I'm taking a break from social media

I consider myself a social media enthusiast. I shared every bit of my life on social media, and as a social media geek, checking my phone is among the first and the last things I do every day. It's like my daily routine. Usually, I'd check on my phone within 5 minutes of waking up, scrolling through feeds, clicking notifications, and the 5 minutes, quickly turns into 15, which then turns into 30 minutes. Basically, it took me about 15-30 minutes to wake up. My morning routine has changed for the past months from waking up and checking all social networks and email to only checking Twitter, and today, I didn't check any of them. I didn't even take 5 minutes break to check on them. Don't take me wrong, I don't take social network breaks because it's Ramadhan and will be back to Instagram when it's over. I don't judge those social media geeks out there. I have nothing against them since it's a personal choice whether you use social media or not. It is just me.

If there was a "best-social-media-for-ruining-self-esteem" award, Instagram would be getting a gold medal. It has the power of leaving some of us completely, utterly, and thoroughly shitty about ourselves. I mean, who would put up an ugly picture of themselves on social media? Well, that's exactly how my life was before withdrawing from social media. A constant race. Over time, I started feeling unhappy and insecure. I was on and off social media until one day, I realized if this is causing so much discomfort, I'll quit it entirely and see what happens. That "one day" was last January.

As a person who used to post multiple stories a day like a daily ritual, I must say a significant difference in my life. I'm much happier, and I learn to be more content with myself for being me, that there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all. You need to find what's right for you. And for that, you need to figure it out yourselves, because no one doing it for you. In these five months, I've figured out these life things, I learned in-depth about myself, read more books, discovered new hobbies, took online courses, helped my mom with Raya preparation, rearranging furniture, getting our curtains replaced, baking cookies (although I play hooky few times). I also love the slower pace, concentrating on my personal growth. I started to see things I'd never seen before. The bottom line is, giving up social media made me happier than I've ever been, and that is a pretty incredible feeling.

When Allah closes a door for you, and a second door, and a third door, it is because the seventh door will lead you to a place way beyond the first six doors. You have to be convinced.

Am I quitting social media for good? No, I'm not going to leave social media altogether, and I'm not suggesting anyone do that. I'm still checking on social media once in a while, not every minute. Most of the time, I use it for inspiration, not to check what my friends are up to. The last time I checked the average time I've spent on Instagram was 4 minutes, and I'm okay with it. I'm okay to not check out Instagram for weeks, and I'm proud of that. And I find social media, Twitter, or Instagram, nowadays are dead boring, or I'm just becoming an adult? Idk. Will I be back on social media in the future? Probably but for now, not planning to come back anytime soon.