May 29th 2022.
It's been a little over a year since i deleted social media some people in the comments have
been asking me for my thoughts on the experience before i get started. Let me summarize it for you:
it took me 14 months before i realized it had been over a year;
that's how little it affected me. Or at least how much i got accustomed to the experience.
Recently i've noticed in a way i am more satisfied with less.
I've noticed i'm WAY more satisfied with less. I don't even have the urge to go window shopping
anymore, i just walk right by. I put on the same outfits a lot and my outfits are simple.
I'm just one of a thousand people walking through the streets right now
no one's gonna notice that i wore this exact outfit three days ago.
I'm no longer comparing myself to others and i only tend to see my face when it's in a mirror
rather than 50 times a day when i would used to take a snapchat.
When you look at yourself less you stop thinking of your body as a means to show off and you end
up judging yourself a whole lot less. My body is serving as my transport to get from A to B,
my power to learn more and digest my food, and have love for others. It's not about the way an
outfit shows off my figure or if my thighs are skinny enough yet.
I've come to appreciate my body for the daily work it does to keep me running;
this was a big deal for me. Now when i do look at myself it's with more joy
and love for myself than before. The freckles i once hated may come off and on the trend list
but i've grown to love them either way. There's a lot of idolizing of mental health struggles online
and the most recent being adhd. As much as it frustrates me to hear the whole world cry
wolf as soon as a random tick talker diagnoses them with the current trend
i do think social media has affected our ability to focus after a year offline. I've noticed more
when the people around me are distracted on their phones as we chat and I see more and more people
checking their phones for texts mid-sentence or losing the train of thought it's a lot less
work for me to write a journal entry now or read a book as i have way less distractions.
My mind is finally at peace. A big reason people are scared to lose social media is the fear of
distancing themselves from their friends. I remember thinking if i didn't know what my
friends were up to every single day i would be out of the loop and potentially lose them as friends.
I can confirm the opposites happened. I now make way more effort to go and physically
see my friends and i'm more intent on listening to our conversations without the distractions.
It's nice to hear a friend tell a story without immediately thinking ah yeah i already saw that
on your instagram story". In general i'm a happier person now not pressured by online
trends and social cues but more so listening to what i want and what is good for me right now.
Deleting social media didn't mean i left the internet;
i'm not a caveman and i still keep up to date with the general news in pop culture
but i consume a lot less of the internet noise than i used to, that's for sure.
However a great way to spend time online is by furthering your skills or learning something new
on Skillshare: the sponsor of today's video. I've been a long time user ofSskillshare and
originally joined two years ago to learn how to use adobe to edit and create powerful videos.
Recently i've been watching Alex Gabriel's course:" cooking like a chef -five fundamental
skills for kitchen success" to become more skilled in the kitchen and have more hobbies offline.
I really liked how Alex showed us the ways to make leftovers exciting as this can help reduce
food waste and give you a tasty end result. If you want to join Skillshare, the first 1 000 people to
click the link will receive a one month free trial of Skillshare so you can try out for yourself.
I think i can take it one step further though. I would like to try and minimize
my online time even further maybe by taking a week off my phone at a time if i can.
I have to ask, would you like to take more time offline?