Cailin Riley Books

Shortly after having baby Milo, I made the somewhat hasty and crazy decision to get off social media nearly entirely.

As a marketing specialist, I’ve worked with social media for more than half of my lifetime. After years of handling various accounts professionally, I finally decided that I didn’t need to spend any more time on social in my time outside of work. So, away it went. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X…gone. I kept LinkedIn purely for networking purposes. (I was surprised by how hard it is to actually completely delete your accounts. Zuckerberg sure doesn’t want you exiting the Meta-sphere.)

The sudden silence of notifications and the extra brain space in my head was shocking. I remember thinking, have I not felt this peaceful since middle school, before Facebook became a thing?

I’ve begun to realize that when my head isn’t full of the noise and comparison that social media creates, I have a lot more room for creativity and peace. I was finally able to revisit a new book idea I had earlier this year and in the last month or so since I quit social media, I’ve randomly found myself drafting ideas for the book in the notes app on my phone. Before I knew it, I had enough notes to make up an entire chapter.

I won’t lie and say that getting off of social hasn’t had some interesting ramifications, though. For one, I quickly realized that I wouldn’t be as easily able to find community events and happenings to go to with my kid. For example, I already knew about our town’s Christmas parade because of a flyer I came across at a downtown restaurant. But if I hadn’t come across that flyer, I would have had no idea when it would have been. A new friend of mine invited me to a children’s events, but she had to share a screenshot of the info with me because I no longer could see it on Facebook.

But even if my life is a little bit more analog now, I don’t think I’m that much worse for it. I actually think it’s better for me to have to learn about things through people and flyers now. To have to ask around about community events, or check out signs and posters around town. It feels more engaging and real.

I honestly could go on and on about some of the other benefits I’ve experienced since I ditched social media, but a lot of it comes down to just feeling like I have more mental space. More space to be present with my newborn and husband, and to be fully engaged during family time. More space to pursue things that better my mind, such as reading, writing and going on nature walks.

I can’t say I won’t ever join another social platform again in the future. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all is how I find myself not really missing it at all. Something that had such a big presence in my life previously has kind of just…washed away.

It makes you wonder if it really was that important at all to begin with.

Have you ever considered quitting social media, or taking a break from it? How did it go?