Dr. Vivek Murthy

I had this particular moment in 2022 when I was having hand surgery and I needed to recover for a couple of days, which meant I couldn't type as much.

And so two of my very close friends called me and said, hey, look, this is going to be a perfect time for you

to make some sort of shift in your life?

What have you been wanting to do that you haven't been able to do?

And I said, you know, honestly, getting off social media is one of those things.

So he said, okay, let's do it.

Let's make a commitment.

Yeah.

And it was so welcome.

But because of that, every time I like went to potentially click and check something, you know, I would remember, oh no, I got to check in with them on Friday and tell them how it's going.

Or they're going to just text me out of the blue and ask me how I'm doing.

So that actually kept me on it.

And I'll tell you that had a real

impact on me you realize how much time you're spending on these platforms it adds up the course of the day but the other thing is the impact it has on your mind right like our attention gets so fractioned and shattered if you will by social media being able to put that aside and sometimes just

take a deep breath, read something and focus on it, or have a conversation and not be pulled aside.

That was an important and a different experience.

Look, we didn't get into this challenge overnight of being addicted to social media and seeing all the negative effects it has on us.

And we may not get out of it overnight, but there are small steps we can start to take today.

And the important reason to do that is not just for us, but for those of us who have kids or grandkids,

It's to role model for them how to have a healthy relationship with technology.