With the recent news about a potential TikTok ban and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announcing the end of fact-checking on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads – not to mention the shenanigans happening over at the Site Formerly Known as Twitter – social media is changing rapidly before our very eyes.

For Millennials, we are the first real adopters of social media and have witnessed firsthand the evolution of this space from the very beginning. I still remember the day that I received an invite to join “The Facebook” from a high school friend of mine who was attending Northwestern when my college was added to their list of accepted schools. Ahhhh, the mid-aughts…a time of promise, of hope, of possibility.

The world – both the real one and its digital counterpart – has changed a lot since then. Instead of seeing posts from the groups and people you follow on Instagram and Facebook, it’s mostly ads and promotional posts. For my former day job in PR, Twitter used to be a great source to locate journalists that I couldn’t find in the media database we paid way too much money for – now many are fleeing the site, and I can’t say I blame them.

With all of these changes – many of them not for the better – maybe it’s time that Millennials take a social media cleanse to maintain our collective sanity. Not sure how to accomplish a cleanse? Well, below are a few ideas.

Deactivate Your Social Media Accounts

A way to still keep a toe in the social media world without totally going nuclear is to deactivate your social media accounts and stay off of them for a month or more. That way when you’re ready to re-enter the fray, you more or less can log back on and pick up right where you left off.

Look Into Alternative Social Media Options

Want to stay connected with friends and family but without all of the ads/promotions/non-fact checking getting in the way? Consider signing up for alternative social media platforms instead. One option is Bluesky, which is basically what Twitter used to be before a certain billionaire purchased and totally fucked it up changed it. If the upcoming potential demise of TikTok has you down, CoverStar is touted as a “safer” U.S.-based alternative.

Delete and Go Cold Turkey

And then there’s the option where you can just go totally nuclear and delete all of your social media accounts – forever. There will be relief. There will be withdrawal. You’ll have to figure out other ways to contact family and friends you want to keep in touch with – like email or texting. You also may need to rediscover what’s going on in the Real World. Remember that?! Just know that once you go this route, if you come crawling back to Social Media Land, you’ll have to recreate your entire online presence – from scratch.

No matter what you decide to do about your social media presence, go with what feels best for you…because you’re the one who has to live with it! Now please excuse me while I log off of Facebook and Instagram for a well-earned break from all of the madness. Which is way more doable than a juice cleanse, IMO.