The Reason You Can't Quit Social Media Is the Reason You Should
- Jessica Globe
- Nov 20, 2025
- 5 min read
“I feel attacked,” my husband said wryly when I told him I was writing this article. “Tell me more about it.”
So I asked: “What keeps you on Instagram?”
“Getting booked for shows.”
“Is Instagram getting you bookings?” I asked.
“No.”
We have great reasons for staying on social media:
Connection
Business
Staying informed
Low-energy entertainment
Creative inspiration
But what if the very reason you can’t leave is actually showing you exactly why you should?
There may have been a time when social media did make those things better, but that time is over.
Staying Connected
The fear of losing my friends kept me on Facebook for years.
Social media promises connection. What it actually delivers is toxic comparison and surface-level relationships that leave you lonely.
Online relationships run on dopamine (the quick hit of validation), not oxytocin (the hormone that builds actual intimacy through physical presence and vulnerability). It’s why you can have 500 followers and still feel completely alone.
After finally deleting Facebook, I learned this: Being offline brought me closer to the people who matter most to me.
Without the option to lurk and like my friends’ posts, I became more intentional about phone calls and meeting for coffee. What required a little more effort created a lot more connection.
[Read the full article: How to Actually Stay Connected (Without Social Media) →]
Exhaustion
It’s the end of the day. You’re exhausted. Your head hurts, your body aches, and even cooking dinner sounds like too much work.
So you scroll. You want to do something else, but every other option feels impossible.
But what if the only thing that feels doable is actually making you more tired?
Interactive screens (phones, tablets, computers) disrupt sleep 4x more than television, create dopamine desensitization that makes everything else feel like too much effort, and come with withdrawal symptoms (anxiety, brain fog, compulsive urges) that keep you coming back for more.
You’re not lazy. The thing you’re using to cope with exhaustion is making you more fatigued.
[Read the full article: Why You Can’t Stop Scrolling When You’re Exhausted (And What To Do About It) →]
Staying Informed
It’s been 6 years since I stopped following the news. People assume I’m ignorant. Yet I’ve stayed in the loop about: COVID, the war in Ukraine, election results, hurricanes — even Musk’s son wiping boogers on the President’s desk.
Did I need to know about the boogers? No. But I heard about it.
Important information finds you. Through conversations, community discussions, and organic encounters. When something truly matters, you’ll hear about it multiple times without the manufactured urgency of news cycles.
The hidden benefit? Better discernment. When everything is urgent, nothing is. But when something consistently reaches you despite your filters, it’s worth investigating. When I kept hearing about Project 2025, I started reading it directly.
I’m actually better informed about issues I care about now. And I do something about it.
Constant news consumption keeps your prefrontal cortex offline. You can’t think critically when you’re afraid. By removing the onslaught, you can respond calmly instead of just reacting.
And misinformation travels faster on social media than truth anyway. So being social media “informed” isn’t that helpful.
[Read the full article: How to “Stay Informed” While Protecting Your Peace →]
Creative Inspiration & Momentum
It was my childhood dream to be an author. But instead of writing after I graduated college, I spent my evenings scrolling: saving prompts, watching author interviews, studying techniques.
It felt like progress. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t.
Research suggests that the right social networks can boost creativity when leveraged effectively. The problem is that social media algorithms aren’t trained to boost creativity; they’re trained to keep your eyeballs on the screen.
And even when social media does help you generate ideas, that same platform is why you can’t execute them.
Being inspired feels fabulous. Sitting down to write, or paint, or draw feels tedious in comparison.
We’ve forgotten how to be bored. How to wait for words to form. We can’t stand the silence. Or the waiting.
I finally became a published author after I spent a month away from social media. That was my first digital reset. Now I do one every year, and I help my clients do the same.
There’s nothing more satisfying than helping people create balance with technology, so they can achieve the goals they’ve been longing to achieve for years.
[Learn more about The Digital Freedom program here →]
I Need It for My Business
This one’s nuanced. If you’re making a livelihood from social media, I understand why leaving might not make sense.
But if you’re open to it, explore these questions:
How much time are you spending on social media “for work”?
How much of your business is actually coming from it?
Does that time investment align with the return?
When I became disenchanted with social media, I wanted to cut back, but told myself I couldn’t since I had a business account.
Then I got curious and took a look at the numbers:
I was spending 60% of my marketing hours creating content for social media. Yet, it generated less than 1% of my actual inquiries.
Business came from referrals, networking, relationship building, and higher-quality articles and emails.
Not only was it not giving me a decent ROI. It also wasn’t making me happy.
The “business use” was bleeding into my personal life. I’d tell myself I’d check real quick, then lose 30 minutes to mindless scrolling.
You might discover social media is fundamental to your strategy. That’s valuable to know! Or you might find, like I did, that it’s actually a distraction in your business.
Even if you ultimately decide to keep social media for business, there might be opportunities to create boundaries:
scheduling posts
hiring someone to handle more of the social media for you
removing apps from personal devices
focusing only on one or two platforms
limiting the amount of time you spend creating content
On social media, we are the product for sale. So it’s worth taking a look at how much social media is working for you vs. against you in business and in life.
Your Reasons Are Wise
You want to be connected. You want to be more creative. You want rest after a hard day. You want to build something meaningful.
Your underlying desire speaks to who you are and what you value.
The problem is that social media has convinced us it can meet those needs when, in fact, it’s designed to keep us seeking without ever being satisfied.
I’m not suggesting you should delete all your apps tonight. This is just planting the seeds that:
It is possible to thrive without social media.
You won’t miss out on the important stuff.
What’s common isn’t always what’s best.
Want to explore what it could look like to create boundaries with social media and focus on the desires and goals that matter most to you? Check out my Digital Freedom Program for 1:1 coaching support.
The best moments in life happen offline.
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