1. Okay…please define “Social Media”
Answer: For the purposes of this challenge, social media is anything driven by an algorithm that you also feel the need to take a break from because it is consuming your time and your mind. These are the obvious ones:
- TikTok
Other platforms tend to be more functional and less social–more like a search engine–so, you decide for yourself if you need a break from these:
- YouTube
Some platforms are primarily for knowledge or information but can be tremendous time-wasters:
- Your favorite news feed
And some are primarily for professional use but can still be quite addictive
- Linked In
- Slack
And some platforms are neither social nor driven by algorithms:
- Podcasts
What you choose to take a break from is entirely up to you. You’re smart. You can figure this out. During this break, for example, if you find yourself simply swapping out your time on Instagram with time on YouTube, then you should probably add YouTube to the platforms you’re taking a break from.
2. How will I keep up with the groups I’m in?
Answer: You have a couple of options. If it’s only a week, you won’t need to worry about your groups–enjoy your break, group-free. Your trusted ambassador can send you any emergency info (and also, funny memes.)
If it’s longer than a week, you can check if the information you normally receive in your group is available elsewhere: maybe in a newsletter, an email, or a website.
You could also create a “friendless” account and join those groups with the new account. I do not recommend this for a short, temporary break like this until you plan to make some permanent changes to how you interact on social media.
When I left social media for good, I manually “unfriended” everyone and now use my personal (friendless) account to stay connected to a few groups but have no temptation to scroll. We will talk more about the pros and cons of this in our 7-Week Challenge.
3. My family loves when I post pics of the kids, how can I just stop?
Answer: I know. Mine, too! Don’t ghost your family. These are the people we want to connect with while we are on our break, right?
When I left social media, I started a group text with my siblings where we now share photos and even more personal updates (like prayer requests and medical information) that we would never share on social media.
For other people, like my mother-in-law, I text pictures directly to her with a loving message.
I have found that my family loves this more than when I used to simply post a picture for the masses and hope they’d see it.
4. I need to be on social media for work. What should I do?
Answer: This is tricky and I know many of you are in this situation. If it’s possible to deactivate your personal account and still be able to do your work for your company, I’d try that.
If you can create a friendless account that you can use for work, you can try that.
If you are an entrepreneur and social media is how you promote your small business, then this is a much bigger decision with lots of nuance. I get it. I used to use social media to promote my writing and my podcast–it takes a lot of creativity to think outside the box.
I’d suggest you take advantage of this time off social media to create some separation and prayerfully consider other ways to promote your business outside of social media. If you choose to return to social media after your break, try to figure out how to make social media as small as possible in your business. As we will learn during this challenge, social media is not a firm foundation upon which to build your clientele. It’s like renting office space from an unscrupulous landlord.
I am working on some ways to help entrepreneurs like us build our business apart from social media→look for information coming on that in the future! If you’d like to join the waitlist for this material, click here.
5. My kids are on social media. How do I monitor them if I’m not there?
Answer: Yay YOU for monitoring your kids on social media! It’s so important that you don’t abandon them. They need your guidance while they are in your home–especially in the dangerous, murky waters of social media.
For your break, you have a couple of options:
- Make this social media break a family affair. Your kids need a break, too. They may throw a fit and hate you, but this also happens when you make them eat veggies and go to bed before midnight, and you still do that! You’re a pro at forcing them to do things that are good for them. You’ve got this.
- If they are minor children in your home, you should already have their login info. If you don’t have it, now is the time to get it. This way, you can check on them daily without logging into your own accounts.
- If they are adult children away at school or otherwise living their adult lives and you use social media to quietly observe from afar, this is a good time to give yourself a break from that. Depending on your adult child, following their social media posts can be exhausting, shocking, and often scary, amiright? I invite you to lay that burden down for a time. You’ve done a good job raising them, momma…now let them figure some things out without you feeling the responsibility to incessantly monitor the social media side of things.
Confession: this was one of the most difficult parts of walking away from social media for me, and one of the last things I set down in the process–so, I get it.
Don’t forget to prepare for your break with our 5-Step ABIDE Framework!