Blog Posts

Thoughts on life, writing, art, and health.

Photo by Prateek Katyal A neon sign that shows a 'like' button notification with a heart and the number zero.

Quitting Social Media for Good

I had an astronomically horrible day today. I thought ranting about it on social media would help. Once I posted my thoughts, I felt a little bit better. But I made the mistake of doing so in such a way that invited commentary. That’s when I started to feel bad again. Instead of getting validation and expression for my frustration, I put myself in a position where others’ opinions were welcome. Instead of achieving those needs for my emotional health in private, I used social media… In a way that I have done for 12 years, starting with Twitter. It isn’t healthy. It doesn’t benefit me, and I end up being one of those people who brings toxicity and negativity to spaces. After feeling immense anger at how people responded to me, I stepped back from writing an angry retaliation and then felt shame. On impulse, I felt like quitting social media and deleting all my accounts right then and there.

As much as I’ve wanted to change how I use social media, I resort to the same inappropriate behaviour. There’s no other way for me to describe it. I use social media in the worst way possible on my own: I unload all my problems instead of tackling them in private. While I don’t use social media for harassment, my usage harms myself more than anyone. I’m done with that. Quitting social media seems to be the best answer to first and foremost take care of myself.

What about balancing, using less, and distancing?

I have tried to distance myself from social media many, many times. I had what I called a social media sabbatical in the summer of 2019, and again made attempts at the start of 2021 when I acknowledged my addictive behaviour; there have been numerous other breaks as well which preceded my announcements on the blog. While these taught me valuable lessons of how I use social media, quitting social media will benefit me more. Along with the ways I use the platforms for unhealthy emotional processing, social media distracts me from the activities I want to prioritize: work, creativity, health, and hobbies.

I have tried to find balance, but I admit defeat, even with the improvements to using social media less from the tactics I introduced at the start of the year.

I also can’t improve personal areas like my emotional awareness, self-reflection, and interpersonal skills if I continue to resort to using social media in a way that actively negates and harms my attempts to make progress with my peace.

Saying goodbye isn’t easy, especially when I’ve made genuine connections with people on these platforms. Quitting anything, not just quitting social media, is hard. But the problem lies in my current use of these spaces. I can’t remember the last time I engaged in a decent discussion on social media. Occasionally, I give some input or reaction to a friend’s content. But long gone are the days of conversation that invigorated me or made me feel as part of a community.

It’s time.

Preparations for quitting social media

My friend just popped his head around the corner to see what I was doing. I showed him the title of the blog, and he made it clear he doubts I’m really quitting social media. He said, “I give it a week.” I told him this time it’s different, because I’m not trying to find a balance; because I’m admitting defeat. He asked, “Does this include TikTok as well?” Yes. “Wow.” None of this exchange was defeatist or mean; he knows me well, and he knows how often I have tried to distance myself from unhealthy social media usage. I think he also understands that now I want to prove him wrong. 😏

I don’t want to leave any lose ends or risk the loss of content I truly do want to keep. So I’m giving myself one week to tie up these relics from my social media platforms and then get out. My reconnaissance includes:

  • recording information from Saved Posts on Reddit (so many QR codes for Animal Crossing: New Horizons)
  • saving photos from Instagram if they have not already been stored
  • retrieving contact information for friends who I primarily keep in touch with on social media platforms
  • overall, grabbing stuff I know I won’t be able to replicate or find again

Once the week is up, I’m wiping my accounts, changing passwords for any I will keep as shells, and deleting the rest.

I hope that by May 1st, I will have begun a new journey after quitting social media.

Give ’em the boot

I don’t consider all social media to be the same. Pinterest and Facebook are not the same to me. Discord and Twitter are not the same either. If it has a profile associated with it, I’m more likely leaving it compared to messaging apps.

I will be leaving Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, WhatsApp, and Facebook. I will stay on Pinterest, at least to organize the pins and boards there, because it’s the only platform where I find joy and inspiration! I will also be on Discord because I don’t consider it a social media platform, but a messaging app. (It’s like chatrooms, okay; don’t fight me on that.) For now, I will remain on Instagram since it’s an easier location to manage content and contacts compared to others, but this may be quite temporary.

I think social media has a place and a function. Personally, I believe in three primary and positive uses.

  • join communities, and make friends and connections based on interests
  • network professionally, such as meeting people in my field and building a network of freelancers
  • market a business, like advertising my editorial services or any possible creative projects down the line

If I decide to use social media for one of these positive purposes, then I can come back and try again. For now, though, social media isn’t working toward any of those purposes. I’m especially not using it to connect with people on a deeper level, which I wish I was doing, so I’m just going to hope that my desire to socialize will come back to me somewhere.

I’ve hesitated quitting social media because I thought the above uses would make themselves available to me, or that I would start doing them in earnest if I limited my time on social media. But I’ve disconnected less and less since imposing time limits in January.

What next?

I will leave my Twitter up as a shell account or updates-only feed, and it will cross-post when I have written a blog, since I will still be on my website here, hopefully blogging more. Most of my heartache comes from knowing I will be cutting off a lot of users by stepping away from Twitter, so I will see how it goes by at least bringing notification of my activity to that timeline.

I will be on Discord and I really want people to add me there to make sure we stay connected. My comments are moderated, so you can provide your Discord ID and number there for me to add. I will also leave my Instagram available, especially for DMs to facilitate making contact on Discord.

My primary points of contact will be Discord, email, or any of the forms on this site.

I might delete Instagram down the line, though I have the majority of my offline friends on there and don’t feel toxic using it. Instagram’s fate is open-ended, but it might get the axe too, so I wouldn’t rely on it.

If this is farewell…

It’s been quite a long time over this last decade. I started using Twitter in 2009, shortly after I began blogging on an old website. I’ve connected with a lot of people, many of whom have also journeyed toward quitting social media, whether they made the choice or just happened to fall out of use.

I won’t even get into how I feel about data collection from social media companies, but now is the time to commit to stepping back completely and quitting social media. Not just closing the door, but leaving the building that houses my unhealthy social media activity.

If you won’t be able to stay in touch with me through Discord, my blog, or email, then I hope one day we can reconnect. I hope that my acquaintance with you brought you joy. In the time we spent together, I hope you remember me, but I will give you the grace to forget me as well. I wish I could say I will remember everyone in the future without needing to make note of who you are… But I have memory problems and I am exhausted by my own existence. I am my first priority right now.

If we are mutuals on Twitter or we have shared a connection with writing, blogging, art, video games, queer activism, and more… Please don’t see me quitting social media as me cutting off contact with you. Please touch base and let me know where else we can remember each other. ♥


I am scared to leave behind one of the longest relationships I’ve had, but I am excited to reclaim myself.


Disclaimer: This is not an indication of poor mental health that will result in permanent changes to my physical being, so please do not construe it as such! I am not disappearing from the Internet entirely or aiming to erase my existence. I am quitting social media platforms to reclaim my time and energy.

You may also like

Comments

7 Comments

  • Sorry to see you go, Coryl, but I know it’s for the best! I know the feeling of this social presence or even “responsibility” always lingering even when I go on hiatus, so making a clean, permanent break does seem like the way forward. We’ve only been Twitter mutuals for a short while, and I haven’t participated in the blogging community except on Georgie’s blog in over a decade, but I’ll be sure to keep up with what you’ll be up to next. WordPress tends to be pretty bad with email subscriptions, but I checked the box anyways.

    I’m curious about including WhatsApp in the list of platforms you’re leaving — it’s almost synonymous with text messaging in this day and age, a reason why you’re staying on Discord. Perhaps it’s to do with WhatsApp being a Facebook property? If so, that makes sense. I myself operate there under a secondary number specifically for it; I’m primarily a Telegram user, and I try not to maintain too many points of contact so as to keep things organized. I quit Facebook cold turkey in late 2012 and haven’t looked back, but I also did download my archive beforehand, which has proven invaluable to me for reasons I won’t get to here.

    Good on you for doing what you feel is best and committing to it. I hope this decision helps you in the long run, and all my best to you for whatever’s next!

    • Coryl Addy

      Yeah that’s one reason for WhatsApp, since it keeps doing weird stuff for suggested contacts that I thought I blocked, so just trying to find alternatives. I’ve thought about getting another number to use there, but that slipped my mind until you reminded me. 🙂

      I have a game on my phone that is connected to Facebook that I unfortunately can’t change over to email login or even a different Facebook account, so that put a hiccup in leaving Facebook. I’ve resorted to just blocking the site on my devices and changing the login to a new password, so that should keep me off it.

      Thank you so much for all the encouragement!! 🥰

      (Also my spam filter nabbed your comment, so I’ll need to review the filters!)

  • I feel you on this. I actually did the same years ago and successfully never go back to twitter & Facebook. Now I’m reluctant to start new profiles anywhere at all so I don’t have accounts on discord or reddit or tiktok to worry about. I do feel like I’m free from a lot of the chatter and inconsequential parts of social media but at the same time I get jealous when my real life friends will post on twitter instead of texting something to me (and they expect me to just know what’s going on with them). Don’t know if your experiences will be the same but I hope you get what you wanted out of doing this 🙏

    • Coryl Addy

      Very glad that it was successful for you, Leo! Hopefully this means less spam emails as well. There’s a lot of stress that goes onto social media, so I’m glad to step away, but I hope I can also get better at texting or calling friends to keep in touch. It’s been hard with the pandemic, so fingers crossed it’s an improvement from here.

  • 2021, Part Three: March – Coryl Creates

    […] delete social media?? I think?? – especially Twitter […]

  • 2021, Part Four: April – Coryl Creates

    […] idea for how to manage my mental health—and overall health—as I go forward. Since I decided to quit social media on April 23, I’ve had a really rough week as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if I actually did have a […]

  • 2021, Part Six: June – Coryl Creates

    […] of other times where an episode derailed an entire month, day after day. I’m just glad that I’m not on social media anymore, because the impulsivity combined with easy-access attention is a recipe for embarrassment and […]

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts