Member-only story
I know this isn’t the first time you’ve heard that you should take a break from social media, and it won’t be the last. I also know every excuse in the book for not embarking on this oh-so-daring adventure that such an idea has become, because I’ve made them all.
I used to be someone who depended on social media for my livelihood. I’d advertise both my yoga classes and writing services on Insta and Facebook, and I found clients that way. When you’re someone who does use the platforms for such activities, social media can be a necessary evil. This can make it difficult to simply remove them from your life. I get it.
In 2019, I was traveling in a van through New Zealand with two strangers I’d met through Couchsurfing. I remember how well we got along, and how happy I was that they were such chill people — it really was a gamble jumping into a van with a couple of randoms, no matter how great their reviews on the CS app was.
But I did butt heads with one of them around the second week of our travels, right about when we’d made our way from the north island to the south. Why? Because as we sat down to have a beer at restaurant, having emerged from days of camping in the wilderness into sweet civilization, I was glued to my now Wi-Fi-blessed phone.
