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Social Media Detoxes: Spring Cleaning Your Relationship With Technology
16 Plays19 days ago
I have a friend who could live off a flip phone, just calls and texts, barely uses social media. I was so jealous. Because here I am with 10+ hours of screen time, doom scrolling in bed, clicking onto Instagram and immediately seeing buildings exploding. Sometimes I become too informed and need to dissociate for a bit.
Here's what we're exploring about digital spring cleaning:
- How millennials remember when you had to GO to the internet (now there's no leaving it... it's everywhere)
- The pressure to be constantly available online and that little green bubble showing you're active
- Growing Pains segment: my screen time is wrecking my eyes and I once had symptoms that could've meant detached retina
- Why going cold turkey with social media detox usually fails (intentionality over elimination)
- Practical boundaries that actually work: app audits, phone-free zones, doom scroll on couch not bed, digital wellness settings
From understanding how being informed can become overwhelming to recognizing that our work, entertainment, and downtime all require screens now, this episode gets real about digital life. Plus actionable tips you can actually sustain instead of burning out trying to do everything at once.
Subscribe. Share. Remember that you don't have to consume every crisis in real-time to be informed.
Small steps, big healing. Keep growing! ✨
Join the conversation! What's your relationship with social media costing you? DM me on Instagram @YourCoachMari - let's talk digital boundaries!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Growing with Sol'
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, beautiful souls, and welcome to another installment of the Growing with Sol podcast, where we explore the moments and stories that shape who we're becoming. I'm Marisol, and this is where I love to have real conversations about growth, self-discovery, and learning to put yourself first.
00:00:16
Speaker
Whether we're diving into books that change our perspective or unpacking personal experiences that teach us something new, this podcast is for women who are done playing small and ready to embrace their own journey.
00:00:29
Speaker
If you've struggled with putting everyone else first or battled self-doubt, you're in the right place. This isn't about perfection. It's about the messy, beautiful process of growing into yourself.
00:00:40
Speaker
So come grow with me.
Spring in Los Angeles
00:00:42
Speaker
So we are full on in March. Spring is around the corner. If you are in Los Angeles, it feels like spring has arrived. It is like 90 degrees outside, nearly 90 degrees outside. It's hot, okay? My room likes to be little sauna in the summer, so it's very hot in here where I am recording.
Spring Cleaning: Physical and Digital
00:01:02
Speaker
But with that, with the spring, with the sunlight and the flowers and everything, a lot of us look at spring cleaning, which,
00:01:10
Speaker
You know, maybe seasonally is a much better time for us to look at revamping things in our lives, including our living spaces naturally with the whole spring cleaning thing.
00:01:23
Speaker
But also, we can take the time to really look at our digital lives as well. Recently, i was getting lunch some friends and one of them was telling me about how like she doesn't really have social media like at all. like She has Instagram, but doesn't really use it.
00:01:38
Speaker
And she was basically saying that like she could live off of having a flip phone where all she does is make calls send text messages. And like that's about it. And I was so jealous.
Social Media: Necessity or Hindrance?
00:01:50
Speaker
Don't get me wrong. i i love social media. I enjoy it. I'm on it constantly. One, as part of the work that I do. But two, as the mindless doom scroll and the entertainment value that it may or may not bring. Because let's be real, like sometimes you're just doom scrolling and like there's really nothing that you're getting of value from what you're saying.
00:02:11
Speaker
And then every once in a while, and you find something you really like, whether because it was informative or it made you laugh or whatever it might be. But for the most part, I would say that's not what I'm seeing, you know?
00:02:23
Speaker
You know, or it's you the state of the world right now is dismal. And I am one of the types of people that likes to be informed. So sometimes I go on social media and I'm like, I have become too informed.
00:02:36
Speaker
I need to dissociate now by not being on social media for a little bit. This is a lot. But ultimately, with this friend who was saying that she doesn't have really any social media, and doesn't really use it, i think I'm a little jealous.
00:02:50
Speaker
And it really made me reflect on, well, how much do I really need to be utilizing social media in my day-to-day life? And I wanted to pose that question to all of you. Like, what is your relationship with technology?
00:03:04
Speaker
and And what is that relationship actually costing you?
The Impact of Constant Connectivity
00:03:09
Speaker
One of the things that I've come to notice with social media and just internet culture and the culture in and of itself, because, like again, as a millennial, I feel like i was part of the generation where like we grew up with the shaken technology advancing and there was this point in time where You had to go to the internet. Do you know what I mean? Like you had to go be online. You had to go to the computer to access the internet.
00:03:37
Speaker
And there was your online stuff that you got to experience. And then there was like the rest of your life. Whereas now everything is much more enmeshed and connected. there's no leaving the internet anymore. like The internet is everywhere. The internet is in my car.
00:03:54
Speaker
The internet is on airplanes. The internet is in my phone, on my computer, on my tablet. like At this point, like my dog is connected to the internet. like I wouldn't be surprised. He's not, thank God. But I feel like Oh, no, they have like the little like tracking devices, like callers and stuff like tracking devices so your dog could be connected to the internet.
00:04:14
Speaker
Fuck, how did I forget about that? Mochi doesn't have one of those, but I've thought about getting him one before. So, you know, your dogs are connected to the internet too. But because of that, I feel like the connectedness to the internet and how it's been so integrated into our daily lives, there's this pressure to constantly be available and to constantly be quote unquote online.
00:04:40
Speaker
So if you just look at your phone, since that's the the main intermediary, the main tool that we use to access the internet, constant notifications. And that would be like, if so if you're on like multiple social media platforms and you're potentially getting notifications from all of them all the time.
00:05:00
Speaker
And then on top of that, we now also have, I've noticed on threads, maybe it's just like a meta Facebook thing, but I've noticed that you have like a little bubble, the little green bubble that shows whether or not you're online. So now you can tell if somebody's online on various different apps, like threads, Instagram, I don't use Facebook, but maybe on Facebook too, maybe other social media platforms as well that I'm not on.
00:05:25
Speaker
So there is like, there's There's no hiding from it. And then there are people who assume they're like oh, well, you're online, so then I can like access you. I can have access to your attention and to your energy.
00:05:37
Speaker
And maybe you just really want to doom scroll in bed. you know Maybe you shouldn't be, but you want to do that and you are doing it. But people expect that since you are online, that you can respond to that you're available.
00:05:50
Speaker
There's also what I've come to see and notice a decrease in productivity from being constantly online.
Eye Strain and Digital Fatigue
00:05:58
Speaker
i again, experienced this too, where I don't feel like doing anything and it's just so easy to languish on the couch or in bed and keep scrolling and then never actually really getting to what you need to do or need to finally get around to it. You have a significantly shortened amount of time to get done what needs to get done.
00:06:20
Speaker
And then with that being said, we have, generally speaking, very high screen times. Like, I think like cool recently I saw like my screen time was like more than 10 hours. I am, you know, and partially to defend myself, I do sometimes just leave my phone on.
00:06:41
Speaker
but but but where like I'll get distracted by like actual work or like distracted back to the book that I'm reading. And I'll just like leave my phone open to like Instagram or whatever. And it's just there. And then that adds to my screen time. I also listen to YouTube videos, kind of like it's a podcast, but it's a YouTube video It's kind of like on in the background. So that's a little bit to defend myself, right? I'm not just like constantly on my phone. Sometimes it's just there in the background doing its thing, but the screen time is still high.
00:07:11
Speaker
And a lot of us have ice cream table game. You're probably right there with me if you're listening to this. But what are some of the negative impacts that this is actually having? Again, one that I experienced is a negative impact on your eyes.
00:07:24
Speaker
So while... the screen isn't going to like permanently harm your eyes, at least so far, that's what studies are showing.
00:07:36
Speaker
Staring at a screen for a very long time can cause temporary discomfort. So what does that discomfort include? Dry eyes, that's a huge one. Blurry vision, oh my God. And somebody who is nearsighted,
00:07:49
Speaker
I experienced this because I'm so used to staring at a screen that's so close to my face, whether it's my phone or my laptop or like my monitor. Like i just staring the screen for hours because sometimes I am legitimately working for hours and then I look away and it's like, oh, the faraway world is extra blurry than it normally is.
00:08:08
Speaker
i also do feel like since I've been working and then also doing my coaching that like the two jobs together, like I have noticed a decrease in my like vision sh from far away since I'm nearsighted. Like far away seems a blurrier now than it did two years ago. But you know what? that That's a me thing. That's between me and my optometrist that I need to see. It's been a while. But dry eyes, blurry vision, teary or watery eyes. I feel like I've also experienced that too. And then the headaches. I feel like my headaches tend to be because of dehydration.
00:08:46
Speaker
But sometimes the dehydration plus screen time, you know, whos who knows what really is the cause of the headache sometimes. But maybe you can relate to the symptoms I just listed as well So what can we do in this situation?
Digital Detox and Intentional Use
00:09:01
Speaker
Again, we are spring cleaning, and we are spring cleaning our digital lives.
00:09:06
Speaker
And we can start with the social media itself, because that's usually what's pulling us to our phones. So we can have what we call a social media detox. What exactly does that mean?
00:09:18
Speaker
The thing about it is that a social media detox is in its most fundamental definition, a decrease in the usage of social media. Detox does have a pretty heavy connotation in that it's like kind of like going cold turkey. Like you need to get rid of something so that you can essentially allow your system to to heal and clean itself out.
00:09:41
Speaker
If you want to go cold turkey with social media, do you, boo, but that is never, that is never what I suggest with any change that people take on in their lives because often it is too intense and leads to failure.
00:09:57
Speaker
And then we feel like shit because we failed. So i would say to take the approach of intentionality. That can reduce the amount of time that you were on your phone and on social media in general.
00:10:13
Speaker
Because if you look at how you're using social media, that can give a lot of light to maybe why you're using social media, maybe how you're feeling after using social media. so I started to do this just by like checking in with myself a little bit more about how I felt after scrolling for a while. So one is how do I feel, two was Was this like a useful up form or useful like use of my time, essentially?
00:10:47
Speaker
And then on top of that as well, like now how do I feel about all the other work that I have? So part of it is procrastination. like After I procrastinate, like how am I in more stressed or less stressed?
00:10:59
Speaker
After you procrastinate, whether it's social media or not, you feel a little bit more stressed about all the work you need to do. But intentionality when it comes to social media. One, again, like I mentioned before, is that i follow a lot of like news sources and journalists and things like that. So when I go on social media, especially Instagram, I see video footage of what is happening in the world.
00:11:23
Speaker
And then am too informed and I want to pry and throw up and just, it's not good. So because of that,
00:11:36
Speaker
I've begun like asking myself, if I click onto Instagram and I see another building exploding or people under rubble, like am I ready to see that right now?
00:11:50
Speaker
but I've literally had to ask myself this before going because again, like I follow a lot of news sources and on-the-ground journalists. So when I click onto Instagram over the last like two and a half, three years, I click onto Instagram and immediately met with those images. And it's like, I was not prepared to see I mean, who is ever prepared to see something like that?
00:12:12
Speaker
Unfortunately, at this point in time, after all these years, you come to expect it. But I would ask myself, and now I ask myself, if I click onto Instagram and I see this, am I going to regret it right now?
00:12:24
Speaker
So intentionality and preparedness, if you are an informed individual like me myself, or just in general, You can take complete breaks as well. um so you can look at intentionality. You can take out like, how can I maybe schedule in my social media time and schedule in my breaks? Because sometimes you might want to take that approach instead of checking in with yourself, might be a little bit too much.
00:12:47
Speaker
But maybe if you schedule in you know, regimented a little bit more like that taking a complete break from it might be a better use of your time and be more productive for you.
Personal Struggles with Social Media
00:12:59
Speaker
So to go into the growing pains of this, you know, growing pains is a new segment that I am doing on the podcast where I talk about where I'm still struggling with a lot of things and essentially showing that I'm right there with you. Even though I am a life coach, I don't have everything figured out.
00:13:14
Speaker
And even with things I do have figured out, I am still human and I still grapple with certain things as well. I've already touched on how I've been struggling and grappling with social media and my use of it and my screen time.
00:13:24
Speaker
But again, part of it is difficult because social media is a component of my job. I am on social media for like marketing and sales reasons. On top of that as well, it's part like research that I do on there as well. Personally, again, entertainment, education, information, like I've been mentioning,
00:13:45
Speaker
My screen time is very, very high and i do want to decrease that as well because it does negatively impact my eyes. Being on a screen all day working and then coming home, maybe having like an hour break just to get back on the computer or on my phone to keep working.
00:14:05
Speaker
Like there are days, like I do that often enough that where there are days where I have things I need to get done, but I physically cannot because my eyes and my head hurt so much from being on the screen for so many hours a day consistently.
00:14:20
Speaker
And even a few years, tonight oh my God, it's not even a few years ago now. This was maybe like,
00:14:28
Speaker
This was back before the coaching, but I had a full-time job. And on top of that, I had a little blog that I was doing at the time and a little bit of a YouTube channel at the time. So I would work all day and then I would come home and work on my blog or work on my youtube channel or if i did relax if i was going to relax then i would watch youtube or watch something on my laptop so just me staring at screen all the time to the point where i not only would my eyes hurt but there was one time where my vision was like
00:15:05
Speaker
foggy and like around every light when I was driving, there was like a ring around the lights. So I went to the optometrist, told her, hey, this is what I'm experiencing. And she was just like, okay, well, when that happens, that usually means your retina has it detached, but luckily your retinas look fine.
00:15:22
Speaker
Stay off the screen when you can, like decrease the amount of time you're staying at screen. So that hasn't happened since, thankfully, but it happened
Setting Boundaries with Technology
00:15:33
Speaker
once. So I'm very aware of my screen time and much more, I give myself more grace when I do feel my eyes having any kind of symptom related to screen time. I'm just like, yeah I need to get things done, but my health is more important. So I'm going to take a step back and just like go to sleep early tonight instead of getting work done or prioritize going to the gym where I'm not looking at a screen.
00:15:54
Speaker
But again, it it is it is a struggle, especially just how the nature of the work for most people nowadays is tied to a screen.
00:16:04
Speaker
Our entertainment is tied to screens. Our downtime is tied to screens. So it's it's rough and I get it. I get what what I'm talking about. Seems like a small thing, but it's actually very, very difficult.
00:16:17
Speaker
So what are some tips and tricks, some practical things that we can do in order to really help us? And again, maybe we can just take one of these things instead of doing all of them. But let's just start from the very beginning. If you know that like, okay, I'm on here way too much. My eyes are hurting constantly. What can I even do?
00:16:35
Speaker
Audit your apps. Audit them. what What apps are you using the most? And what apps are you like not even using all that much? Like let's take a look at what you have on there or what you're not even using at all and delete the ones that don't serve of you. Like I know we talked about not going cold turkey, but if there is a way to help us out, sometimes deleting the app altogether can help. Maybe just if you use both like TikTok and Instagram and you use one more than the other, delete them when you don't use that much.
00:17:09
Speaker
That can help. Additionally, we can, again, like I mentioned before, look at how you're using your apps. Again, just kind of like audit your screen time, audit which apps you're using, audit how you're feeling after you use them or even while you're using these apps. And you can take a look at, is it impacting your mental health? Is it impacting your productivity, your mood?
00:17:34
Speaker
Take a look at all of that. Additionally, we can set boundaries. Yes, we can set boundaries with social media apps and with technology like we do in our personal lives. This is naturally going to look a little bit different. So you can turn off notifications for social media apps. You can establish you know, phone free times or phone free areas in your apartment, in your life, in your schedule.
00:17:59
Speaker
Also you can, like there are, for our phone, i don't i I have an Android, it has like a digital wellness section in the settings where you can limit the amount of hours you're allowed to go on an app where it just like locks after you've met, like say you have a travel limit but every day for Instagram.
00:18:15
Speaker
You use up those two hours, the app locks. You also within Instagram as well, I've noticed they do have like a digital wellness section too, where it's like, i forget the terminology, but it's like um the app.
00:18:30
Speaker
It's like your bedtime or something where you can't be disturbed or like the disturbed free zone or something. So I have mine set where like it doesn't give you notifications. And I have mine set from, I think 11 p.m. to 7 p.m.
00:18:45
Speaker
So you can adjust that for yourself where you're not going to get notifications and it kind of dissuades you from engaging with you, like maybe DMing somebody or bringing conversations like that. So look into that as well to help you set those boundaries.
00:18:59
Speaker
And like I was talking about before, we can also little further trade our feeds. Like not so much like us using the apps a lot in terms of spring cleaning, but also what are we consuming in these apps and is it beneficial?
00:19:16
Speaker
Is it bringing something into our lives versus just you know, causing harm in some kind of a way. so if there are certain accounts that make you feel shitty, make it that are maybe a little bit more on the comparison side, or you feel kind of like and unhappy about yourself and happy about your life after looking at these accounts, unfollow them, mute them, whatever it might be. Because sometimes there are people that we know that after we look at their content, we're just like, I don't feel that good after looking at this content, but I know this person personally, so I can't just unfollow them. You can mute their content.
00:19:49
Speaker
So yeah, anything like that that can trigger any kind of like negativity and negative feelings, comparison, unfollow, mute, you can definitely do that. Again, like I mentioned, with those digital free zones, the bed, how many of do scroll in bed? Maybe if you want to do scroll, maybe you can only do scroll on the couch. So you're not completely breaking the habit, but if you're doing scrolling is impacting your sleep, maybe do scroll on the couch or do scroll at the kitchen table and then phone free zone in bed.
Experimenting with a Social Media-Free Life
00:20:22
Speaker
You can also try like a 24 hour or like a weekend detox challenge where you completely stay off of social media for a day, for a weekend, and just see how you feel and see how it impacts your life. And maybe could just have like maybe one day a week, one day every two weeks where you do that.
00:20:39
Speaker
Ultimately, social media is a huge part of our lives. And for a lot of us, we can't fully get rid of it. And I completely understand that. But if you do have the ability, the privilege, and are able to decrease it, completely get rid of it or reimagine how you interact with it, definitely give it a shot. Because for so many of us, being on social media, I think we're getting to a point in life where it is, or a point in society and culture where it is more of a hindrance and it can be more of a negative thing than beneficial thing.
00:21:11
Speaker
So just give it a shot and see how you can make social media work better for you and integrate it in a more healthy way into your life. I would say just pick one of the things that I mentioned and give it a shot for like two weeks, maybe a month and see how it goes.
00:21:25
Speaker
That way you could have true behavior change and like something sustainable instead of to all of it at once and then possibly not having anything, any sustainable change. If you stayed this long, I definitely appreciate you.
00:21:40
Speaker
Thank you for tuning into the Grown With Soul podcast. If this episode resonated with you, if you've been enjoying the podcast, leave it a five-star review. It helps get this out to more people who need to hear this message.
00:21:50
Speaker
If you would like some support in this process, if you're going to be trying to figure out how social media has been impacting you or any of the above you want some accountability, definitely schedule a call with me through the link in the show notes so we can talk about how we can best work together.
00:22:06
Speaker
Until next time, keep growing.