Day 1: Logging Off to Tune In: My 30 Day Social Media Detox
Reclaiming Presence, Rewriting Habits, and Realigning with Ancient Wisdom in a Modern World
Today is day one of a 30 day social media detox. (Specifically, Instagram and Facebook!) I’ve tried this before, but never made it that far. I actually think I made one full month, in August of 2023. And it was the best month of my life! I remember feeling more present with people, more mentally healthy, and more productive. I read and wrote more, and my business made progress. I took better care of myself and my space that I lived in, because I felt like I was worth it. I was cooking and cleaning. My experiences quite honestly paralleled that of when I initially went sober from alcohol, in 2019 (which is how I knew Instagram was a bad addiction for me). But, I eventually logged back on at the end of the month. I remember logging back in at the end of the month, and thinking to myself - I will just log on and post one thing, and then I won’t use it to excess anymore. I’ve thought the same thing every time I’ve tried to detox off social media - I have barely made it a few days before coming back. Instagram always sucks me in and it very quickly goes into full on addiction.
Instagram is my main issue. It’s the first thing I open in the morning. I doom scroll all day.
Anytime I find an old journal of mine from the last five years, it’s usually something I’ve written about at some point - how addicted I am to Instagram. For you, it might not be Instagram, because I know everyone has different Social Media issues. Maybe it’s TikTok for you or Facebook. (For me, personally, I find it’s any “scrolling” app. I don’t have these same issues with things like YouTube.)
Checking Instagram is my reflex when I’m bored and I’m lonely.
What I’ve noticed too is that Instagram has gotten less and less beneficial for me as time goes on. Originally, in 2014 when I first joined the app, it used to just be peoples photos that you knew. I loved being able to stay connected and keep in touch with people! There was no marketing on the App. I don’t even think there were advertisements. I remember, when you got to the end of the posts you hadn’t seen yet, you’d get a check mark that said you were “all caught up for the day.!” Do you remember that?
Now it’s turned into this algorithm of endless nonsense. You can literally stay on Instagram for hours and hours. For instance I’ve noticed now when I look at stories I’ll see three people’s stories and then a house for sale in bali (I am looking to get my first home soon so I am browsing - the algorithm knows this!) Then I’ll follow the link, check out the house, do the math on my budget, find out everything I can about it…and then circle back to the app to go deep into it again. That’s my stories - Instagram only shows me three people before it shows me an ad. Over and over again. My feed is different - it’s all just videos and clips of Taylor Swift and her new boyfriend, Travis Kelce. I feel like I’m never seeing any posts from my loved ones or friends - because I am constantly just seeing all this content that is fed to me by the social media machine. I mean, I like Taylor Swift, but I don’t want to be this walking encyclopedia of every moment of her life!! I feel like through my Instagram addiction, that is who I have become.
My relationship with social media is complex though. It is how I was able to build my business as an entrepreneur and quit my job as a teacher. I used Facebook Groups to build a community online, by sharing about my sober journey. Then I grew my Instagram account to over 20,500 followers. Whenever people ask me how I got so many Instagram followers, I tell them it’s because I have an addiction. I really do. It’s only through this addiction I’ve been able to connect, engage, post, share, like, comment, and connect with so many people, who have then joined my community.
It’s funny because when I got sober from alcohol, one of the biggest things I was struggling with was losing my identity (or my identity changing). I had built up this identity, through alcohol, as a party girl. It felt like I didn’t even know who I was without drinking.
The same feels to be true now without Instagram. I’ve built up a community on Instagram over the last five and a half years into my sobriety as “Sober Yoga Girl” (My handle is alex mcrobs, but I refer to myself as Sober Yoga Girl.) So my fears are - who will I be without this identity?
I know my social media addiction is possibly as bad as my alcohol addiction. Maybe even worse! I only had alcohol at night time, at the end of stressful days (which, towards the end of my drinking, was every day).
But with Instagram, it’s the first thing I’m on when I wake up. And I’m on it all day, until I go to bed.
But this Instagram Detox feels different. What has made it feel different? It’s the community building around it. I happened to post on my stories that I’d like to get off Instagram, and heard from about five people that they wanted to too. So I created a WhatsApp group & some daily inspiring emails. And within 48 hours - 65 people signed up!! (By the way - you can join us anytime. Click the link here to register! https://stan.store/alexmcrobs/p/join-the-30day-social-media-detox-in-january-2025 )
What amazes me is that in all the conversations we’ve been having in the WhatsApp group, that we share so many fears, and stresses, around using/leaving social media. A lot of people find it’s a huge waste of time, and it triggers feelings of self consciousness, anxiety, and other mental health issues. But people are afraid of losing their connections with others If they leave. Other business owners like me are afraid of their business declining when they go offline.
Today within the first three hours of being off social media, I woke up, meditated, cooked myself breakfast, then went to the water temple here in Bali and prayed. When leaving the temple I felt like having a ceremonial cacao, so I rode my bike into town. As I was sitting having a cacao, my phone rang. It was a guy I’ve been seeing (who I have so many feelings for!) I had messaged him last night to tell him I was detoxing off Instagram, and that he should message me on WhatsApp. Instead, he called to ask how my day was going.
Our relationship has existed mostly on Instagram so far. (Here’s how we met - I heard him singing live last year in the resort where my family stayed for Christmas and went up to introduce myself. He is so fricken talented. He’s also really cute. He’s a songwriter. I added him on Instagram and he added me back. But I had a boyfriend at the time (and he had a girlfriend!) so nothing happened. Fast forward one year later, to when I posted on Instagram I was back in Canada. He asked me if I would be going up to the resort again for Christmas (which I was.) He asked me on a date and it quickly escalated to one of the best 24 hours of my life! After that Christmas happened, and then I went back to the city of Toronto and came back to Bali - so we haven’t been able to see each other again. But our messaging continued on Instagram and a lot of our relationship so far has been daily DMs but also him replying to my Instagram Stories (he’s not as active as me). I was scared going off socials that he would forget about me quickly or we’d lose touch. But him calling me this morning, three hours into the detox, completely made my day. I realized that by disconnecting he was forced to take more intiative in our relationship. And it just made me feel so happy and so connected to him to speak to him on the phone today. So maybe the Instagram detox will actually be better for my dating life?
After this call, I started thinking about all my relatives and friends who I have less connection with while being overseas. I’ve been an expat now for ten years, in Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, and Bali. I feel like I never have time to call them - but I’m also on Instagram for hours each day. Maybe when I’m bored, I could pick up the phone and call one of them (instead of Doom Scrolling!).
Like all modern challenges, the ancient teachings always have wisdom that can relate. Some of the texts I’ve been studying this past year include Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the Bhavagad Gita, the 12 Steps, and the Buddha Dharma. Here’s some of the connections we can make to these teachings:
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras: In the Yoga Sutras, pratyahara—the withdrawal of the senses—teaches us to turn inward, away from external distractions. Social media is one of the loudest distractions in our world today. Logging off, even for a short while, is the practice of pratyahara, reclaiming your attention and reconnecting with your inner self.
The Bhavagad Gita: The Gita speaks of karma yoga, acting without attachment to the results of our actions. Think about how often we post with the expectation of likes, comments, or validation. A detox invites us to create for the joy of creating, to live without seeking external approval.
The 12 Steps: In the 12 Steps, Step 4 asks us to take a fearless moral inventory. What if we extended that inventory to our digital habits? How does scrolling impact your mental health, your relationships, your sense of self-worth? A detox gives you the space to honestly evaluate how social media fits into your life.
The Buddha Dharma: the Eightfold Path from the Buddha Dharma encourages right mindfulness. Social media often pulls us out of the present moment, fragmenting our attention. By stepping away, we create room for mindfulness, for being fully present with ourselves and our lives.
So I am considering this detox less about rejecting technology - and more about reclaiming my attention, setting boundaries, and aligning my habits with my values. It’s an opportunity to reflect, reset, and reconnect with what truly matters.
I’ll be writing every day during this detox (except for my ten day silent Vipassana meditation retreat Jan 8 - 16 - where I can’t do any talking, writing or reading, just meditating!) If you want to read my posts about my journey, make sure you subscribe to my new substack:
If you’re doing the detox too, I’d love to hear how it’s going! Make sure you sign up for the Detox here to get into our WhatsApp Group.