Thomas Rhett has been taking regular breaks from social media, and trying to spend less time on all of the various platforms, and he says, “It’s been kind of a game changer for me, for sure. I mean, I’ve technically been on social media since I was 18, 19 years old, when Twitter first started or Instagram first started.”
Thomas is 31 now, and he says, “In the beginning of that there’s not a whole lot of things to really worry about. You’ve got 20 followers or whatever it is, and so whatever you say it’s basically like you’re telling your 20 closest friends what happened to you today. But as you start to kind of grow that following, I think just a little bit of unnecessary pressure may come into your life.”
For instance, Thomas says he was getting way too focused on the response or lack of response he would receive to things he posted. “You post a song that you thought was great, and then maybe it doesn’t translate like you wanted it to,” TR explains, “and all of a sudden you’re taking all that feedback and you’re going, ‘Well, maybe it wasn’t great.’ It just kinda started gettin’ to me a little bit, and I read a couple books about how to, not even distance yourself from social media, but distance yourself from your phone in general.”
He started putting some of what he’d been reading into practice, not only for his own peace of mind, but also for his family. Thomas says, “I think having four kids, I really don’t want my kids to grow up being like, ‘My daddy was always on his cell phone.’ And so, it’s been really healthy for me to do that, and more so for me was just to be way more present in the household. My wife even noticed how much more present of a human I am and how much more engaged I am in conversation and all that kind of stuff.
Thomas has been able to enjoy another cool side effect from not being on social media a whole lot. He says, “It’s also fun to find things out. Like, if you know when all your friends are pregnant or somebody’s getting married or this or that, when you see ‘em, you’re like, ‘Hey, congrats.’ Instead of them being like, ‘Hey, I’ve gotta tell you something. We’re pregnant!’ And all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh! That’s amazing!’”
Rather than spending endless amounts of time scrolling on his phone and finding out what all of his friends are up to, TR says, “I think it just makes sweet moments way sweeter when you don’t have the knowledge of everything that’s happening to everybody.”
Being off social media or cutting way back on the amount of time he spends focusing on it has been such a positive thing for him, Thomas says, “I think everybody should try it.”
