It was in April 2023 that we made the decision of leaving social media. This wasn’t a decision we took lightly. After all, we had business profiles that we used to promote our books and engage with the TTRPG and writing community. However, social media was taking a mental toll. Even though we stayed out of any discourse, it’s very hard to avoid seeing a string of negativity, threats, bigotry, and griping even with a quick look.
We left Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest. We previously gave our six-month check in. Here is our one year check in on how we are doing after leaving social media.
Improved Mental Health
Leaving social media has done wonders for our mental health. We are happier and feel more positive. The problem with a lot of social media is that you read so many negative stories, or see someone ganged up on by a bunch of strangers online. Even when you take no part in it, those memories still circle around all day.
I equate it to “doom scrolling” or watching the news too often. Because 99% of the things you see or hear will not affect your life at all. And yet you are exposed to them, and it makes you feel stressed. But when you remove that source of stress, you are able to clear the room for more positive thinking.
More Time
Social media does take up a lot of time, especially if you are self-promoting. You worry about trending topics, algorithms, engaging with others, and posting consistently. When we took that away, we had so much more free time!
Now we spend that time playing board games together, reading books together, and spending time outdoors.
Should You Leave Social Media?
That is up to you. For some, social media is their entire business and livelihood. It’s how they feed their families. And that is great. But for most, it’s simply a pastime. We saw far more book sales generated from our website here and ads on Amazon over social media. It no longer became worth it to us.
We would never go back to using it. And we are very happy that one year ago, we made the leap to give it up.