Have you reached that point where social media is just too much for you?
 
We believe everyone has or have been or will eventually go through this phase. With millions and billions of people online (plus the dummy or bot accounts), social media is bombarded with content. No amount of filters would work. However you find a way to avoid people or content, it will somehow find its way into your timeline.
 
Plus, (and let’s admit it) there’s a lot of negativity online, too. Going through your feed is just one stressful task. You need to de-stress. Or better yet, detoxify.
 
If you’re not sure how to do it, we’ll give you a bit of a guide to follow.
 

Filter People and Pages

 
They said it’s rude to unfriend; only do so when it’s really needed. That’s exactly true since Facebook have other features that won’t resort you to such a heartless move.
 
Filtering people is like filtering your news feed. Are you tired of a friend’s constant selfies? Or that page or business you started not to like because of its political or social views? These are a few things that stress us out when we open our social media accounts.
 
Weeding them out could be as simple as ‘unliking’ them. Head over to your left-side menu and click on Pages. Go through all the pages you liked and start unliking those that you haven’t posted for quite some time now, those pages that you don’t need to follow anymore, and those you don’t want to see posts from anymore. Also, if you’re into doing those fun, random tests and all, you might want to unlike them, too.
 
Then, you can move forward to your friend’s list. Again, it’s not necessary to unfriend or block them. Well, not just yet.
 
You can start off by snoozing them. The Facebook Snooze feature allows you to mute a certain page or friend for just a given amount of time. If this doesn’t work well for you, you can just unfollow that friend. Unfollowing someone would mean not being able to see his posts, but you remain friends and could send messages to each other.
 
But if it gets to that point where a person keeps sending you spammy, offensive, or threatening messages, better report the person to Facebook and block him.
 
As for Twitter and Instagram, your only choice is really to unfollow.
 

Take it One at a Time

 
Going on a social media detox doesn’t mean that you’ll get out of it right away. Simply take it one social media at a time.
 
Choose which social media you feel is more toxic. Then, work on it. Be it by unfollowing people or business pages or going on a hiatus for a bit.
 
It’s never too bad to deactivate for a bit. It would rid you out of all the negativity and steer your attention towards more important things. And if you’re worried about getting in touch with family and friends, Facebook can deactivate your account but still allow you to send messages through the Messenger app.
 

Don’t Participate

 
Sometimes, what brings the toxic social media world in is you. Your mere participation in any conversation, thread, or heated argument just attracts you to it even more.
 
No matter how tempting it is and how your inner rebel wants to comment or reply, stop. Simply do not participate in any discussion. It entails a lot of control and discipline to do so, but you’ll feel tons lighter when you don’t engage in an argument on social media.
 
Plus, better spare yourself some rage because you’ll never know that you’re only talking to some bot or fake account to troll you.
 

Abstain

 
Abstaining from social media is all the previous steps put into one. It’s filtering pages and people, deactivating, and not participating.
 To abstain from social media, you also need to take it one day at a time. There would always be hesitation or withdrawal. There would always be that annoying and tempting voice in your head that you can’t do it.
 
Actually, you can.
 
Yet, in abstaining from social media, you would need to divert your time and attention to something else. Spend some time reading books, or with your friends. Go on a trip, relax by the beach or go on a camping trip. Find ways that would make you stay out of your phone. Then, you’re on to the last step… disconnecting.
 

Disconnect

 
When we had internet, we had the power to stay connected with people – and that’s the beauty of it. Lost connections have been rekindled. Friends and relatives that have grown apart are suddenly closer. But sometimes, when it gets too near, it just starts to wear out the magic.
 
So, disconnect.
 
Stay away from the internet. It doesn’t need to be for the rest of your life, but it has to be for quite a while. Appreciate the beauty of things you can do without the internet, technology, or media.
 It is difficult and it’s easy to give in to temptation and just give up on going on a detox. But if you gather all your willpower to make it through a day, a week, or a month, you’ll soon realize that it’s refreshing to be away from all the chaos in social media.
 
And when you’re ready to go back – be it because you miss the updates from your friends or you just really have to, you have a renewed sense of being connected and online.