Watch the video above: Minna Rhee takes a look at the ‘social media detox.’
TORONTO – Do you spend too much time online? Actress Lisa Ray recently caused a stir online after saying she was going on a “social media detox.”
“Shutting down this FB account for a while,” she wrote. “Favouring our privacy and personal introspection above all else. Social media detox in order.”
Ray isn’t the only celebrity to restrict their use of social media – at least temporarily. Miley Cyrus and Jennifer Love Hewitt also attempted the feat but eventually returned to the Twitterverse.
Jordie McTavish is an admitted social media expert; she has four Instagram accounts, a LinkedIn profile, three Facebook accounts and a Twitter profile.
It’s the fear of fading away that keeps her online.
“I think that’s what the fear is, obscurity,” she said. “If you don’t exist online, who knows that you’re out there? And that’s scary.”
So should you take a detox? An American ad agency created a helpful infographic with their tongue firmly planted in cheek offering a few ways to spot if you need a detox. Do you speak in hashtags, do you fall into depression if your tweets aren’t re-tweeted enough or do you say ‘lol’ out loud? Well, you may need a detox.
But Tom Vassos, an instructor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management suggests, as with most things, moderation is key.
“I don’t recommend a social media detox,” he said. “I recommend people not getting so overwhelmed and addicted to it that they need to have one.”
For some people however, a detox may be necessary. American author Gabrielle Bernstein said she discovered a demand for a detox after staring blankly at her Twitter and Facebook feed waiting for feedback. But rather than going cold turkey, she did something different; she only used social media as a one-way street and spent all but a half hour a day for 30 days ignoring her audience.
“This thirty-day practice did me good,” she wrote in Forbes. “A month of daily repetition broke me of the obsessive pattern and enhanced my sense of self-worth. When I no longer cared about responses, I could spend more time focusing on sharing what I honestly felt rather than what I thought might get the most RTs.”
So do you think you need a detox? Tweet at @globalnewsto and let us know.
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