Is Instagram a place of rest? | August Social Media Detox Week 1

Just a little selfie portrait to express how 1 week off social media makes me feel! Using my “Classic” Lightroom editing preset to add the final editing touch.

1 Week Off of Social Media

I do not think that one week off of social media is some great feat by any means. But I do want to document what I’m learning about myself and about how Instagram seems to impact both my personal life & my business along the way. If you’re interested in exploring that with me, & in your own life, keep reading! 

What does real rest look like? Is social media a place of rest?

How often do we collapse onto the couch or fall into bed and open up Instagram on our phones as a way to relax & rest? Anyone else? But I wonder, is that actually a restful way to spend our time?

I listened to a podcast this week that a friend shared with me titled “Real Rest”. (You can listen to it here.) It broke down the idea of leisure time versus idle time and how those are two different things in our life, exploring the idea that rest can and often should be active.

The host defined rest as “an active engagement in recreation, meaning renewing who we are and renewing the world around us.” 

When I think about rest in those terms, and then I think about my time spent on social media - it doesn’t really equate. Yet, so often, I finally get my girls down for a nap and I plop down on the couch to scroll Instagram for a few minutes - make that 30 - in an effort to “relax” and “rest.” When if I’m honest, it often does not leave me feeling renewed. 

I DO find encouragement, inspiration, humor, & positive social interaction on Instagram, yes! But is that return on my investment of time actually adding up… I don’t really know. I’m not sure that what I gain is worth what I seem to lose. 

I have placed several restrictions & boundaries on my use of social media in the past and those have been very good! But I’m still wondering if they’re enough. Is Instagram an app I can use within boundaries & reap the positive aspects without it negatively impacting my life even more-so? We will continue to see, friends.

What I Miss About Social Media

Something I would have enjoyed sharing with others on social media this week - my daughter River is turning 2 on Sunday and her favorite movie is Rio! So I designed her these fun little Rio-themed invitations!

• Seeing what my clients are up to! Many of my clients may not be people I see or communicate with regularly like my closer friends or family, but they do feel like friends & I love keeping up with them on social media.

• Sharing my life with others! Whether it’s a sweet photo of my kids or something that made me laugh out loud. I’ve realized that I do really enjoy sharing that with others.

• Sharing an image I love from one of my photography sessions during editing, right in the moment, when I’m connected to the emotion of it.

• Sharing sweet testimonials & feedback I receive from my clients. #humblebrag

• Searching for updates from my favorite local businesses. Like, hellooo, I need to know what ice cream flavors they have at Cruze Farm this week, people!

• Immediate feedback. I LOVE the polls feature on Instagram where I can get my followers feedback. It’s helped direct me in decisions I’ve made regarding my Digital Photography 101 online course and my Lightroom editing presets because I wanted to make sure that I was creating something that people actually wanted!

What I Do NOT Miss About Social Media

• The time that it steals from my work. Soon, my kids will be back in preschool for the school year and I will have more structured, dependable time to work. But especially during this summer months of limited childcare and limited work hours, my solo time has been few and far between and time spent on Instagram was eating up part of what precious time that I did have to get my work done. Maybe I should have started this social media vacay back at the end of May - ha!

• The time that it steals from my play & rest. Time with my family, time in my own thoughts, time reading, time writing, time resting, or even time spent cleaning my home!

• The hustle mentality. As an enneagram 3, I’m pretty self-motivated. I like to work. I like to achieve. I like to be productive, and efficiently so. But often after spending time on Instagram, I feel like I need to be doing more, more, more. When in reality, I don’t necessarily believe that more is always better.

• Distraction from my business goals. While Instagram does bring some fresh ideas & inspiration to me from other creators and business owners, it often can distract me from my own current business goals because I allow myself to get caught up in what others are doing & thinking I need to do more of this or that - when those things may not align with my current priorities.

• Over-stimulation. So much information. So much connection. So much entertainment. So much to see. So much to do. While the connection is incredible, sometimes I think it might just be more than we were ever intended or created for.

Realizations That I’ve Had So Far

• Social media isn’t a place of rest for me. It may provide other benefits, but rest is not one of them. And yet that was, in a sense, how I was subconsciously trying to use it. But to no avail.

• I hopped in and out of Instagram more than I thought I did. It may have been just a little bit here and there, but I didn’t realize how many times throughout the day my thumb would habitually go to click into that app on my phone - only now to find that it’s not where it used to be. (I deleted it from my phone.)

• I was often using social media as a distraction from feeling & thinking through things that I didn’t want to face. An anxious thought comes over me? No problem. I will just dismiss it by distracting my mind with scrolling on Instagram.

• Social media takes us to another world. From a positive perspective, I love how it expands our world. Opens us up to new perspectives, people and places different from us. But, in a more negative sense - we can be in the same room as our kids, even sitting on the floor having a tea party with them, but if we’re looking at Instagram, too, it’s as if we’re not even there at all.

• I sent a lot more text messages this week than I usually would. Instead of sharing a cute photo of my kids to Instagram, I texted it directly to my family. Instead of screen-shotting a song I love on Apple Music and posting it to my story, I just shared the song directly with friends. Instead of posting a photo of my dinner, I just texted a friend the recipe.

• I’m not alone in the questions I am asking about social media. I sent out an email to my list of subscribers sharing about my break from social media & received some really encouraging replies of people sharing their own experiences with walking away from social media - some of them, for good. I’m definitely not the only one wrestling with these ideas.

Wrapping Up

I am loving this vacay from social media so far. I’m already gleaning so much from this experience. On top of what I’m learning, I’ve really been enjoying more time to write (a therapeutic, RESTFUL, exercise for me), more time to learn my listening to podcasts or reading, and more intentional connection with the people in my close circle of relationships. 

What do you think?

Could a social media vacay be a good choice for you? 

What might you miss and what might you GAIN? 

Onward and upward to a more restful, present, fulfilling life. xo, Suzy

I may not be active on social media right now, but I’m still here to serve you!

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