Why I ghosted social media in 2018
Let’s start with the big question…
Why did I ghost social media? Better yet… why did I ghost social media in 2018, when it was just about to boom?
I mention in my about page that the first few years of no social media presence ultimately lead to most people asking why I had decided to ditch the apps. I won’t lie, at the time it kind of annoyed me.
Why?
Well, firstly I felt like I couldn’t conjure up an answer that people wouldn’t laugh at. I always felt like peoples curiosity implied that I was unnecessarily resisting the social-norm in order to be different or interesting. And secondly, well… because it wasn’t actually for just one single concrete reason, so I found myself listing a bunch of reasons (half of which were obviously incomprehensible to some people) or simply saying “there’s a bunch of reasons” which made me feel like I was confirming that underlying assumption that I was just being a pain in the ass.
Instagram was my final social media straw which I deleted in 2018–when I was 22, maybe two or three years prior to that I had cleared my presence from Facebook and Snapchat.
Facebook was the easy one. It was around that time that Facebook was already beginning to feel outdated, overrun with ads and content that didn’t mean much to me. Thinking back, I think Instagram was on the cusp of becoming relitively addictive—maybe that’s why I didn’t actually start there.
Okay reasons the why, let’s start with the big one… body image ✨
Body Image:
I’m not sure who remembers this ‘instagram fitness’ boom as prominently as I do but holy shit, that time had me in a choke-hole. At the time I was a personal trainer (iconic I assure you), skinny af—probably 50kg of pure skin and bone, six pack, fluro Nike sports bras and an avid runner (according to my grid).
Honestly, my instagram page was probably the bane of other young girls existence, and you know what, I loved the way it looked as well.
But the problem was, my posts were never good enough.
It didn’t matter how skinny, strong, gorgeous I looked in my posts, I could always find another girl that was just better than me. That in itself was super difficult to manage, especially as a young women with a yet-to-develop frontal lobe. I can tell you right now, young women are not equip to deal with that level of constant self comparison and and criticism.
The next big one…
Time & Productivity… moreso the lack of it:
These days this seems like an obvious one, but remember we are talking 2018 which was pre many of the features designed to make social media addictive like infinite scrolls and algorithms serving content from all corners so the globe. Instagram was really just a feed of people you knew and followed… and at some point that feed would literally end, at which point you could exit the app and put your phone down.
But even before the insanely additive features flooded social media apps, spending time sifting through content, profiles and dog filters became a frustration. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was wasting time, that the time I was spending on a device wasn’t bringing me any benefit and I more often came away from it feeling disappointed in myself.
The third biggest reason was straight up mental health.
Mental Health:
I always felt like this one was the hardest to explain to people, not to mention at the time it was kind of private—which made me avoid talking about it all together.
The mental health toll that social media began to take on me was probably due to the combination of all the reason I moved away from it in the first place—body image, time & productivity and social status stats. I found it difficult to define what exactly was happening to my mental health, it was always hard to pin point exactly what was “wrong”, all I knew was something wasn’t right.
The list goes on.
In 2026, we are dealing with a mental health epidemic. Sure, this isn’t entirely the fault of social media but it plays a part in almost every case. Young people have the highest levels of anxiety and are more socially isolated and lonely than ever before, at for that… social media is responsible.
Right now, the world is watching on as Australia has become the first country to implement a total social media ban for kids under sixteen. Yep, it’s not going to fix anything yet, but it’s a great step in the right direction to help young people get through those super challenging adolescent years in one piece.
I’m so incredibly grateful that as a millennial I was able to experience a childhood without dependancy on handheld screens. In terms of tech, the most I had growing up was a flip phone and an iPod when I started high school. I can’t even begin to imagine the challenges that kids are facing on the daily with the level of tech they are exposed to in the school yard, as well as how incredibly treacherous this landscape is for parents trying to support their children through school in a time that none of us are equip to deal with.
My experience leaving social media permanently all those years is probably a vastly different experience to someone who opts to take the same route today, but the fundamental challenges and roadblocks are the same… social isolation, fomo, news, work ect. The goal of this blog is to share more about my journey and how I navigated these as well as how I continue to manage this lifestyle choice in my adult life.
If this blog can help one young person, one adult or one family then my work here is done.