Entering this New Year, I opted into finally removing myself from TikTok. For the past three months, I’ve been working towards this 2024 resolution and couldn’t be happier with my decision to do so! For many of you, this may sound impossible, but trust me when I say I was under the same impression the morning of January 1st. While I envisioned the resolution to slowly but surely go ignored towards the end of January, I’ve surprisingly navigated my way through the temptations of opening the app rather easily. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been quite the adjustment but it’s been a decision that’s altered my day-by-day life for the better. Here’s how I overcame my tendencies in trying to perfect my New Year’s resolutions, how I knew it was time I removed myself from the app, and what I’ve learned in the process!
My Tendencies in Deciding New Year’s Resolutions
While I’ve always aspired to be the type to intentionally decide my New Year’s resolution weeks before the New Year, I tend to be highly impulsive with these choices and make a mental list of what seems like five of the most unrealistic resolutions. At this point, I’ve come to accept that they almost always go without preparation and planning and are rather chosen simply because they’re the most challenging options that seem to come to mind first. Seriously speaking, one year I decided my resolution was going to be to eat absolutely no chocolate (and yes, this too was decided the night before the New Year). My favorite sweet treat has been and always will be, chocolate. How I thought I was going to accomplish that resolution without mistakenly having a single bite… I really have no idea. My absurd list of impulsive New Year’s resolutions over the years runs endless, but over time, I’ve grown to find them quite funny considering I hardly can make it past the month of January with them. Considering I’ve been competitive for what seems like my entire life, this actually comes as no real surprise to me that I get this way when it comes to resolution-making and even decision-making. Whether it be a competition or not, my mind will likely make it one even if it’s against my own self. It’s a blessing and a curse, but when it comes to taking on challenges like this, it’s a challenge in itself just entering the New Year knowing how high I set my expectations (without them even having been planned out). And, as you can imagine, I enter the New Year with the mindset that one minor slip-up deems the resolution pointless to continue attempting (literally the “all or nothing” mindset). For whatever reason I’ve always wished to have this singular perfect attempt at going cold turkey from New Year resolutions and/or habits. Even if the slip-up is made in just the beginning two weeks of setting the goal, I know myself well enough to know that I’ll without a doubt, give up on the resolution entirely. It’s almost as though I assume that failure to keep up with the resolution for what seems like an eternity, without mistakes or flaws, means I ruined my chances of executing the attempt perfectly. I’ve created some sort of self-sabotaging game out of resolutions and challenges without even realizing it but I’m happy to know that I’m currently hard at work trying to be more forgiving with myself and resolutions in this 2024 year.
The whole purpose of my decision upon this resolution was the challenge of bettering my day-to-day life. Something I have continued to remind myself throughout the process, however, is that my attempts at removing myself from TikTok will, of course, fail to be perfect. It has taken me time and time again to remind myself that my attempts at anything in life will fail to go without mistakes. I entered into the New Year well aware that I was inevitably going to open TikTok by accident or even be shown a TikTok or two off of a friend’s phone, and that was ok with me. It took me lowering my expectations at the start of the New Year to do this, as I knew not to expect I would be able to go without coming across at least a few. For most of us, these New Year’s resolutions are not meant to be easy but rather, to aim for slowly but surely achieving something difficult within the given year. Anytime I watch a TikTok sent to me I remind myself that anything is progress compared to where I was just a few short months ago. Rather than watching hours and hours of TikToks, I’ve managed to go the last three months having only watched a handful and for me, that’s something to be proud of!
How I Found a New Year’s Resolution Perfect for Me in 2024
Each year I tend to choose a New Year’s resolution that aims towards bettering either my physical health or mental health, so I knew I wanted to choose something that could encourage one or both of these areas. Unlike my past New Year’s resolutions, I entered this year rather excited and ready for the challenge I set out for. After years of following the same December 31st routine of scrambling to create a list of impossible resolutions, I had finally come to a point where the resolution fell into my hands and simply just made sense for where my mind was at almost all of 2023. Deleting Tiktok, and honestly all social media platforms in general, had been a thought that had crossed my mind for quite some time. I’ve always been inspired to take the initiative towards removing myself from the app but had never been serious enough about it to actually do it. 2024 seemed like the perfect place to start considering my lifestyle would soon be changing as I graduate in May and a big transition in life was soon coming my way.
Why I removed myself from all things Tiktok:
My overall perception of myself was poor: It begs no question that we’ve all likely been made to see ourselves poorly because of social media. I mean that’s one of the biggest downfalls to social media in general, especially speaking for our generation. From constant comparison to insecurities and jealousy, the consequences of social media are honestly endless. For me personally, I seemed to experience the same inevitable feelings almost anytime I logged onto the app (really any social media). I found myself paying way too much attention to the lives of people and influencers I would never know personally. I found myself routinely pointing out my inabilities and flaws while looking at the short three-minute lives of strangers who were only presenting the attractive and appealing sides of their lives. While I’ve been conscious of social media having this effect in glazing over what real life looks like to only point out mostly the good, it’s a constant battle trying to convince yourself of this when you’re an hour deep into looking at what appears like the most picture-perfect lives. Emotionally speaking I used the app as a means of almost avoiding my feelings as I could easily become distracted by its content. It enabled me to deal with and navigate my feelings as I would use TikTok to essentially forget the feeling. Simply put, social media to the extent I was using it, was growing more and more toxic for my mentality as I would essentially ignore or minimize my gifts in the process. It made the most sense that I removed myself from the toxicity so that I could be reminded of just how lucky I am to be me.
My screen time spent on Tiktok was embarrassing: For the past few years, I’ve begun seeing my social media screen time for more than just a daily number and weekly percentage. From the day I downloaded TikTok to the day I opted to remove myself from the app, my screen time spent specifically on TikTok had been embarrassingly high. While I was less concerned and worried about it at the time, I’ve only grown to be more and more irritated by it as I have come to see just how much of my life I have wasted away staring at a screen. Rather than being able to simply ignore the weekly screen time reports, I’ve found myself left with guilt and shame from having taken advantage of those hours of my life. Even if my day was filled with boredom, it still never felt good to me seeing that I spent hours and hours towards something that offered such little value to my life. I’ve grown to see just how precious and short life is, making spending half of my days consumed by a screen simply undesirable and of no further interest to me.
My productivity levels were at their lowest: TikTok was where I spent any available downtime between homework, studying, responsibilities, etc. Whether I had the time to spend hours straight on the app or not, I almost always exceeded the amount of time I originally sought out to take. I’ve always had a pretty tight and time-demanding work and school schedule, making time precious. I would, again, prioritize being on the app for hours at a time when I could’ve been spending the time towards getting ahead on school work and studying. I was constantly stressed for time as I would find myself unintentionally clicking on and off social media routinely throughout the day. I would have plans to be productive but would allow myself to get so consumed by the app that I wouldn’t even realize that two whole hours had already passed. Oftentimes I would catch myself endlessly scrolling without having even retained any of the content I had consumed. I knew I was taking advantage of my free time and only adding to my stresses by not allowing myself to take a legitimate break.
My time spent with loved ones was taken advantage of: Looking back more so to when I was in my earlier years of high school, I regret tremendously the amount of times I would essentially prioritize being on my phone over spending quality time with my family. I can’t even count the number of times I would be around family, endlessly scrolling and acting as though I was present and listening to the conversations around me. Now being in college and living on my own, I regret these times even more so because I wish so badly to re-experience those precious times with family. While it bothers me knowing just how much I made social media a priority, I’m grateful to see life from the perspective I do now so that I can make more of an effort towards being the present person I wish to be. Taking the initiative to remove myself from TikTok seemed like a step in the right direction for myself and my goals.
My life was brought no added value through consuming the app: Towards the end of 2023, my consumption of TikTok had come to a point where I finally began to see how little value it brought to my life. I was in constant denial of the downsides of TikTok because it gave me the entertainment I believed I needed and deserved. In reality, however, I received no real good through consuming the app’s never-ending content, as its cons towards my life seemed to always outweigh the pros. While I enjoyed the content for its entertainment, the downsides of the app towards my life were of more importance to me in prioritizing. Although it was spoken to me often, I finally grew to see the app and its entertainment for what it was. Simply put, in my personal life, it was becoming rather toxic and a waste of my time and energy. Now three months into tackling this resolution, I can confidently say that I honestly don’t miss the app. Each month I slowly but surely see how little attraction to the app I really have and how little I really care to have it back in my life.
I could talk about the downsides to social media all day, but again, this is personal to me because of the way my brain perceives it and the ways in which it personally makes me feel. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy social media or see its perks in life. For some people, it serves them and their lives greatly. For me personally, I simply am just reaching a point in life where my perspective, in general, has changed to see where and how I want to spend my time. Each day I view as precious and worth experiencing to the fullest, making time spent on social media less and less desirable for me. I’ll of course continue to use social media, however, it’s all about reducing just how much I’m using it in my day-by-day life. As cheesy as it sounds ,there’s a whole world of endless possibilities waiting to be seen by me in real time/real life that I would way rather experience. In just three short months, I’ve seen just how much removing myself from a singular social media platform has changed my lifestyle for the better, making me especially excited to see just where this process continues to take me in the months to come.