Are you distracted by social media? Some people are taking extreme measures to focus on their life by getting rid of their social accounts all together.
Heather McKay is one of those people.
Not too long ago, she was hooked on social.
No, like really hooked.
Like addicted.
"Every day, probably 22 hours a day, business and personal" she says, standing on a dock overlooking beautiful Heritage Harbour Lake. Her sleep suffered, her relationship with her young children suffered.
"A computer at work, laptop on the road, phone, computer at home, it was everywhere...I noticed I was really starting to feel worse, day by day by day, as I spent all this time on there."
The single mother of two couldn't look away -- even when her kids begged her to -- and yet she bemoaned the "toxicity" of political brouhahas.
She also didn't like false portrayals of perfect "relationships and families. I've seen things where a husband or a wife will go on Facebook and praise how perfect the other is -- but we know they're really not." Social media had become "depressing. It took me awhile to figure that out."
So four months ago, she quit. She didn't need social for work anymore. And as for personal? Good riddance. Boom. Done. Cold turkey. Her friends drove her crazy, wondering why she quit, where she was. "Some asked, "Are you dead?!'" No matter: She started filling the time she'd normally be on social media by jogging around Heritage Harbour Lake.
"It's been awesome," Heather says. "I have been re-exploring myself, re-inventing myself. I read a lot more now, spend a lot more time with my children."
She's not alone. It was recently reported that more than 60 percent of teens now take long breaks from social media. Heather believes the only way to stop is to delete all those social apps from phones, computers, tablets -- just quit it all. "I think cold turkey is best," she says, "because if you do a little at a time, you'll feel yourself getting sucked back in."
