Mohamad-Ali Salloum is a Pharmacist and science writer. He loves simplifying science to the general public and healthcare students through words and illustrations. When he's not working, you can usually find him in the gym, reading a book, or learning a new skill.
Detox from social media: 1-month Report
Mohamad Ali Salloum, PharmD • November 25, 2022
Share
In October 2022, I deleted all my social media accounts (except for YouTube and LinkedIn). I realized how much social media can take from our time without us even noticing it. It’s not just the time that it’s taking from us. It’s also our attention, willpower, happiness, contentment, and a lot of other things.
I did a video a month ago to announce this, you can watch it HERE…
AND TODAY is the monthly report time :D
The first week, I felt like the background noise that I did not notice I had earlier is quiet now. You just feel peace of mind. You might tell me that you can control yourself and not scroll through these apps. But once you uninstall them, you will know what I am talking about.
Feeling peaceful was not the only advantage, but also my sleep schedule became better and even my quality of sleep became better. (it’s also proved in research, read this article: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem)1
For work, this month was the busiest one I’ve ever had. I will not be able to disclose anything, but it was SURELY one of the busiest months.
And during this month, I was able to shoot around 7 videos and edit them. Not just that, I was able to draft more than 25 articles. Those articles yet need to be finalized, but to know the magnitude of this achievement for me, the maximum number of articles I've written in 1 month is 5 articles. When I finish these articles, you can read them on my website/blog.
As humans are programmed, we are always in a state of comparing. In terms of social media, we are very good at comparing ourselves with the people we follow on social media platforms. When you see people living their lives, traveling the world, while making 6 figures, you start wondering where your life went wrong. Why NOT ME?
This is a normal human thinking process as we always want the best for ourselves. Comparing is a mechanism used by our brains to calibrate the baseline of where we are in our lives. And this comparing technique can make you work more on yourself when you look up to the correct people (and not to random social media influencers who got famous for random reasons).
BUT, this technique can lead to:
- More Anxiety, because you will feel that you are not achieving anything in life.
- Less Self-Satisfaction, because you will always compare your bank account (in Lebanon it is a home account 😊) with the social media millionaires. It’s not just the money, but also the lifestyle. Like, why you are such a brokie working from 9 to 5 job (sometimes even more) to just have a salary that will vanish before the end of the month. Not to mention that you need to do a whole year saving for a 1-week vacation. Quite frustrating, right?
Scrolling through these addictive platforms will also drain your energy. The science behind this is that going through social media will expose your brain to different types of emotions as different types of posts will appear on your page. These posts, reels, or TikTok videos will acutely change your mood from laughter to sadness, hope to hopelessness, and a lot of other emotions.
This rollercoaster of emotions will drain your energy and once you stop scrolling (after like an hour) and get back to reality, you will feel that you have no energy to work or are not enthusiastic to do anything.
Regarding sports, because I had better sleep and was able to re-establish my sleep pattern, I had more energy during the day, and I exploited this energy in doing sports.
For example, I started to learn calisthenics to enhance my core strength and started doing more cardio.
So briefly speaking, when I started to consume less internet content, I started to create and produce more content. Not only that, but it also reflected on other aspects of my life (sleep, energy, and sports). This gives you a real sense of satisfaction and happiness!! (not like the fake dopamine you get from social media)
This was the brief of my first month!
I wish many of you who are reading this are motivated enough to start the journey alongside me.
I know all of you have some dreams to accomplish but are not able to start from anywhere. By enhancing your lifestyle and arranging your time throughout the day, you will be able to start working on your dreams.
Working on your dreams will give you more sense of fulfillment in life and contentment. You will feel satisfied and not just go through life passively. AND THIS IS THE BEST FEELING YOU WILL EVER FEEL.
I’m ready to hear all your success stories and how following this lifestyle changed your life for the better! You can connect with me through this link: https://dopaproductions.com/contact-us
Meet you guys in the 2nd monthly progress article :D
You can also watch the video I did about my 1-month progress after the Social Media Detox.
Resources:
1) Woods HC, Scott H. #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. J Adolesc. 2016 Aug;51:41-9. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008. Epub 2016 Jun 10. PMID: 27294324.
List of Services
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mohamad-Ali Salloum, PharmD
Share
Recent articles:
References: Gooley JJ, Chamberlain K, Smith KA, et al. Exposure to room light before bedtime suppresses melatonin onset and shortens melatonin duration in humans. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011;96(3):E463‑E472. [academic.oup.com] Chang AM, Aeschbach D, Duffy JF, Czeisler CA. Evening use of light‑emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next‑morning alertness. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015;112(4):1232‑1237. [hms.harvard.edu] Schöllhorn I, Stefani O, Lucas RJ, et al. Melanopic irradiance defines the impact of evening display light on sleep latency, melatonin and alertness. Commun Biol. 2023;6:1090. [nature.com] He J‑W, Tu Z‑H, Xiao L, Su T, Tang Y‑X. Effect of restricting bedtime mobile phone use on sleep, arousal, mood, and working memory: A randomized pilot trial. PLoS One. 2020;15(2):e0228756. [journals.plos.org] Hartstein LE, Mathew GM, Reichenberger DA, et al. The impact of screen use on sleep health across the lifespan: a National Sleep Foundation consensus statement. Sleep Health. 2024;10(4):373‑384. [sleephealt…ournal.org] Höhn C, Hahn MA, Gruber G, et al. Effects of evening smartphone use on sleep and declarative memory consolidation in male adolescents and young adults. Brain Commun. 2024;6(3):fcae173. Finucane E, O’Brien A, Treweek S, et al. Does reading a book in bed make a difference to sleep? The People’s Trial—an online, pragmatic randomized trial. Trials. 2021;22:873. [link.springer.com] Ong JC, Manber R, Segal Z, Xia Y, Shapiro S, Wyatt JK. A randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation for chronic insomnia. Sleep. 2014;37(9):1553‑1563. [academic.oup.com] , [mindfulchair.com] He X, Pan B, Ma N, et al. The association of screen time and the risk of sleep outcomes: a systematic review and meta‑analysis. Front Psychiatry. 2025;16:1640263. Shechter A, Quispe KA, Mizhquiri Barbecho JS, et al. Interventions to reduce short‑wavelength light at night and their effects on sleep: systematic review and meta‑analysis. SLEEP Advances. 2020;1(1):zpaa002. [academic.oup.com]
References: Harkin B, Webb TL, Chang BPI, Prestwich A, Conner M, Kellar I, et al. Does monitoring goal progress promote goal attainment? A meta-analysis of the experimental evidence. Psychol Bull . 2016;142(2):198–229. Available from: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000025.pdf Compernolle S, DeSmet A, Poppe L, Crombez G, De Bourdeaudhuij I, Cardon G, et al. Effectiveness of interventions using self-monitoring to reduce sedentary behavior in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act . 2019;16(1):63. Available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12966-019-0824-3 Patel ML, Brooks TL, Bennett GG. Consistent self‑monitoring in a commercial app‑based intervention for weight loss: results from a randomized trial. J Behav Med . 2020;43:391–401. Available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10865-019-00091-8 Patel ML, Hopkins CM, Brooks TL, Bennett GG. Comparing self-monitoring strategies for weight loss in a smartphone app: randomized controlled trial. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth . 2019;7(2):e12209. Available from: https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/2/e12209/ Lally P, Van Jaarsveld CHM, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. Eur J Soc Psychol . 2010;40(6):998–1009. Available from: https://repositorio.ispa.pt/bitstream/10400.12/3364/1/IJSP_998-1009.pdf Singh B, Murphy A, Maher C, Smith AE. Time to form a habit: A systematic review and meta-analysis of health behaviour habit formation and its determinants. Healthcare (Basel) . 2024;12(23):2488. Available from: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/12/23/2488 Gollwitzer PM, Sheeran P. Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta‑analysis of effects and processes. In: Advances in Experimental Social Psychology . 2006;38:69–119. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/37367696 Adriaanse MA, Gollwitzer PM, De Ridder DTD, De Wit JBF, Kroese FM. Breaking habits with implementation intentions: A test of underlying processes. Pers Soc Psychol Bull . 2011;37(4):502–13. Available from: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/380229/0146167211399102.pdf Palmer CA, Bower JL, Cho KW, Clementi MA, Lau S, Oosterhoff B, et al. Sleep loss and emotion: A systematic review and meta-analysis of over 50 years of experimental research. Psychol Bull . 2023;149(11):2314–48. Available from: https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000410.pdf Kong Y, Yu B, Guan G, Wang Y, He H. Effects of sleep deprivation on sports performance and perceived exertion in athletes and non-athletes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Physiol . 2025;16:1544286. Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2025.1544286/full Tadros M, Newby JM, Li S, Werner‑Seidler A. Psychological treatments to improve sleep quality in university students: systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One . 2025;20(2):e0317125. Available from: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0317125 Locke EA, Latham GP. Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35‑year odyssey. Am Psychol . 2002;57(9):705–17. Available from: https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/s-spire/documents/PD.locke-and-latham-retrospective_Paper.pdf
Reference: ACRP. “ICH E6(R2) to ICH E6(R3) Comparison.” (Jan 28, 2025) — terminology & essential records: PDF Clinical Trials Toolkit. “Summary of Key Changes in ICH E6(R3).” (Mar 25, 2025) — proportionality, QbD, safety reporting: Article PharmaEduCenter. “Key changes between ICH GCP E6 R3 and E6 R2.” (Aug 10, 2025) — structure & glossary: Blog CITI Program. “Navigating the Transition from ICH E6(R2) to ICH E6(R3).” (Mar 12, 2025) — consent & site practices: Blog IntuitionLabs. “ICH E6 (R3) Explained.” (Updated Jan 13, 2026) — rationale, data governance: Deep dive
Simplify your day with essentialism: set priorities, eliminate the non‑essential, time‑block deep work, and measure progress for stress‑free productivity.
A runner’s guide to VO₂ max: why plateaus happen and how to fix them with long intervals, tempo, hills, cross‑training and smart periodization.
Explore the science of cognitive dissonance and learn how attitude change occurs, why dissonance matters, and what recent brain studies reveal about decision-making and self-control.
Discover the science behind willpower and impulse control. Explore Dr. David Lewis’s “zombie brain” model, the ego depletion controversy, glucose myths, and evidence-based strategies like the 3-second pause, mindfulness, and environmental design to build lasting self-control.
Explore evidence-based insights into ACE inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and ARBs for hypertension management.
Discover the latest scientific evidence (2022–2025) on Branched-Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs)—their role in muscle recovery, performance enhancement, and safety.