The Importance of Social Media Cleanses

Snapchat, BeReal and Instagram,. These apps have consumed us as a society. Social media, though revolutionary and very beneficial to those who made a career out of it, comes with countless downsides.

Spring Hill College junior Ronnie Bergeron recently took a two-week break from social media to reconnect with reality.

Social media has taken over in an unimaginable way causing people to need a cleanse to provide a drawback to reality and mental relief.

According to The University of Maine, nearly 5 billion people in this world utilize some type of social media platform. People spend hours of the day on mainstream apps such as TikTok,

Bergeron stated, “Taking a break from social media was one of the best decisions I have made for myself. I was not really aware of how much I needed it until I actually did it. Social media is a world of its own, and I think people forget there is a whole other world that existed well before social media took over.”

Like most things in life, sometimes you just need a break. These breaks can come in the form of taking time away from school and work, or maybe even taking a day away from people in general. Browsing social media is by no means physically draining, but it is severely mentally damaging.

“In all honesty, I was not expecting anything to come from this cleanse,” Bergeron added. “It wasn’t until I noticed a huge change in my everyday mental state that I realized how much I was benefiting from it.”

Bergeron was able to connect with his friends without a phone for the first time in a long time. He also noticed a huge change in the effort he was putting into school and work.

Social media, at times, can be a great outlet for people. It allows us to connect to the world in a whole new way. However, what started as a fun, refreshing place for people to share their lives, has now turned into a beacon for people to hate and bully behind a screen. With the amount of exposure the world has to social media, taking a hiatus is a necessary measure in which every member of society must partake for their own benefit.