Happy Monday! Hopping into a new week with what may qualify as the easiest fall outfit ever as well as some real talk on social media detoxes. While it may seem somewhat ironic to talk about social media breaks when I spend SO much time on social media these days, I wanted to talk about signs its time for one. Deactivating Facebook was something I did for a little over three years and really allowed me to prioritize.
How Deactivating Facebook for Three Years Helped Me Grow Click To TweetThis post contains affiliate and/or referral links. I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you complete a purchase through this post. Thank you for your support of What Nicole Wore.
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How Deactivating Facebook for Three Years Helped Me Grow | Why I Felt Like I Needed a Social Media Break
When I first decided to deactivate my Facebook account, I was really struggling with my anxiety and depression and had just started becoming a little more self aware. After I started seeing a therapist as well as taking medication, I got a lot better at self reflection and being able to pinpoint some of my own unhealthy habits.
I struggled with constantly comparing myself to others. Click To TweetRELATED: 5 Crazy Things and the Stigma Around Mental Health
At that point, a big issue I struggled with was constantly comparing myself to others. I would look at Facebook multiple times a day to see what friends and acquaintances were doing and found myself regularly feeling “behind.” These comparisons are human nature and normal but I found a lot of the time that they would eat at me more than they should have.
One day I woke up, logged into Facebook, started to feel crappy because I wasn’t doing the same things everyone else was, and I deactivated my account. At the time, I figured it would be a short term thing. Could I really stand not knowing what other people were doing? And the answer was: I could.
How Deactivating Facebook for Three Years Helped Me Grow | What a Major Social Media Break Did For Me
In the beginning, it did feel weird and even a bit isolating. Before too long though, I didn’t miss constantly seeing everyone’s highlight reels and I realized that that’s what Facebook had really become. I realized how much social media had fed into my being antisocial. It can be very easy to make assumptions about how someone’s doing based off what they’re posting or the small portion of life we see online. While I didn’t realize it a lot of the time when I would get together with friends, I was bringing those assumptions into the conversation.
What I learned from quitting Facebook for 3 years: Click To TweetRELATED: Self Acceptance, Race, and Hair: On Being Different
Social media is wonderful because it lets us see others’ milestones in real time, but have you ever immediately started a conversation with, “Oh I saw XYZ on Facebook,” instead of starting with “How are you doing?” Taking time off social media and not knowing what everyone was doing helped me not to jump to a conclusion that everyone was doing great because of what I was seeing. I really do believe that taking that time off helped develop my interpersonal relationship skills.
It also helped me get back to the thought that not everyone -needs- to know your business. While oversharing on the Internet is a huge part of my life, my long term Facebook cleanse helped me to see that 1. I was friends with a lot of people that I really didn’t need to be and 2. that most people are not invested in every bit of your life. It’s a good thing, I promise. Somewhere in those three years, I became confident enough in doing my own thing that I got over my “what will people think” fears and started my own little blog.
How Deactivating Facebook for Three Years Helped Me Grow | What Brought Me Back & Would I Do It Again?
Eventually the things I’d become brave enough to do led me back to Facebook. Running a Facebook page for my blog wasn’t possible without having it linked to a personal account. Still, the first thing I did when I reactivated my account was remove over a thousand friends. {At one point, having lots of Facebook friends seemed cool and so even people you’d only met in passing seemed like a good idea to add.} Taking my friend list down to people I actually wanted to see updates from helped a ton mostly because I tried to only keep people that I actually communicated with outside of social media.
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While I knew that their highlight reel was accurate, I also usually knew about the struggles they weren’t sharing online and humanizing them helped me feel more normal.
So would I do it again? I’d like to think that I’m more self aware and that I’ve matured significantly since my last self-imposed social media cleanse. These days if I notice I’m playing the comparison game, I’ll take a day or two off, mute accounts, or even unfollow if that’s what I need. It’s not totally realistic to my life right now, but I know how wonderful that Facebook break was for me and so I think I’d be more open to trying it. Let me know in the comments if you’ve ever taken a social media hiatus!
How Deactivating Facebook for Three Years Helped Me Grow | The Outfit
It’s not exactly a secret that I -love- my Spanx leggings especially once fall starts. For me, I like these better than my black leggings because they’re a little bit thicker. {Pro tip: if in between sizes, go up one!} Usually I wear a longer top or sweater just because I personally don’t like to wear leggings as pants. Here I’m wearing one of my tunic tanks; this style is great because you can tuck it into jeans or skirts if you don’t want the extra length. This camo field jacket is easy to wear with everyday outfits and I love how it breaks up the all black.
How I'm dipping my toes into camo print! Click To TweetRELATED: Two Great Summer to Fall Pieces I Keep Rewearing
For accessories, I reached for animal prints. Over the summer, I snagged my first bow scrunchie and like the way it can dress up a ponytail or high bun. While I was at the Darling State of Mind store opening over the weekend, I spotted {pun intended} this leopard bow scrunchie and treated myself. Tortoise shell jewelry looks great year round, but the neutral shades are perfect for fall which is why I love these earrings. To bring the animal print trend from head to toe, I finished the look with my leopard ankle boots. These have a split on the side so I wear them with these no show socks.
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Cute outfit, and love the camo jacket. Do come and join the #chicandstylish #linkup Jacqui
I took a break from Facebook as well. It’s been a good break ! Loving your style ~