Let’s face it, social media doesn’t feel fun anymore. TikTok, Instagram, and many other social media apps are designed to be addictive and pull away our focus. And I didn’t truly realize how deeply attached I was. I was starting to reflect on my 5 hours of screen time a day, and how I was spending it. After another day scrolling, I felt tired, isolated, and overall done. Muting accounts wasn’t enough. Just putting my phone down just made me feel like an addict as I waited to pick it back up.
I decided to delete Instagram first, because it was the app that gave me the most FOMO. How could it not? When you open the app, you sit down to relax, normally alone, and then you end up peering into windows of acquaintances and strangers’ perfectly curated lives, brimming with friends and interests and aestheticized adventures. It takes a toll on how you view your own raw un-curated life in that exact moment, as you compare it to another person’s highlighted moment they’ve decided to showcase.
The second I hit the glowing red Delete App button, after getting through the Are You Sure You Want To Delete’s, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. I found myself taking more pictures just for the sake of taking them, not mentally picturing how they might look on my feed. I was able to actually look around at my environment, smile at people passing by without my head craned towards my screen. I was finally reading more. I found that I was much more in tune with myself, calmer, and able to feel my body as I walked and breathed.
However, I kept TikTok, and YouTube. My conditions for TikTok, ever since January 1st, have been that if I want to be on the app and scroll, I have to post on it first. While this has made me more comfortable being on camera, and more interested in content creation as a hobby, it absolutely didn’t distract or minimize the additive pull of the app and the mind numbing content I was consuming. I tried justifying it by thinking of it as a creative outlet for posting. I also have time limits on all my social apps for around an hour, and 10 minute reminders. This still didn’t do much.
At this point I was on day 4 of being off Instagram, and on TikTok via my computer. I felt much better about the pressures of being perceived online taken off of me, but I knew I had to limit more of my social media use. I knew I had to find a concrete barrier of some kind. This is where my Brick (https://getbrick.app/?) came in. The Brick is a physical plastic block that you can tap with your phone to “brick”/lock it. It works as a screentime monitor as you put it somewhere out of reach, normally somewhere at home, and go about your day with the apps of your choosing being locked. I found that it helped me especially because of its physical aspect. Tap my phone to lock it, leave the Brick at home. Come home, unlock it, then re-brick it. I finally locked TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Obviously, you can be off your phone without getting a Brick. Your phone also has screentime limits available to set (I recommend setting a password, and forgetting it, or having a parent/someone very close to you control it for you.) Something else that really helped me limit my social media while still enjoying media on my phone was jumping back into things I actually enjoy doing, and installing the apps that apply to those interests. I began reading on Kindle, wrote random articles and prose on Substack, and rented books from my local library from Libby. I found more art inspiration on Pinterest, and actually wanted to draw and paint again. Being off the main apps (TikTok and Instagram), even just for a few days, also changed the way I viewed myself. We don’t realize it, but we subconsciously compare ourselves to those we see online, especially looks-wise. I started to feel more and more comfortable leaving the house without makeup, and felt much less anxiety about being perceived negatively.
I would highly recommend trying a social media detox, even if it’s just for one day. These 5 days have reintroduced me to the things I love, calmed my nervous system, and reignited my awareness of the world around me. If you want to see the world clearly again, try clicking the Delete App button today.