loved to do was becoming a tiring chore.

Then I thought, there’s a first time for everything, let’s go on a social media detox. One of my closest friends, Nandini @Unputdownable Books had just taken a break from Instagram and reported it to be very relaxing which further motivated me. I deleted every single app from Pinterest and Tumblr to even beloved Twitter(which I asked a good friend to keep tabs on for me). All with the exception of Instagram. Because I honestly need beautiful pictures of books to survive or I’ll die. Not exaggerating here.

Even then I stopped stressing over commenting on other people’s posts and these days just upload my own posts and just casually glance through the stories.

It has been relaxing and helpful in so many ways which is why I want to share it with all of you. Here’s all I learnt from my social media detox broken down into simple bullet points to tell you the benefits of it all!

6 Reasons to go on a Social Media Detox

1. The Peace and Quiet

I swear you’ll miss checking your phone for constant updates for just a day or two but after that you’ll revel in the peace.

You don’t have to frown at the spam notifications, don’t have to get angry with that hate commenter, don’t have to stress over how other people’s pictures are better than yours, don’t have to get a new brain when you see some stupid threads on twitter- you don’t have to do anything.

It’s so freaking refreshing!

Sometimes you don’t even realise the chaos and stress you go through on social media until you put it behind you.

2. Helps you to Keep a Distance from the Negativity

Seriously, the haters aren’t going to torment you when you’re not around. You can’t get depressed from distraught news when you don’t see it. Negative thoughts won’t thrive as much when there is less or no fuel to add to them.

I’ve been so much happier because the twitter community hasn’t been talking to me about the plagiarism, authors bugging bloggers and whatnot.

I’m not saying all that is not important, I just needed to step sway from that negativity for a while.

3. You Have More Time!

Let’s face it, social media takes a huge chunk of our time. You can get entranced by the gorgeous pictures on IG, hypnotised by the memes and relatable posts on tumblr or downright unable to stop scrolling on freaking twitter for hours. It happens to everyone.

But it’s worse for bloggers. To start off, some of us don’t even want to be on these platforms but we have to so that we can promote our content. We have to invest a lot of time into making everything aesthetic and appealing and maintain constant, regular interactions with the community or else everyone will forget us. It’s science, human beings have an attention span shorter than that of a goldfish.

And all this zaps so much of our time that can be better spent on reading taking a stroll through nature, catching up with work or family- anything else!

So go take a break and utilise this precious time.

4. It Fuels Creativity

Since the past few weeks I’ve been feeling so creative! I wrote some poetry(which I last did in like April?), finally started a new WIP and also experimented with some art designs.

I was so pumped and excited that it took me some time to realise where all this extra fuel was coming from.

The lack of stimulation from social media.

I’m not even talking about the time we spend on social media. Even after you’ve closed those apps and switched off your phone what you saw and read still lingers in your brain, taking up a good portion of your brain. How are you supposed to cook up wonderful stories and deaign masterpieces when your mind is filled with all of that?

So if you’re currently dealing with writer’s block or a creativity slump maybe try going on a detox?

5. You May Be Able to Control your TBR

Emphasis on may.

This one is specifically for all the booknerds.

You see that TBR pile competing with Mt. Everest? It’s growing because you keep adding new books, new books that you get recommended by people on Twitter or spot on Instagram. So by cutting your time on social media sites you are significantly cutting down on the amount of books you discover and therefore the amount you add to your never ending TBR.

The difference in your TBR may be very slight but hey, it’s a start.

Nobody can expect a miracle when it comes to TBRs.

6. You Don’t Lose Followers

I feel that many people are afraid that if they take a break from social media then when they’ll be back BOOM!

All their followers will be gone.

It’s not like that at all. I’ve been on a hiatus for about 20 days and I haven’t lost followers, the follower count has remained pretty stable. It’s about the same as it was when I left.

So if that’s what is stopping you then leave this fear behind! Don’t be afraid to take a little risk. Your friends will totally understand if you need some time or/and space away from social media.

Okay so now that I’ve spent a whole post explaining why you should go take a hiatus from social media I’m gonna go back to Twitter.

Before you start off, no this is not hypocricy. I had a great time staying away from social media but I miss Twitter, most of all I miss the people there. I feel the hiatus served it’s purpose and I’m much more relaxed now. If need be I’ll take another hiatus whenever I want to. Plus I’m only going back to Twitter, I still don’t feel like dealing with Pinterest and Facebook and my never ending IG feed 🙈

Have you gone on a social media detox before? How did it feel for you? Do you have anything to add to this list? Are you still afraid of going on a hiatus? Talk to me in the comments below 😊