At the beginning of the new year, I decided to challenge myself and my usage of social media. I deleted Instagram off of my phone, turned off the notifications for any other platforms I have and do my best to limit my screen time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Social media is a great tool for connecting with friends and family, keeping up to date on current events and having a laugh every once in a while when you come across a funny video.<\/p>\n But, for me, social media has also turned into a really toxic environment, one where I constantly compare myself to what everyone around me is doing. I\u2019m also prone to doom scrolling \u2014 when you just keep scrolling and scrolling through bad news \u2014 which isn\u2019t great for my mental health.<\/span><\/p>\n So, in an effort to prioritize the things that make me happy and are productive for my well-being, I knew taking a serious detox from social media is what I needed. And it\u2019s already been so amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n You don\u2019t realize how easy it is to mindlessly scroll on Instagram or TikTok for hours taking in everyone\u2019s picture-perfect photo ops, everyone else\u2019s amazing successes on LinkedIn and the awful news of yet another unprecedented event on Twitter.<\/p>\n I think you will find that it\u2019s much easier to focus on your work and stay present in the moment when you don\u2019t have the urge to constantly check your phone. I also just feel so much more intentional with the things I do. Have you ever found yourself doing an activity just to post about it? I know I definitely have. I want to have fun and see people because I genuinely want to \u2014 not because I need a new photo to post.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s definitely a difficult task, especially for certain professions. As a journalist, I need Twitter and Instagram for reporting and crowdsourcing. It\u2019s something that will definitely be in my life forever but I am slowly learning how to create those work life balances.<\/span><\/p>\n I would rather nurture the relationships in my life than feed photos to a 1,000 people on Instagram who I haven\u2019t talked to since high school. So, if you have this mindset as well or just need a break from all of the current chaos, I recommend stepping back from social media for a bit.<\/p>\n Photo by<\/span> dole777<\/span><\/a> on<\/span> Unsplash<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why I recommend a social media detox By Colbi Edmonds At the beginning of the new year, I decided to challenge myself and my usage of social media. I deleted Instagram off of my phone, turned off the notifications for any other platforms I have and do my best to limit my screen time.\u00a0 Social … Continue reading Colbi: Why I recommend a social media detox<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5219,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5218\/revisions\/5219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/f9Gir5-zyksdHXDb_q2J1p9zmHZ71W4LoEBIjr7Y3Oc0gQH-1tySKI7YhZ5fAO-3Zy07OkDM9Ic-uLgR_ZbdiLrl_2L6DCm0BY10sjfiH_X5a6-KMaRUjh2Lubk7xpi9TFq-Owy1\")