Social Media-Free Weekends

For the month of December, I committed to spending my weekends without any form of social media. Based on some good conversation with friends a few weeks ago, everyone shared the same love/hate frustration with the social media / phone-addicted world we live in. In the past, I’ve done a social media-free weekend and really enjoyed it, but the next weekend went right back to scrolling around on Instagram or Facebook the moment I didn’t have anything else to do. If you’re anything like me, Instagram can be one rabbit hole after another. Before you know it, 20+ minutes are gone! With what to show for it?
I’ve just wrapped up my second consecutive weekend with no social media, which was great timing to actually enjoy time spent out of state with family. I didn’t realize how hooked I was until I would pick up my phone and almost automatically open Instagram (my favorite app). I was catching myself all weekend from actually clicking. Just turning off any and all notifications on my phone is a relief and helps keep me off the apps.

By not going on social media all weekend, I felt like I had suddenly had so much free time. I wasn’t spending many of the free moments lingering on my phone – I was talking with Tom, crossing things off my to-do list and resting my mind and eyes from screen time.

Here are some tips for how to do a social media-free weekend:

1. Turn off all notifications on your phone.
2. Better yet, delete the apps altogether (resisting the auto-pilot click to accidentally access).
3. Journal or write an actual letter (yes, paper and pen) instead of posting on social media.
4. For fellow entrepreneurs, if you need to post on the weekend, take advantage of Facebook’s scheduled post feature or for Instagram, use the app called Latergram.

If putting your phone down for the weekend sounds like something you’d like to try, I’d love you to join me in the social media-free weekend movement. Free time and weekends with family are too short to spend isolating myself behind a screen. Let’s get out and live life how we’re meant to do!