by Gayle MacDonald
“I worry about the impact on my brain development and mental health,” “I hate feeling manipulated.” Exactly the same things I was thinking and feeling so I knew I was doing the right thing in taking a break and then quitting all together. It also helped confirm that there is a need for support with this. People want to leave social media, they really do but they feel that they can’t, which is where I come in. Together with my husband we came up with ‘Life Not Likes’ which is a website offering support and connection for people who don’t want to be on social media for business, but are struggling to leave and are worried that they will not be able to reach their clients or engage with customers. There are so many more fun, authentic, powerful and profitable ways to reach, engage and connect with our clients and customers that don’t leave us feeling depleted and exhausted. Life Not Likes is there to support you if you are struggling with your social media use and want to leave the platforms behind. These are some of the positive things people are already saying on our website: “Fantastic post Gayle! I have been off social media for a few weeks now and am loving it!” – Alison “This is so inspiring, I’m still working out my way of coming off social media. I have realised how much I am in the scroll hole” - Susan We are still very new and are planning to run a guided social media detox over 5 days at the beginning of July to help you discover the joys of taking a proper break from social media and help reset your digital habits. You can sign up for updates and more information here.
went out for a family trip and the first thing I thought about when we arrived at a really amazing location, ‘where can I take a selfie for my Insta stories?’ Instagram should not be the first thought that pops into my head when greeted with a spectacular view! I even let my youngest son get on and start making the cups of tea by himself while I wandered off looking for a suitably amazing back drop. was then that I decided to take a break from social media for a week. I felt awkward and uncomfortable at first, I have to admit which in itself is so telling! But once I got over the initial cravings and started to relax into living in the real world, I very quickly realized that this was going to lead to something exciting! In my first week off social media I saved 11 hours! This is what I did with some of those 11 hours… -Walked 6932 steps -Made banana bread -Didn't have headache -Wrote a blog post -Had two fabulous podcast interviews -Booked a new client I felt so good at the end of that first week that I didn’t want to go back – so I didn’t! I still have my accounts but have removed the apps from my phone and laptop. Since my initial break, I have been talking to other business owner friends of mine about their feelings about social media and so many of them feel the same way as I did about how it takes up so much time, for very little return and it makes them feel less than a lot of the time. People told me things like “its a horrible place,” “its toxic,” “I feel like a performing monkey sometimes,”
Increasingly I would find myself mindlessly picking up my phone, scrolling and numbing out. I found my time was not my own and It’s like I was taken over by something when engrossed in the tiny screen in front of me. I realized that I was spending too much time worrying and thinking about social media that was healthy, and most of all my social media usage was getting in the way of things I really, really wanted to do and it was making me feel rubbish and a little bit scared that I might have a problem. My creativity was starting to suffer, I hadn’t read a book in ages and when I quit drinking, reading books again was a joy that I savoured but here I was again, letting a real love of mine go in favour of another addictive behaviour. When I wasn’t on social media, I was thinking about it. feeling guilty for not being on there and then guilty for being on there when I could be doing other, much more interesting things. I found myself comparing my life to other people on there, the number of likes, and comments, how other people’s writing is always more beautiful than mine, how they are better at being sober than me, have done more, achieved more, have more to say and a better way to say it. Oh wow, all the negativity was getting too much. Just like alcohol, social media was taking up too much space in my head and I was worried about it. The final nail, I suppose the thing that really brought me down to earth was when we
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