For more than a decade weve been deeply immersed in a love affair with social media.
And the thought of ending things can be painful.
Meta went straight into damage control.
How did our once carefree relationship with social media turn sour?
And perhaps most importantly, can (or should) it be salvaged?
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
Failing to disconnect from social media can end up hurting more the alternative.
Relationship counselors will often ask troubled couples to think about what made them happy in their relationship.
Social media, for all its annoying peccadilloes, does have some redeeming features.
But heres the rub.
There was no relationship between the belief and the behavior.
What leads to this apparent cognitive-behavioral dissonance?
The results of a long-termstudyby University of Amsterdam researchers might provide a clue.
Theres one deceptively simple question to ask yourself: how does it make you feel?
Think about how you feel before, during, and after you use social media.
If the world is still turning at the end of this trial, keep going!
Once you no longer feel the pull of social media, youll be ready to hit delete.
Pick one or two apps that genuinely serve a meaningful purpose for you, and ditch the rest.
Gen Xers find it hard to say goodbye to Facebook, but Gen Z has largelybid it farewell.
If they can do it, so can you!
If youre conditioned to respond to every bing, youll find it almost impossible to stop.
Set aside sometime each day and do all your social media catching up or browsing.
None of this will be easy, and walking away from social media might hurt at first.
But if the relationship has become uncomfortable, or even abusive, its time to take a stand.
And who knows whatuntold happinessyou might find, beyond the four walls of your screen?
