Hi friend,
Welcome to another long-form edition of Social Media Detox!
Today, we’re discussing the issue that spawned this newsletter: how to unplug and protect your mental health while working a career in social media or digital marketing.
Most advice on addressing burnout tells you to turn off your notifications or take time away from your phone. But that’s unrealistic and unhelpful for most people, like us, who make our living on the internet.
In this issue, I’m sharing a few tweaks and tips that help me prioritize my mental health while maintaining my (very online) job.
with warmth + love,
N
Society loves to oversimplify solutions.
Burnt out? Take some time off. Feeling exhausted? Get some sleep. Obsessed with doomscrolling? Get off social media. As if it were as easy as simply deciding to do the opposite of what’s making you feel bad.
The reality is much more nuanced than that.
You can be burnt out and still have to show up to your challenging job. You can be exhausted while still having to maintain your lifestyle. You can recognize that social media is tough on your mental health while still working in a social media-centric job.
When I realized how burnt out I had become from working long hours in social media and digital marketing jobs, I immediately felt defeated. All the self-help articles tell you to unplug from social media to prioritize your mental health—turn off notifications, delete your account, touch some grass. Ignore the fact that you make your living from social media and have bills to pay because you need to get mental clarity, and this is surely the only way to do it.
Well, I call bullshit.
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