Breaking free from Social Media: My journey to better living

Earlier this year, I decided to take a break from social media for several reasons. Firstly, it was taking up a significant amount of my time that could have been better spent on self-development, and spending time with family and friends. Secondly, it was impacting my mental health in a negative way. Sometimes, I would experience FOMO (fear of missing out) and other times I would come across information that didn't benefit me in any way. So, I removed almost all social media apps from my phone but kept LinkedIn because it helps me maintain my professional profile. I also paid for a premium subscription for the whole year, so I wanted to make use of it.

Since then, staying away from social media has greatly improved my productivity and overall quality of life. I started building my own website and blogging. I spent a little bit of time each day designing and making changes to the site. Once I felt it was good enough, I started blogging. Although it isn't an everyday activity for me (I don't want to stress over the idea of having to write daily, I just want to enjoy it) and I'm not yet very good at writing, I can feel my writing getting better. I hope it will be much better in a year's time if I keep up with this hobby. So, giving up social media in favour of having my own website has definitely been worth it.

Besides, I spend more time on better things. Reading is one of them. What I have been reading includes "A Brief History of Time". Yes, I read a physics book which I thought I might not be able to comprehend since most of my knowledge about physics has faded away right after I finished my university entrance exams about 14 years ago. I'm just halfway through the book though, but I am absolutely enjoying every page. "In Praise of Idleness" - I've only read the main essay, but it conveys interesting ideas about how idleness can positively improve people's quality of life as well as social equality. "Software Engineer at Google" - finally, a good book about software engineering (kudos to my mentor Tim Sawtell who told me about this book and encouraged me to share what I have learnt about unit testing to a wider audience, which I am still progressing with my presentation). I don't think I can list all of my in-progress books since I have quite a few of them. However, it's totally fine as long as I feel enjoyment when reading different ones.

I have been spending more time on learning through Udemy courses, and my favorite so far this year has been a course on NestJS. I really enjoy NestJS because it allows me to use TypeScript as a backend framework. I have been moving towards backend work since joining my new team in May, and it has been an exciting learning experience. Sometimes, my imposter syndrome tells me that I don't belong on a team with such excellent developers, but I remind myself to keep learning and doing my best. Backend work is like a rose to me - it is beautiful but can have its challenges, and I need to learn how to handle them carefully.

Cooking has become more enjoyable for me lately. I can't say that I'm spending more time on it, but I'm certainly enjoying it more. I believe cooking can be a great way to relax, as I can focus on the process rather than just the end result.

In the future, I hope to do more exercising. I used to attend Pilates classes and really enjoyed them, but the class was a 20-minute walk from my home, so the time spent going back and forth plus the class itself added up to about 1.5 hours. Once I settle into a new place in November, I plan to start exercising again and following a healthier nutrition plan. My goal is to be a healthy and happy individual both at home and at work.

Breaking away from social media has been a great detox for my mental health and has helped me focus on what truly matters in my life. It's definitely one of my highlights for 2022.