Social media has become an essential part of our lives for most of us. Since we were children we started interacting with social media like Orkut, MySpace and chatting with each other through ICQ or MSN. Social media has evolved a lot since that time. It evolved from being a place where you talk to people to a place where you consume content from other people.

In the past year, I have felt overwhelmed by all the information from social media and lost time in it. I decided to quit. It was not the first time, but this time is the longest period without it. I have never felt so free from social pressure.

It has been like a month since I stopped using social media regularly. It has been a wonderful experience. Initially, I had to force myself not to use Instagram or Facebook, which were my social media of choice at the time. I felt it would be better not to remove it all from my life, but I removed the apps from my smartphone and only use it rarely on my notebook at home. I use mainly Facebook at home to check events, birthdays, maybe some useful information from my groups, but not to scroll the feed. Here are four things that happened in this period:

1 — My head feels way lighter

When you are using social media constantly, you are being bombarded with a lot of information constantly. You can scroll your feed endlessly. This has an effect that your head is always busy processing this huge amount of information. Most of which is useless about people that aren’t really close to you.

As you become an adult, you will have fewer close friends that you wish. You end up using social media to keep up with people that aren’t really that close to you. You know that a friend from school now has a new boyfriend, or perhaps that friend you worked with a long time ago has moved to another city. This useless information does not make you connect more with that people, instead only overwhelms you.

2 — I stopped comparing myself and my life to others

Since I am not updated with the latest news about other people, it has become more difficult to compare myself or my life to others. I have no longer expectations about what I should be doing with my life. This has set me free to pursue what I really want and only compare myself to me in the past.

Furthermore, I don’t receive that viral content of people with very different lifestyles than me. That whole illusion from social media that everyone is happy and has a perfect life. Social media can have a strong bias toward keeping a good image, which for many people can create this image that other’s life are way better than ours.

3 — When I meet my friends, I had more to talk about

When I meet my real close friends, we have more to talk about. I didn’t see all their stories or posts, so they got to tell me all their stories in real life. Before it was like:

• Friend: Hey, I did X this weekend.
• Me: Yes, I have seen on your Instagram.
• Friend: Cool. (End of the story).

Now It will be more like this:

• Friend: Hey, I did X this weekend.
• Me: Wow, that’s cool, tell me more.
• Friend: Okay! So, I was skydiving with… (Proceeds to tell me a 20-minute story)

4 — I became more productive at work

Since I don’t have these apps installed on my smartphone, I cannot pick up when I feel bored at work. I started using my boredom as a way to do productive things. When I get bored at work, I look for activities that can be useful but are different from the ones I am doing now. Moreover, I receive fewer notifications, which is essential for concentration, an important part of my job as a programmer. Interruptions can consume your productivity really fast.

It’s not all sun and rainbows, but it’s pretty good

I still get interrupted and distracted with other apps, but I find that the apps that I now mainly use are more healthy to me than social media. I started using a lot of Pinterest to follow my interests in painting, drawing, tattoo, and art. Not only that, but I also use Reddit to look at specific subjects like cute animal pics, news, and memes. I find Reddit less about other people and more about subjects. I received fewer notifications, which is always good because I can focus on the things that are happening now.