Before Mark Zuckerberg thought of Facebook, we were still connecting with our family and friends. Before the era of social media, life was lived, the sky was still blue, and the sun still shone. If you break up with social media, the moon will not fall down, the sun will not stop shinning, every blade of grass will still be different and every snowflake will still be unique, but here are 8 things that will happen if you break up with social media.
1. You will be happier and more content with life.
In the virtual reality of social media, it’s very easy to compare your life with your colleagues and belittle yourself. We want to be like the other person, we like how their body looks, we love the things they have, life seems to be going forward for them while our life seems to be at a standstill. They got that dream job while we are still jobless. They visited the country on our bucket list. They got married and had a beautiful baby and our life pales in comparison.
On social media, everyone posts their nicest pictures and best moments. It is highly unlikely that anyone is going to put their bad moments on display for all to see. If someone travels around the world on holidays, there will probably be a picture of it on social media, but if their landlord should kick them out for not paying rent, they probably won’t mention it online. So, why compare your life to the virtual life you see on social media and feel miserable? It’s like comparing your worst moments with everyone else’s best. Breaking up with social media will make you happier and more content with your life. There will not only be no more pictures and posts to compare your life to, but you will realize that your life is not actually so bad.
2. You will be more productive.
You will suddenly realize that a lot can be done instead of scrolling up and down on social media. You will find ways to make your dreams more real. Have you always wanted to learn a new language or play the piano or guitar? Instead of wasting time on social media, you can actually invest that time into your dreams and watch them become reality. At work, you can get a lot done instead of peeping on your phone every now and then. It can be very easy to deceive yourself by trying to limit your social media use, but how many times has a planned 15 minutes on social media turned into 2 hours? You don’t fight temptation, you avoid it.
3. You will be grateful for your life.
Breaking up with social media will let you see the reality of the world. You will be more grateful for your life instead of being jealous and envious of the lives of others on social media. You will realize that your life is awesome, that you don’t need to let the ten things you don’t have that your social media friend does have prevent you from giving thanks for how lucky you’ve been in life.
If you have food, clothing, and a roof over your head, you are richer than 75% of the people in the world today. If you have savings in the bank, you are in the top 8% of the world’s wealthy today. If you woke up this morning with your health, you are more blessed than the 1 million people who will not survive this week. If you have not experienced the pain of starvation, you are more fortunate than 500 million people in the world today.
When you log out of social media and log in to life, it will not be long for you to realize that what you have now and are taking for granted is someone’s prayer request. Whilst you envy your friend’s Ferrari on social media, someone is busily praying and fasting for your Toyota.
4. You will have an improved relationship with your family and friends.
Social media claims to be connecting you with your family and friends, but is it really? How often have you found yourself on social media while the real people around you go unnoticed? How often do you catch yourself scrolling up and down on social media instead of talking to the human next to you? Social media may claim to connect you with family and friends, but in reality it disconnects you from them. When you break up with social media, you will realize that calling, talking, and having dates without social media interruption is a great way to bond and connect with your family and friends.
5. You will see how beautiful the world is.
I bet you think you have seen enough of the world to appreciate its beauty. But, if you can put your phone in your pocket and not distract yourself with notifications, it won’t be long before you see that birds are not always white, some are actually pink. We are only here for a very limited time. Instead of spending most of that time on social media, we can spend it visiting the beach, the forest, and appreciating nature. At least then, if we die and go to the next world and we are asked how the earth looks, we can tell about how beautiful it really is.
6. You will be innovative.
When you are constantly distracted with social media, your brain is shut to real life issues and you become less innovative. When you break up with social media, you will be become more innovative and improve your life. Perhaps you need more money, but merely wishing for it doesn’t earn you any extra cash. If you drop the phone and stop distracting yourself with social media, an idea on how to earn that money might come to you.
7. You will be smarter and wiser.
When you log out of social media and log in to real life, you will spend your time wisely on useful things, like books and great websites that actually improve your life and enrich you with knowledge to make you a better person. You can find time and exercise instead of perusing social media and complaining about how you never find the time to hit the gym. That time spent on Facebook could have been used on a great workout. Whilst others are wasting their lives on social media, you will be reading a life-changing book, hitting the gym, being innovative, and making your dreams come true.
8. Your future self will be grateful.
The future is not bright until you deliberately polish it today. If you do not give up unhealthy habits that get you nowhere, your future is going to be full of regrets about the things you could have done and didn’t do simply because you were too busy on social media. If you give up social media today and invest the time into your dreams, your future self will be happy that you had the time to learn Spanish, play the piano, to start that business or write that book.
