Unplug – your 6 step guide to taking a social media break

The world is a stressful place in 2025. With political dividedness and unrest, war, mass shootings, etc., it’s easy to opt out of reality for a few hours and doomscroll instead. However, doomscrolling and long periods of social media exposure can cause unwelcome mental and physical effects.

In this article, I’ll share some of these effects with you, provide a guide to taking a social media break, and give you some suggestions of other things to do with your time during your break!

Effects of Social Media | A Guide to Taking a Social Media Break |

What to Do Instead of Doomscrolling

Effects of Social Media

Social media has been part of our lives for around 30 years. Different platforms have always had differing purposes: Instagram for photos; Reddit for forum discussions; LinkedIn for sharing work experiences and networking; and TikTok for short-form video.

In my opinion, the rise in short-form video content has likely grown our tendencies to doomscroll, which isn’t good for us:

…individuals who are more engaged with doomscrolling are more likely to experience psychological distress which in turn leads to lower mental well-being, life satisfaction and harmony in life.” (Satici, S.A., et al., 2022)

In addition to the impacts on your mental health, your physical health can also suffer from doomscrolling:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, stomach-churning news has a tendency to turn our stomachs. But nausea is far from the only physical effect of doomscrolling. Others can include headaches, muscle tension, neck and shoulder pain, low appetite, difficulty sleeping, and even elevated blood pressure, according to Harvard experts.” (Harvard Women’s Health Watch, 2024)

This is why making social media breaks a daily, weekly, or monthly routine is so important! It gives you the chance to protect your mental and physical well being, and gives you a reason to focus on utilizing your time for beneficial activities like meditating, journaling, or spending time on your hobbies.

6 Step Guide to Taking a Social Media Break

1. Know when to take a break

Often times, knowing when to take a break can be the hardest part, especially because social media is built to be addictive. But, you know your own limits. You know when you’re feeling down, isolated, discouraged, etc. Trust your gut. When you start to feel like social media might be making a negative impact on your mental, emotional, or physical well being, take a break. More proactive routes include scheduling downtime without social media or using screen time restrictions to lessen your usage.

2. Schedule your time away

As I mentioned above, a great way to be proactive about your social media usage is to schedule your time away from social media. This is all up to your preference! You can take hours, days, weeks, or even months off. I challenge you, especially if you are a type B person who’s a little more spontaneous, to actually write down or create a calendar notification for the time you want to spend away to keep yourself accountable.

3. Inform friends and family

To eliminate any worry, inform your friends and family when you’re going to be leaving social media for long periods of time. Especially if you primarily communicate with them through a social media platform. Maybe invite them to do the break with you as an accountabilibuddy (accountability buddy – I learned this goofy term in my job as an Orientation Leader on my college campus and still use it to this day).

4. Use screen time limits and focus apps

I will admit that I have a tendency to bypass time limits when I set them… however, I do think it forces us to think a little bit more about our social media usage. Below are a few guides to screen time restrictions on different devices and focus apps:

Screen Time – iPhone

Digital Wellbeing – Android/Google

Focus App Recommendations from Zapier

5. Rest and recharge

Use your time away from social media wisely! Fill your time with meditation, exercise, journaling, crafts… anything to help you decompress. See here for some recommendations!

6. Return mindfully

This step is one of the most important in my opinion. It’s easy to hop back onto social media after a break and fall right back into a pattern of usage that can be harmful. As you come back, try to notice the way that your mental, emotional, and physical well being change. If you don’t see a change, you’re probably consuming an okay amount of social media. If you do, it might be worth cutting back or taking another break!

What to Do Instead of Doomscrolling

Read a Book

Listen… you’re on my blog. Which means you gotta be at least a little bit like me. Which also means you probably have 25+ books on your TBR (to be read) that you keep putting off because you want to buy new books. GO GRAB SOMETHING ON YOUR TBR AND READ IT! RIGHT NOW. Thank me later!!

Meditation

Meditation is a great way to check in with your body, mind, and soul. If you already practice meditation, stick to what you know and love. If you’re new to meditation, try a guided meditation on YouTube or wherever you get your music and/or podcasts. There are guided meditation practices for nearly everything you could think of: manifesting, healing, anxiety, stress, and so many more. Pick a topic that resonates with you and sit with yourself for a little bit. Follow the guided breathing, too. According to Mental Health First Aid USA,

Studies have shown that practicing breathing exercises and mindfulness can lead to better mental health and positive emotions, and alleviate stress and depression. Breathing exercises also allow you to think more clearly and reduce feelings of anxiety.”

Exercise

Take it from me… exercising isn’t fun for everyone. I have spent my whole young adult life trying to find a type of movement that’s enjoyable and works for me. Discipline is difficult to teach yourself. However, exercising is extremely beneficial for your brain and body. So, if you struggle to fix exercise in every day like I do, try focusing on consistency. Find movement every day. Even if that movement is just doing 5 pushups or going for a 5 minute walk, take the little wins and do better the next day. You’ll find that when you give yourself grace on those days where you “didn’t do enough,” it’ll be easier to push yourself the next day and the day after that.

Journaling

Grab a notebook/notepad/tablet and journal! If you’re like me and you love markers and pens and other stationary items, use them all! Make your pages colorful and aesthetically pleasing. Maybe you don’t mind that so much and a blue pen works just fine – use whatever will support your self expression and interests in that moment. Then… write! Use your journal as your therapist and best friend all in one. It won’t talk back or question you! Journaling prompts can be found on my Pinterest board in case you need more structure and/or guidance!

Crafts

Crafts, in my humble opinion, are the best “productive” yet calming activities out there. I mean, think about it – you get a calming activity that leads to a finished product that you can frame, hang, wear, gift… There’s endless opportunities with crafts. This year, 2025, one of my goals is to learn to crochet and I want to make a granny square blanket by the end of the year! I challenge you to make a goal like this for yourself! Some ideas:

• Color a whole coloring book
• Paint a painting of __(insert your favorite thing/person/place)__
• Knit a multicolored sweater
• Build a doll house
• Paint __ paint by numbers
• Make a vision board
• Draw a portrait of ________

Time with Loved Ones

Emphasis on this one! Time with your loved ones (friends, family, whomever) is not only a good way to fill your time, but is important for your social and mental health. A few silly ideas for your get together:

• Board games (One of my favorites right now is Hitster, a music timeline game – fun to play with all ages!)
• Reading retreat
• Dance party
• Board night (this one seems so silly – gotta get my friends together to do this sometime soon)
• PowerPoint night

 

TATA lovelies <3