Jessica A. Kent @ Harvard Summer

Social media can have many benefits, but sometimes you just need a break.

Today, social media is how we interact with the world. We do nearly everything online – messaging friends and family, learning new ideas, dating, shopping, reading news and events, and finding community.

As of 2022, users spend an average of two hours and 27 minutes per day on social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook.

But sometimes it can just be too much. Staying so highly connected and being exposed to so much content can take its toll on your mental health, your relationships, and your productivity.

If you’re sensing that you’re using social media too distracting, or are coming away from social media feeling drained, sad, or less positive about the world, it may be time to reevaluate your relationship with social media and take a break.

Here are some tools and tips for how to disengage — and how to return feeling refreshed.

The Benefits of Social Media

Social media, like many other features of modern life, is a tool. It has made connection around the world possible and offers a number of benefits.

Connection: Social media was designed for people to connect with others. Today, the primary reason people use social media is still to keep up with friends and family.

Community: Social media offers a way for people to connect with affinity groups or communities; this can be especially important to those who don’t have in-person access to those communities in their day-to-day lives.

Networking and professional development: Users can network with coworkers, find job positions, or engage in professional development on platforms like LinkedIN.

News: Social media is a primary way people learn news, from updates from their friends to global news stories. One out of every five individuals say they get their political news from social media.

Brand Discovery: 83% of users say they use social media to discover new products or services. Many social media platforms also provide ways for customers to shop directly on the app as well.

Education: From life hacks to fun facts to tutorials, social media can serve as a place to learn something, too.

Entertainment: If you’ve spent any amount of time, for example, watching comedians on TikTok or artists on YouTube, you know that social media can just be for fun!

The Downside — and Darkside — to Social Media

While any technology has its upsides, it can also contribute to more negative effects. These impacts are what may be causing you to question your ongoing social media usage.

Impact on mental health: There have been a number of studies to confirm the correlation between social media use and the impacts to mental health, including increased depression, negative feelings resulting from comparison, higher anxiety, insomnia, and impulsive behavior, and an increase in anxiety disorders. Reasons for these impacts stem from feelings of inadequacy and inferiority in seeing other users’ carefully curated lives online. They also come from cyberbullying — 57% of school-age children say they’ve received abusive comments online.

FOMO: Social media usage can also heighten feelings of FOMO, or the fear of missing out, when someone sees friends and influencers only posting travel, successes, relationships, and other happy (yet curated) content. 62% of Facebook and Twitter users said that when compared to others’ posts, they felt their achievements were inadequate. Additionally, 30% say social media makes them feel lonely.

Overwhelm: It can be overwhelming to be exposed to so much content all at once and try to process what you’re seeing. Today, social media exposes us to everything happening everywhere all the time — both the good and the incredibly bad and violent.
These feelings of overwhelm or fatigue can even be compared to PTSD.

Addition: Social media triggers the production of dopamine, a feel-good chemical that’s released whenever your brain makes a connection, learns something new, or when something grabs its attention. But social media is also designed to be addictive with elements like infinite scrolling, auto-play videos, notifications, sounds, bright colors, and other appealing features. A former Facebook employee compared social media to a slot machine that gives you the promise of a reward every time you interact with it.

Recognizing When You Need a Break

Considering all of the above, you may be ready for a break. Ask yourself the following questions if you think it’s time to reevaluate your relationship with social media:

Do you come away from your interactions on social media feeling inspired, informed, and positive? Or are you drained, saddened, frustrated, overwhelmed, depressed, anxious, angry, or negative?

Do you find yourself on a social media app, yet don’t remember picking up your phone and tapping on the app?

Is the amount of time you’re spending on social media taking away from time you used to spend with friends or family, doing schoolwork, or doing other productive activities?

Are you constantly comparing your life to the lives you see on social media, and think that you could never “catch up”?

Have any friends or family members expressed concern that you’re on social media too much, or that you talk about what you see there too much?

Do you have more activities and relationships in real life, or do you conduct most of your life on social media?

Do you just have a feeling you need to take a break, but aren’t sure how?

If you answered yes to even a few of these questions, it may be time to step away from social media.

How to Disengage and Detox
If you’ve decided that you need a different relationship with social media, it doesn’t mean you have to get rid of your phone and quit social media forever. Here are a few methods of adjusting your habits — and hopefully set yourself up for success going forward.

Make a Plan
The first step is to make a plan for what you want to accomplish and how you want to accomplish it.

If you simply want to reduce your screen time each day, what times will be off limits and what times will be designated as social media time? How will you go about enforcing that time limit? How many days or weeks will you reduce your social media consumption?

If you’re planning on completely cutting social media out of your life, choose a time period in which to do so that feels achievable. Detoxing from social media for a full month when it’s such an integral part of your life may seem daunting and set you up for failure. Try starting with one day per week, or practicing a “social media fast” on the weekends and go from there.

Recognize Your Triggers
Next, recognize your triggers for when you engage on social media. Do you find yourself mindlessly scrolling in certain situations? Do you turn to social media as a distraction from school or work? Do you check social media as soon as you wake up in the morning, or before you go to bed? Do you grab your phone any time you’re bored?

Once you recognize your triggers, you can take action to change those habits or fill your time in different ways. Find alternatives to spending time on social media, such as reading, taking a walk, working on a puzzle, or connecting with people in real life. Finding ways to fill your time before you disengage from social media will help make the transition easier.

Limit or Delete Apps
If you simply want to cut back on your usage each day, there are apps and settings you can use to limit your access, like the Freedom app or Cold Turkey.

Both iPhone and Android allow users to set time limits on their apps in their settings, after which they’ll be blocked from using them.

You can also delete social media apps from your phone entirely, without deleting your accounts. If you find that you’re constantly picking up your phone and mindlessly tapping, take your apps off your phone for a period of time – you can always add them back in.

You can also change your tech altogether, as there’s a growing trend of Gen Z users are trading their smartphones for “dumb” phones in order to limit their time on social media.

Be Accountable
As you embark upon your disengagement or detox, find a friend, family member, or partner to help you out. Be accountable to them about your efforts, and enlist them to help you by checking in with you, holding your phone during non-social media times,or even entrusting them to change your passwords if you really want to log out.

Reevaluate and Return
Finally, choose a time length after which you’ll reevaluate your relationship with social media. You may decide that you really enjoy being off social media, and will continue to stay off of it. Or, you may decide that you want to engage in social media again, with added stipulations or other restrictions that can help you set boundaries for yourself and your mental health. If you return to social media, yet find yourself again becoming anxious, sad, angry, or negative, go back to the detox.

The Benefits of Disengagement
If you’re able to distance yourself for a significant period of time, there are many benefits to disengaging or detoxing from social media.

Free time: Without spending time on social media, you’ll find that you have more free time to devote elsewhere, like to relationships, activities, or new skills. If you use social media as a distraction while working, you’ll also likely find yourself more productive.

Improved mental health: Disengaging from comparison culture and constant bad news can help improve your mental health, reduce your anxiety, and help you feel more at peace. Staying off of social media can even improve your happiness

More connection: Detoxing from social media will give you the opportunity to connect with others in real life. Maybe it’s catching up with friends over coffee, joining a club, volunteering with an organization, taking up a sport, or other in-person activity.

Better sleep: Detoxing from social media can also help you sleep better if you were one of the 70% of social media users who scroll before bed. Not only will the lack of stimulation help you sleep, but the lack of blue light will help you sleep as well.

Decreased FOMO: Once off social media, your likelihood of comparing yourself to others will decrease, as individuals who took a break from social media experience decreased FOMO, and an increase in mental wellbeing and social connection.
No longer chasing after what others have can help you better define your own personal goals, values, and desires.

Conclusion
Ultimately, you’re the one who can decide if taking a break from social media is right for you. Taking some of these steps can help refresh both your relationship to and perspective on social media and keep you more connected to what really matters.

社交媒体可以带来许多好处，但有时候你只需要休息一下。

如今，社交媒体是我们与世界互动的方式。我们几乎所有的事情都在线上完成——与朋友和家人交流、学习新知识、约会、购物、阅读新闻和事件、寻找社群等。

截至2022年，用户平均每天在 Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook等社交媒体平台上花费2小时27分钟。

但有时这可能会显得过多。保持高度连接并接触到如此多的内容，可能会对您的心理健康、人际关系和工作效率产生负面影响。

如果您感觉自己在社交媒体上花费的时间让人分心，或在使用后感到精疲力尽、悲伤，或对世界的看法变得更为消极，可能是时候重新审视您与社交媒体的关系，并尝试休息一下。

以下是一些脱离社交媒体的工具和技巧——以及如何以充实的状态回归。

 

 

 

社交媒体的好处
社交媒体就像现代生活中的许多其他工具一样，提供了许多便利。

 

连接：社交媒体旨在帮助人们连接彼此。今天，人们使用社交媒体的主要原因仍然是与朋友和家人保持联系。

 

 

社群：社交媒体为人们提供了一个与兴趣小组或社区联系的方式，这对于那些在日常生活中没有面对面机会的人尤为重要。

 

 

网络与职业发展：用户可以在Linkedln等平台上与同事建立联系、寻找工作机会或参与职业发展活动。

 

 

新闻：社交媒体是许多人获取新闻的主要方式，从朋友的更新到全球新闻都有。一项统计表明，每五个人中有一人通过社交媒体获取政治新闻。

 

品牌发现：83%的用户表示，他们使用社交媒体来发现新产品或服务。许多社交媒体平台还提供了直接在应用内购物的功能。

 

教育：从生活小窍门到趣味知识和教程，社交媒体也可以是一个学习新知识的地方。

娱乐：如果您曾在TikTok上看过喜剧演员或在YouTube上看过艺术家表演，您就会知道社交媒体也可以纯粹是为了娱乐！

 

社交媒体的缺点——以及黑暗面
任何技术都有其优势，但它也可能带来一些负面影响。这些影响可能正是您质疑是否要继续使用社交媒体的原因。

 

 

对心理健康的影响：多项研究证实了社交媒体使用与心理健康的负面影响之间的相关性，包括抑郁增加、因比较而产生的负面情绪、焦虑增加、失眠和冲动行为的增加，以及焦虑症状的增加。这些影响的原因包括在看到他人精心打造的生活时感到自卑和不如人。同时，还有网络霸凌的问题——57%的在校儿童表示他们在网上收到过辱骂性评论。

 

 

 

FOMO（错失恐惧症）：当人们看到朋友和网红仅发布旅行、成功、关系和其他（经过策划的）快乐内容时，社交媒体也会加剧错失恐惧症。62%的Facebook和Twitter用户表示，相比他人的动态，他们觉得自己的成就不足。此外，30%的人表示社交媒体让他们感到孤独。

 

 

 

信息过载：同时接触大量内容并试图处理这些信息可能会让人不堪重负。如今，社交媒体向我们展示了世界各地发生的各种事件——无论是好消息还是极端暴力的新闻。这种过载感甚至可以与创伤后应激障碍相提并论。

 

 

 

上瘾：社交媒体会触发多巴胺的分泌，这是一种让人感觉良好的化学物质，在大脑建立联系、学习新事物或被某事物吸引时释放。然而，社交媒体也被设计成具有成瘾性，例如无限滚动、自动播放视频、通知、声音、亮丽的色彩和其他吸引人的特性。一位前Facebook员工将社交媒体比作老虎机，每次互动都会带来回报的期望。

 

 

 

识别您是否需要休息
考虑到上述内容，您可能已经准备好休息一下。以下问题可以帮助您重新评估自己与社交媒体的关系：
您在社交媒体互动后是否感到启发、充实、积极？还是感到疲惫、沮丧、沮丧、愤怒或负面？
您是否在使用社交媒体时感到迷茫，不记得何时拿起手机并点击应用？
您在社交媒体上花费的时间是否占用了原本用于与朋友或家人相处、做作业或其他有生产力的活动的时间？
您是否经常将自己的生活与社交媒体上的生活比较，觉得自己永远无法“赶上”？
有朋友或家人表达过对您使用社交媒体过多的担忧，或提到您过多地谈论社交媒体上的内容？
您的生活活动和关系更多在现实生活中，还是大部分都在社交媒体上进行？
您是否感觉需要休息一下，但不确定如何开始？
如果您对这些问题中的几个回答 “是”，可能是时候远离社交媒体了。

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

如何脱离和戒断
如果您决定需要改变自己与社交媒体的关系，这并不意味着必须永远摆脱手机和社交媒体。以下是一些调整习惯的方法——希望能帮助您在未来取得成功。

 

 

制定计划
第一步是制定计划，明确自己想要实现的目标以及如何实现。如果您只是想每天减少屏幕时间，那么什么时间段不使用，什么时间段可以使用社交媒体？如何执行这个时间限制？您计划在几天或几周内减少社交媒体的使用？
如果您打算彻底摆脱社交媒体，可以选择一个可行的时间段。脱离一个月可能会令您感到畏惧并导致失败。可以从每周一天开始，或者在周末进行“社交媒体禁食”，然后逐步增加。

 

 

 

 

 

识别触发点
接下来，识别自己使用社交媒体的触发点。是否在某些情况下不自觉地滚动社交媒体？是否用社交媒体来逃避学习或工作？是否每天早上醒来或睡前就去查看社交媒体？是否在无聊时就拿起手机？
一旦识别出触发点，您可以采取行动改变这些习惯或寻找其他消遣方式。在脱离社交媒体之前，找到其他活动来填充时间将帮助您更轻松地过渡。

 

 

 

 

 

 

限制或删除应用
如果您只想每天减少使用，可以使用一些应用或设置来限制访问，例如Freedom或Cold Turkey应用。
iPhone和Android允许用户在设置中设定应用时间限制，超过后将被阻止使用。
您也可以完全删除社交媒体应用，而不删除账户。如果发现自己总是不自觉地点击应用，可以暂时将其删除——您可以随时重新安装。
您还可以更换设备，越来越多的Z世代用户开始使用“简易手机”来限制社交媒体的使用时间。

 

 

 

 

 

 

保持责任感
在您开始脱离或戒断的过程中，找到一个朋友、家人或伴侣来帮助您。与他们分享您的努力，让他们通过与您检查、在非社交媒体时间保管您的手机，甚至替您更改密码来帮助您退出。

 

 

 

重新评估并回归
最后，选择一个时间段，之后重新评估您与社交媒体的关系。您可能会发现自己非常喜欢远离社交媒体，并愿意继续保持距离。或者，您可能决定再次使用社交媒体，但添加一些限制或其他限制条件，以帮助自己为心理健康设定界限。如果您重新使用社交媒体，却发现自己再次变得焦虑、悲伤、愤怒或消极，可以再次进行戒断。

 

 

 

戒断的好处
如果能够在较长时间内远离社交媒体，将会获得许多好处。

 

自由时间：不再花时间在社交媒体上，您会发现自己有更多的自由时间，可以用于人际关系、活动或新技能。如果您在工作时使用社交媒体作为分心工具，您还会发现自己更加高效。

 

改善心理健康：远离比较文化和负面新闻可以帮助改善心理健康，减轻焦虑，让您感到更加平和。还离社交媒体甚至可以提升幸福感。

 

更多真实的连接：戒断社交媒体将给您机会在现实生活中与他人联系。可能是与朋友喝咖啡、参加俱乐部、做义工、参与运动或其他线下活动。

 

 

更好的睡眠：如果您是那70%的睡前滑手机的社交媒体用户，远离社交媒体也会帮助您改善睡眠质量。缺少刺激和蓝光可以帮助您更好地入睡。

 

 

减少FOMO：戒断社交媒体后，您与他人比较的可能性会降低。研究表明，戒断社交媒体的人体验到FOMO减少，心理健康和社会联系增强。不再追逐他人所拥有的，能帮助您更好地定义自己的目标、价值观和愿望。

 

 

 

结论最终，您可以决定是否需要休息一下。采取这些步骤可以帮助您刷新与社交媒体的关系和观点，让您更专注于真正重要的事物。