Social Media Detox

Since July 2018, I have been experimenting with my social media habits. Facebook's scary privacy invasion issue play a part, but mainly because I feel that I was spending too much time with these addictive social media (primarily Facebook and Instagram) with almost zero economic benefits. The only benefit I gained is the good feeling of knowing something.

I learn a lot from Duhigg book The Power of Habit, the clue - action - reward - repeat cycle. The reward of getting the updates of someone you know, the reward of understanding one's view on something. Moreover, all the apps are making it easy to get the rewards with push notifications, email reminders, contextual messages. Also, the app icons are so intriguing on the screen, on the notification tab.

So, 9 months ago I deleted all apps (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) from my mobile phone to eliminate the clues. It works very well for me. I keep my accounts and check them mostly on weekends on my tablet. Every once in a while during the "detox" period, I had this urge to stay updated. As I already made it so hard and so annoying (browser only access), the urge diminished in like few minutes, try instagram story on your browser it is very inconvenient.

I also made some small rules for myself. If I want to check Instagram updates, I have to read at least one blink in my Blinkist app. I prohibited myself to post anything to Facebook and Instagram.

On the other hand, I realized I lose one of the best channel to communicate our company progress, our challenges, and how we tackle them. I decided to start posting to Facebook and Linkedin in next few days to end my 9-month social media detox.


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