Unplugging from Social Media for Dry July

When Brooke McAlary's latest book, CARE: The Radical Art of Taking Time - landed at my local post office, I was honestly overjoyed.

 

But little did I know the impact this beautifully designed book would have on my social media addiction.

 

Running a start-up online business and webinars “requires” you to be online. Yet there's a fine line between focused social media scheduling, 'networking' and procrastiscrolling. The latter infiltrated my daily rhythm more than I cared to admit.

 

In recent weeks, my screen time was about 5 hours a day and I was horrified when I saw this data. That’s the equivalent of a part-time job.

 

This made me stop and think:

 

💭 Why am I using socials so much? 

💭 What need is it serving? 

💭 What could I be doing instead?" 

 

And I've chosen to do a digital detox for Dry July.

 

In previous experiments, I’ve replaced the social media check with incessant email checking.

 

So this time I’m trying a two-stage process to encourage a steep reduction in screen time, which is discussed in more detail in this episode.

 

1)  A week before the detox, delete all apps from the phone and only use desktop to check once or twice a day

 

2) Set strict limits when checking the platforms

 

3) View the digital detox as an experiment and have self-compassion