{"id":589150,"date":"2026-08-10T18:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/589150\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T18:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:32:10","slug":"what-8-weeks-without-social-media-taught-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/589150\/","title":{"rendered":"What 8 Weeks Without Social Media Taught Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m eight weeks into my summer experiment of being off social media<\/a>, and I\u2019m loving it. At this point, I have absolutely no desire to go back. <\/p>\n

And yet, I probably will at some point. I\u2019m an author, after all. I have readers I love to chat to online, books I want to share, and the occasional thought I\u2019d like to put out into the world. There\u2019s also a little voice in my head saying, “But shouldn\u2019t you be on there?” Maybe I should. Maybe I shouldn’t. Thankfully, I don\u2019t have to decide today.<\/p>\n

For now, I\u2019m enjoying this little experiment and paying attention<\/a> to what has happened in the space social media left behind. When I wrote the first part of my summer experiment<\/a>, I was mostly curious about how to stop scrolling. Eight weeks in, I\u2019m more interested in what has taken its place.<\/p>\n

So far, there have been three things I didn\u2019t expect.<\/p>\n

1. Social media can make us feel connected without actually connecting us.<\/p>\n

When I first deleted my social media apps, I missed seeing updates from my favourite writers, horse trainers, and various interesting people I had accumulated in my online world. And then I realised something: I didn\u2019t actually know most of these people.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, having lived in seven countries, I have friends all over the world. Although I already see my local friends regularly, I realised I could be much more proactive about staying connected with the ones who live further away. Without social media giving me the feeling that I was \u201ckeeping up\u201d with everyone, I started actually keeping up with the people I care about.<\/p>\n

I sent more messages. I organised calls. I had long conversations with friends I hadn\u2019t properly spoken to in far too long. I found myself rekindling friendships that had never disappeared, but had perhaps been sitting on the sidelines of busy life. I wonder whether that is one of the strange things social media does: gives us the feeling of connection without necessarily giving us the connection itself.<\/p>\n

Research supports the idea that stepping away can make a difference. A 2022 study found that people who took a one-week break from social media experienced improvements in well-being, depression<\/a>, and anxiety<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Perhaps it isn\u2019t simply about how connected we are, but about how connected we actually feel. There\u2019s a big difference between seeing someone’s holiday photo online and actually hearing their voice when you ask how they really are.<\/p>\n

2. There is a little withdrawal, but it passes.<\/p>\n

The first few weeks off social media brought two slightly embarrassing habits to my attention. The first was occasionally thinking, “Oh, this would make a nice picture to post.” The second was wondering what some of the random people I followed were up to. Both bothered me for slightly different reasons.<\/p>\n

I realised I don\u2019t want to experience my life through the imaginary eyes of an audience. I don\u2019t want to see a beautiful sunset and immediately think about how it would look in a story. I want to see the sunset. Sure, I still take photographs. I love capturing memories. But there is something wonderfully different about taking a picture because you want to remember something and taking one because you want other people to see it.<\/p>\n

To overcome this, I simply started practising noticing. A beautiful view? Notice it. A lovely smell? Notice it. Something funny? Notice it. I don\u2019t need to do anything with it. I can just let it be mine.<\/p>\n

The second habit disappeared more easily. Once I stopped checking social media, I stopped thinking about what these random people were up to. And that was that. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing wrong with following people who inspire you or being curious about other people\u2019s lives. But it made me laugh when I thought about how strange this habit would sound if we could explain it to someone from 15 years ago: “I\u2019m going to spend part of every day following strangers on the internet and keeping up with what they\u2019re doing with their lives.”<\/p>\n

They might reasonably ask: Why? Honestly, I\u2019m not sure I know anymore.<\/p>\n

3. My attention feels different.<\/p>\n

At first, I tried to replace social media with other forms of digital nonsense. I read the news. I checked the weather repeatedly. I browsed things I had no intention of buying. Apparently, my brain was perfectly happy to find another rabbit hole. Eventually, I caught myself doing it and managed to stop it. And that\u2019s when I noticed my attention change.<\/p>\n

I could sit down with a book and stay with it. I could work on something without feeling the pull to check something else. My mind wandered a lot less, and I felt less compelled to follow every little thought that wandered past. Interestingly, a 2025 study found that blocking mobile internet on smartphones for two weeks improved participants\u2019 sustained attention, mental health, and well-being.<\/p>\n

Of course, I\u2019m not claiming that going off social media has magically transformed my attention span. But I do think something happens when fewer things are constantly asking for our attention. There is simply less to check, less to consume, and less to follow. And therefore, perhaps, a little more room to notice what is already here.<\/p>\n

I have one more month left of my experiment, although I\u2019m beginning to suspect that one month may turn into two or three. Maybe I\u2019ll eventually return to social media, but with a completely different relationship to it. Maybe I\u2019ll find a way to use it for my work without allowing it to become part of the background noise of my everyday life. I don\u2019t know yet. And, strangely, I\u2019m OK not knowing.<\/p>\n

For now, I\u2019m enjoying fewer people to keep up with, fewer things to check, fewer moments to share, and, somehow, more of my own life to live. I\u2019ll let you know what happens next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m eight weeks into my summer experiment of being off social media, and I\u2019m loving it. At this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-589150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}