Could I really quit social media?

Or am I just talking a big game?

Raise your hand if you’ve ever said any of the following things:

“I would totally give up social media if I didn’t need it for work.”
”I scroll through Instagram occasionally, but I basically don’t use it.”
”I have the apps on my phone but I don’t use them. I should probably just delete my accounts.”
”For sure—social media is ruining our lives. I could quit. I’m going to.”

Consider my hand raised.

In fact, if I didn’t need at least one set of fingers to type out this post, honesty would probably demand that I raise both hands.

It’s true. I’ve been known to insist that I could give up social media. I’m especially guilty of frequently making the first claim in the list above: that if I didn’t need to use platforms like Instagram for my work, I’d be off of them faster than you can double-tap a precious dog video.

Like many people in 2023, I really do need these tools to help me grow and stay competitive professionally. It makes me cringe to talk about my ~brand,~ but working for myself has forced me to build one… and so much of that has to happen by connecting with people via social media. Navigating the social media space has taught me a lot about how I want to show up in the world and has forced me to teach myself the basics of design, marketing, and more. We’ve all heard the reasons that social media has a bad reputation—and that’s all very legitimate—but I have a lot of reasons to be grateful for it. It would have been a real challenge to establish myself in this somewhat non-traditional career path without Instagram and the like.

Plus, let’s be real: social media is fun. And work and branding aside, it helps us stay in touch with loved ones and expand our personal circles.

If that’s true, then why do so many of us talk such a big game about giving it up? More than that… could we?

Let’s talk about it.

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Currently Reading: Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

The festive reading continues! Jenny Colgan’s Christmassy books have a special place in my heart, and her latest ticks many of the usual boxes: a cozy setting, quirky small-town characters, a unique European sensibility, and lots of yummy descriptive language.

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Let me just say that I know—I know—that I could give up social media. Its role in my life has already evolved so much that it’s not terribly hard to imagine it evolving its way right out of use. Plus, I know that many, many people have already eliminated social platforms, or found ways to more intentionally limit them to professional purposes so they are effectively not a factor for anything else. Some of my closest friends have ditched Instagram, in particular, in recent years… and I do think they’re happier for it. To paraphrase Alexis Rose, I love that journey for them.

For all my talk about hopping off socials, could I join them?

Here are a few reasons why I think I could pull off a social media exit… and why I might want to:

• I genuinely believe that I am less attached to the apps than others. (If it sounds like I’m being judgemental, that’s not my intention! I’m just making an observation.) Generally speaking, I like to think I have a pretty healthy relationship with my phone. I often leave it at home when we go out to dinner or to do some other activity. When I start to get overwhelmed by notifications, I’ll hand the phone off to Matt for a few hours so I’m not tempted to double down on that feeling of overstimulation. And while I very rarely cruise TikTok using an account that practically no one follows, I tend to be one of the last to adopt a new platform—if I ever do. I think TikTok was the last social media platform I downloaded.

• While I used to post quite a bit on my personal accounts, I’ve almost completely shifted my ~online presence~ to the accounts associated with my book podcast. It’s in that space where I feel more freedom to share and be creative. Work-wise, it would be tough to give up that platform, but since I’ve already largely separated myself from sharing on the personal side, I know I could do it again.

• I see the weight that’s been lifted from my friends who have made the choice to walk entirely away from their socials. Reader, I don’t have to tell you that the constant pressure to compare that comes from social media is causing us all kinds of problems. I’d love to feel that just kind of… fly away.