The Year I Took Off Social Media: Intro

my accidental break from insta and the things I have learned along the way

Jul 13, 2024

I didn’t mean to take a year off of Instagram.

It began with a light-hearted New Year challenge from my sister-in-law. It unexpectedly has brought me full circle into a layer of innermost dwelling that I have found peace with, just from putting my phone down for a bit.

I will be posting a series of thoughts here on the break from social media and I look forward to diving into the crux of all of it; and the cause/effect so far. It will be broken down into parts since I think one long post will not cut it. After all, we are only halfway into the year.

First, some good old-fashioned prefacing!

1. I don’t want to push an agenda

I want to share my experiences thus far and hope to wrap up the year with a brief takeaway. I have thought of this as an experiment of sorts, so I will probably draw a conclusion for myself and there may be some pro/con lists thrown in there because that is how my brain works. You don’t need to take my advice or agree with the thoughts I put here! Also, it isn’t rocket science I might not have entirely new thoughts per se, but I hope they’re interesting anyway. I also will probably go back to it eventually, not to be a hypocrite but it is weird being out of the loop on some things, ya know.

2. I have wanted to be here for a while

I love that the long-form, old-school blog style of creative writing has returned with a new face through Substack. I follow several creators here that I have supported through the years and was interested in the return of authorship embraced by the online community again. I knew I wanted to join up here, as writing has re-entered my life again, which I will be sharing about very soon (wink-wink). This is a great way to exercise that part of ourselves creatively that gets to be open without needing to be perfect. With something to share- just a type, a post away, and voila.

Thank you for being here

I plan on posting on an as-I-go basis from this halfway point in the year. I will share my little thoughts as we go along.

Part One will contain the why behind the break and I will dive more into where this all came from there. I look forward to sharing my thoughts as well as the thoughts others have shared along the way.

Remember to be kind and stay present.