Five Ways Deleting Social Media Can Help Elevate Your Quality of Life

Social media critics are like zero-waste families or minimalists — you know they are around you and you know you should really do something about that, but you can never quite seem to get around to it. If that’s you, this article is for you. I deleted my social media a year and a half ago, and I don’t regret it for a second. Here are 5 reasons why you should do the same.

1. You’ll Have Much More Free Time

Most people don’t realize it, but browsing social media takes up a lot of time. The average North American spends about 2 hours 6 minutes on social media per day. According to the same study, Europeans average about 1 hour 15 minutes, South Americans 3 hours 34 minutes, Africa 3 hours 10 minutes, and Asia/Oceania 2 hours 16 minutes. Do the math: that’s 10–30 hours spent on social media every week. Social media isn’t just a hobby for its users. It’s a part-time job.

Most people feel strapped for time. They arrive at the end of the day feeling like they barely got anything done even though they were busy all day. They wish they had a little more time during the week, an extra weekend day in which to catch up. But the statistics say social media users have more than enough free time; they’re just choosing to spend it browsing.

You may feel you don’t spend that much time on social media. Put your theory to the test. Download a time tracker for your phone, tablet, and computer. They take about fifteen minutes to set up. After a week, check what they have to say. You may be alarmed by what you find.

2. You’ll spend less money

Social media isn’t an emotionally neutral activity. Using social media is like reading a tabloid that is specially tailored for you, highlighting all the amazing outfits, cool activities, and luxury experiences people around you are having. It stokes the fires of desire. And that desire leads to overspending.

That overspending is sometimes benign. Maybe you go out to eat with your friends because you keep seeing people going out and want to join in on the fun, even if you were perfectly happy with your lifestyle before. Maybe seeing an endless feed of pictures in Bali gives you a sudden, newfound desire to vacation in Bali. And maybe you, like me, are tempted by picture after picture of designer shoes and fashionable backpacks. Either way, social media makes us spend.

Just under half, 49%, of millennials (ages 23 to 38) say social media influenced them to spend money on experiences, according to Schwab’s 2019 Modern Wealth survey. And 48% say they’ve overspent when sharing experiences with friends, whether it’s dining out or going on a group vacation.

 — Half of millennials say social media drives them to spend money they don’t have, CNBC

3. What You Post on Social Media Never Goes Away

If you’re growing and maturing as a human the way you should, you should look back on things you posted five years ago with at least a modicum of embarrassment. And the things you posted ten years ago? Well, let’s not discuss that.

But you don’t get a choice. The things you posted ten years ago are still there, whether you want them to be or not. And they can crop up in the most unexpected ways:

1. A potential romantic interest may search your name on social media only to find a questionable post pop up in their feed
2. Employers may run search algorithms on your profile to make sure you’ve never in your life expressed a view of which they disapprove, political, religious, or otherwise
3. Customers or clients could find a social media account of yours and threaten you with business ramifications for doing something you consider benign

I’m particularly afraid of this myself. Ten years ago, I was ardently Republican. I was also ignorant. I’m sure I posted a great many things that I would understand today to be prejudiced or ignorant, even if I didn’t realize they were back then. I am glad I deleted my social media because it means the ignorant political views of my past can’t sabotage my future.

4. Your Relationships Will Get Better

It sounds odd to say about platforms designed to foster relationships, but your relationships get a lot better when you no longer have social media. Social media produces this odd effect where you simultaneously feel that you are surrounded by cool people everywhere and that you are achingly, painfully lonely. It took me deleting my social media to realize that’s not normal.

Post-social-media, I don’t feel there are nearly as many people in my life. But I do feel a strong bond with the people who are. Instead of communicating via PR-blasts and pre-formatted message units, we reach out via text, phone calls, or video chat, and we touch each other human-to-human. As I have written previously:

Research demonstrates having a high number of friends on social media is not correlated with any increase in happiness. All it does is clutter up your feed. But, according to QZ, “having a good friend who you see every day is equivalent to an extra $100,000 on your income.”

5. You Will Feel Better

After a year and a half with no social media, I just feel better. Before deleting my social media, I was carrying around a lot of weight, most of which I wasn’t aware.

• I was carrying around the weight of falling short, of struggling to work full time while my peers paraded full-time American-dream lifestyles on Facebook.
• I was carrying around the weight of being a nonbinary chick who looked like a fourteen-year-old boy while fabulous people, cis and trans, flaunted their fabulous looks on Instagram.
• I was carrying around the weight of just generally being a weird person with weird interests while everyone around me was successful, attractive, conventional — that is to say, they were normal (at least according to Snapchat).

After I quit social media, those burdens lifted off my shoulders. I no longer cared that my life wasn’t “on track.” I’m no longer ashamed of my part-time work schedule or my reduced income. I’m not ashamed of the way I dress or the fact that I lack access to expensive tailored-fit suits for female and nonbinary bodies. And I’m not ashamed that I want to live in a camper and travel the country instead of buy a house and vacation in Europe twice a year. In short, I feel much better about just being me.

We all have our own challenges and insecurities. Nobody’s life looks like that perfect job-marriage-kids-vacation image everyone’s trying to cultivate on Instagram. It’s a lot easier to remember that when you aren’t being confronted by the illusion 24/7.

I can’t predict exactly how your life will get better after deleting social media. But if you’re even considering the question, I’m convinced it will. You don’t have to take my word for it, either. Deactivate all your accounts for three months and you’ll find out.

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