Update: 9 Weeks Without Social Media

Social media became, for me, a comparison trap and a way of seeking approval. I don’t think social media itself was the problem. You can fall into comparison traps and approval seeking patterns with or without social media, but social media certainly made it easier for me.

I’m glad I’ve taken this time away from social media. I don’t necessarily miss it, but I do see the benefits. The thing I’m actually most looking forward to about getting back on it next year is just sharing the things I’ve been creating with more people. I’m also excited to use the tools on it creatively; to come up with creative, out of the box ways to share work on each platform.

I do, however, have a lot of things I plan on avoiding with regards to social media. The first thing is that I don’t want to feel pressure to follow anyone else or see what they’re doing anymore. It’s not because I don’t like hearing from old friends. I love that. I love catching up with people I’ve met along the journey of life, but I’d just rather do it in person. Seeing everything in everyone’s life everyday I think really began to influence how I thought. It’s cliche, but it made it easy for me to focus on everyone else’s highlights in their lives, and compare to my lowlights.

I also think I’m going to try to use a scheduling app or something to post my work and then try to plan far ahead. I see that being a way I can try to avoid creating stuff just to people please. That would also probably help me to create things that are more genuine and honest to who I am.