I deleted all of the social media off my phone. It’s honestly great. But it sure as hell isn’t easy. 

Before I continue, I want to say sorry to anyone that has written me a DM that I haven’t gotten back to. I just don’t go on social all that much in general anymore, let alone respond to the DMs. As the cliche goes, it’s not you, it’s me. If you are looking to connect, here are the best ways to keep in touch →

Okay, housekeeping and apologies are out of the way. Let’s go into the blog now. 

The internet in general is designed to capture your attention. All day every day, your attention is being summoned by a notification here, a notification there, a headline, a ping, or whatever else is going on. 

With the world constantly trying to steal your attention, I wanted to take charge of my mind the best that I could. If I’m going to be distracted, it’s going to be on my own terms, not theirs. 

Once you take a step back and analyze how you’re spending your time on social - who you’re following and what you’re consuming - you start to realize something… 99% of the shit out there is just that… shit. 

There’s way more noise than signal out there on social. Sure, you might be following an influencer that adds value to you, but think about it for a minute - is value really being added or are you feeling like value is being added due to the person that you’re sharing? 

Be honest with yourself and say, “is what I’m consuming right now actually adding value to my life and moment, or am I tricking myself by saying it’s adding value?”

All of my reasoning is really around one core theme - simplifying your mind. The average person makes 35,000 decisions per day. That’s insane! Think about how much potential you are losing out on due to mental clarity. 

With so many decisions to make in a day, the last thing I want is to add more to the mix. I’m trying to simplify my life so I can put my energy and focus into the things that matter - social media is part of that decluttering process for me. 

God no. I actually love social media and the power that it brings to the world. It allows people to connect all over the globe in an instant. Arguably, it has brought the world closer together and bridged the separation gap with whom you can create a connection. 

Furthermore, it’s given more people than ever a voice. Whether that voice is worth amplifying is another conversation, but at least not you can have something to say and someone will read it. That’s really damn powerful and amazing if you ask me. 

I get this question a lot. If you looked at my social handles (Twitter specifically), you would think that I’m posting constantly. But really, I’m rarely posting directly to the platform. I use Buffer for all of my personal posts. I have Buffer connected to Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. So if you see my posting on social, there’s a 999999.99999% chance I was doing it via Buffer. 

This allows me to still share and “grow my audience” while not falling into the doom scroll trap. 

And I won’t be all high-and-mighty and let ya’ll think I’m perfect. I still visit social platforms on the desktop sometimes. But once you kick the main habit of it being on your phone, you start to not care as much about it - so it’s a net positive in the end. 

Never say never. In fact, since I first started this experiment of having a no-social phone back in October of 2022, I have installed and deleted Instagram and Twitter from my phone at least 3 times each. Each time, I start to realize all of the wasted time and potential for my day spent looking into the world through the black mirror that I get frustrated with myself and delete them again. 

Holy hell social is addicting. Especially when you find your tribe and interests that you like to connect with and stay informed about. But hey, if I have to choose between finding the mental headspace to dive deeper into my work or just scrolling surf videos on IG, I’m going to pick deep work and progress every time. 

Do you think you could delete all social media from your phone? Do you think you can be in control of your distractions and where your attention goes? If so, for how long? 1 week? 2? A year? Give it a try and let me know if your life is better off in a no-social world. 

- AJM