10 Signs You Need A Social Media Detox
It's time to quit looking at your phone and party like it's 1999.
The phone on the table while you eat dinner. Waking up to check your emails. Being glued to your laptop on Sunday afternoons. Relying on your iCal to get through your day. Feeling a major knot of anxiety every time you've got more than five new alerts on your phone... Though these habits might seem innocent on their own, the extent of your addiction — yes, addiction — can really be revealed when you ask yourself just how long it's been since you last looked at a screen. For most of us, it's a couple seconds or minutes. The longest you've unplugged? Probably just around the time it takes for you to get a night's worth of sleep.
Here’s how to tell if it’s time to detox.
1. Your “quality time” with your significant other/best friend consists of you both half-listening while you scroll through your news feed and occasionally show each other memes.
If most of your time is spent on the couch staring into your phone screens until your eyes hurt, you seriously need to swear off all electronics for a week and practice having a real conversation. And looking up for a moment just to say, “Hey, did you see—?” only to have your partner respond, “Oh, yep. I just liked it,” doesn’t count as talking. Neither does texting each other from the same room. Don’t do that.
2. When you don’t get a like per minute, you seriously worry your post wasn’t good enough.
Delete. Right. Now.
3. The first thing you do when you wake up is grab your phone and give your pointer finger a 30 min exercise sesh by scrolling through all of your social media accounts.
On top of that, you’ve made yourself late for work for the fourth time this week. Too many posts, too little time.
4. You tend to talk more with memes and emojis than you do with real words.
Or, whatever.
5. You plan things just because they’re ‘grammable.
Your outings are designed less around what you enjoy doing and more about the fact that you have to post some beach pics before everyone else does.
6.You take 15-plus selfies a day.
That’s too many. We can guarantee you that even some of your friends and family have unfollowed you because you’re absolutely mad.
7. You check Instagram and then check it again because you forgot you just checked it.
How does that constantly happen?
8. While someone talks to you, you zone out and stare at your phone longingly, wondering what that new notification is.
If you can’t focus on anything other than what that new alert could mean (A new message? Huge news from a friend you haven’t talked to in a while? A really good series of messages in a group chat that you won’t get to be part of because the moment will have passed?), you’ve got a serious social media addiction.
9. When you’re really bored, you start stalking your own profile.
Wow, I was so boring 149 weeks ago.
10. You have pain in your wrists, back or neck.
Too much scrolling, stalking and double tapping—or god forbid accidentally double tapping while stalking.
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