One of my 3 New Year’s resolutions to start the year was to take a social media break, more specifically, a break from Instagram since that was the one platform that was doing more harm than good. In case you were curious about the other 2 other resolutions, they were 1.) read 30 minutes a day (making a conscious effort to get back on this) and 2.) to get back to posting on the blog – not counting February, I’ve hit my 2x a month goal so far.

Although I never actively posted on Instagram, other than my solo travel journey, I would get caught up in the likes and comments, just like most people. After posting, I would log in throughout the next few days to see who ‘liked’ my post and wonder why certain people didn’t. Crazy I know, but that’s the problem I saw with the platform, my need for external validation. Don’t get me wrong, social media can be a great tool to see how friends and family were doing, find inspiration, and keep up with what’s going on in the world but at the end of the day, it was doing more damage than good. At one point I was logging into Instagram out of habit just to get caught up in the endless scroll. Feelings of jealousy, envy, and isolation were consistent themes during and after logging off.

After making the tough decision to delete the app from my phone in January, I started to notice a few changes in my life. A few of the things that my social media break has taught me include…

My mental health, self-esteem, and confidence have been at its healthiest levels in a very long time, maybe ever? Not seeing what everyone else is up to, thus not having anything to compare my life to has forced me to focus on my journey. Seeing everyone’s ‘highlight reel’ would make me question what I’m doing with my life or why I haven’t achieved what they have.

Life is so much better without a screen in front of you. Being an introvert, I try to avoid small talk as much as possible and crave deep, meaningful conversations. I’ve been able to connect with new friends on a deeper level, talking about our hopes, dreams, and aspirations. It’s hard to put on a façade when you’re talking to someone in person versus seeing a carefully curated post.

I’m more at peace with myself and the things in my life. Taking a break from IG has allowed me to refocus on what I value and think of as a ‘successful’ life. We live in a society that values a ‘hustle,’ ‘go go go’ mentality with 60+ hour work weeks to ‘get ahead.’ Instead of living up to that societal standard, I’ve turned inward to set goals for myself that align with what I believe in; kindness, compassion, hard work, with a little bit of laughter sprinkled in.

My plan at the beginning of the year was to delete Instagram for the first month and then go from there. It’s hard to believe it’s been 3 months since I last logged in and even harder to believe that I have no urge or desire to reinstall the app. Like most things in life, this could change, but for right now I’m content with checking up on friends via text, call, video chat or in-person meet ups, and getting my inspiration from books or stories I read online.

QOTP: “The reason why we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” -unknown