One month detox: I’m not using social media from October 1 – October 31

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve lived, eaten, and breathed social media since October 2008. There have been less than 50 days in the last 2,190 days (six years) that I haven’t checked a social media website. Just typing that is a bit shocking.

Social media websites have been instrumental in my businesses and in helping define my identity. There’s no denying I wouldn’t have been able to do the things I’ve done in my short entrepreneurial career without Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

But I also know the downside of the current state of social media. I’ve talked about it before, but these platforms are a breeding ground for negativity and distraction from real life. Even with doing some heavy curating of my Twitter account and swinging the Hide From News Feed Hammer on FB, I can’t escape the random political rant, the addiction to vanity metrics (likes, RTs, favorites, follower counts, etc), or the dab of social media makeup to pretend life is perfect. And I’m certainly guilty of the last two items.

So for the first time since 2008, I’m cutting myself off from social media* for a month.

How am I going to do this without cheating? Luckily, there’s an app for that.

I’ll be using the SelfControl app. In essence, you type in websites you want to block and the time for which you want to block them, and you cannot access them. It’s a genius-ly cruel app that I’m excited to put to the test.
I’ll be turning off all notifications from Twitter and Facebook (phone and email).
I’ll be deleting the Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Vine, Google+, and Timehop apps from my phone.

*I’m not counting email as social media, I’ll absolutely still be using email.

You may be wondering why? Why do I want to detox myself from social media?

One reason is that I’ve used it as a crutch for the past few years. When I was afraid to work on something hard or challenging, I’d escape to checking tweets and my FB feed. Even while writing this blog post I’ve felt the urge to check the little red notifications on Facebook. I know I’m addicted to social media and I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m just choosing to do something about it.

The second reason is that I’ve become very cynical of other people. I’ll see a fellow Internet Marketer pop up in my feed promoting a product or service and feel jealousy or anger towards them. I try to preach putting more positivity out into the world, but every time I check a feed of updates, I feel negativity creeping in.

I’m hopeful this 30-day detox from social media will help me get more focused on a few bigger projects. I’m currently building a business and have felt myself putting off my growing todo list. When I should be working on issues or features, I’m wasting time trying to write a compelling Facebook status that I hope will get a bunch of Likes or browsing my Instagram feed.

So what will take the place of social media in October?

I’ll be focusing more on my writing. My weekly email updates definitely won’t stop, and if anything, I hope will be better. My weekly column for Inc Magazine will continue. I’ll be sharing more thoughts on a newly redesigned and renamedJasonSadler.com. And, I’m hopeful that I can read at least 8 books in October (2 per week). I have quite the stack piling up.

This is an experiment, just like a diet (and I’ve certainly tried a bunch of those). Except, instead of losing weight, I’m hoping to shed some habits, change my attitude, and see what I end up doing with the extra time and mental energy.

Maybe you’re not ready to admit you’re addicted to social media, but I am. And I’m tired of feeling like I can’t let go of it.