Social media detox: how to do one that lasts
Quiet Wall ·
A social media detox does not have to mean deleting everything for a month. How to do one, how long it should be, and what to do with the time it frees.
What a social media detox is
A planned break from social media, for a day, a week or a month. The point is less the absence itself than what it shows you: what you reach for when it is gone, how often, and how much of it you want back afterwards.
It is not a vow. Nothing has to be deleted for good, and nobody is keeping score.
How long it should be
There is no correct length. A week is long enough to get past the first few days, when the reach for the phone is at its most automatic, and short enough to finish. A month is a bigger change and a bigger ask. A single day is still a day.
Whatever the length, decide it in advance and write it down. A detox that ends whenever it gets uncomfortable ends on the first evening.
How to do one
- pick the dates and the apps, and write both down
- delete the apps from the phone rather than relying on willpower; the accounts can stay
- log out on the laptop as well, so the browser does not become the new app
- tell the few people who will wonder where you went
- move anything you actually need, like a group chat or event invites, somewhere you are keeping
- decide in advance what you will do in the moments you would have scrolled
The first days
The reach keeps happening after the app is gone. You unlock the phone, look at the empty space where the app used to be, and lock it again. That is the habit, made visible, and seeing it is most of what the first days are for.
The other thing people notice is the time. It does not arrive as a free evening. It arrives in pieces of two and five minutes, which is exactly the size the feed used to fill.
Coming back
At the end, add the apps back one at a time, on purpose, and notice which ones you missed and which ones you only reinstalled out of habit. The list you come back to does not have to be the list you left.
What to do with the time
The small pieces of time are the hard part. Some ideas for them are in a list of things to do instead of scrolling. Or do nothing with them at all. Quiet Wall is a timer for that: a reminder, the phone across the room, and a blank wall until a sound brings you back.
How long should a social media detox be?
A week is long enough to get past the first days and short enough to finish. Any length works if you decide it in advance.
Do you need to delete your accounts?
No. Deleting the apps from your phone is enough; the accounts can stay.
Read on
- What to do instead of scrolling — Stopping scrolling is the easy part. The hard part is the gap it leaves. Twelve things to put there instead, starting with nothing at all.
- How to break a phone addiction — What people mean by phone addiction, why the habit is so hard to break, and the changes that make the phone less automatic to reach for.