Since the dawn of Facebook, people have increasingly become more and more addicted to social media. So much so that new platforms such as Instagram, snap chat, Reddit, and Twitter have been introduced. In the constant race to be the best social media platform, people have unknowingly submitted a large portion of their lives.
Over the course of a year, I increasingly got tired of not having enough time in the day or being addicted to my phone. My solution was to wean myself off of social media. Today, my accounts are still active, but I no longer have the means to access them through my phone, nor the need to constantly have it at my fingertips. There were three social media apps that I regularly used, over the course of a year I deleted them in order of how much time I spent on them.
To start off, I deleted the app I spent the least amount of time on, Facebook. This one was easy. Facebook these days is outdated and littered with hateful politics. I never had the urge to re-download it nor to log on using my web browser. Now, doing this first step didn’t automatically give me more time in the day, I still had a long way to go. But this step still ended up being the one that opened the door to my eventual annoyance over social media.
The next step happened about 6 months later. I deleted my Instagram app. Because my Instagram is a photography account and not a personal one, I needed an alternative to keep my business going. So, I downloaded the app on my computer, however, because it’s inconvenient to use, I open it maybe once a week. However, I did see a difference in the amount of time I had in the day pretty quickly. I quickly got bored because I couldn’t spend hours mindlessly scrolling on snap chat like I could on Instagram. To fill that time, I started spending more time studying and spending time with friends.
I spent less time on my phone and quickly started to notice how often other people spend time on their phones. It even started to slightly bother me to see people ignoring their immediate environment to be on their phone. This annoyance led to my sudden decision to execute the final step.
I deleted the snap chat app out of spite at being mad at it. And I will admit that I regretted my sudden actions. But I didn’t remember my log in information and took that as a sign that I made the right decision. Deleting Snap chat was the hardest to do of all three apps; I was so addicted to watching videos and reading articles on snap chat. I kept up my streaks and subscribed to everything that was of interest to me. As snap chat became more user-friendly in the few months before deleting it, it became more and more addicting. In the following weeks, I found myself looking at my phone expecting a notification or accidentally clicking on the app that is now in the place snap chat used to be. Instead of keeping up a streak, I had to text people, and it was no longer a text conversation but more of a plan to meet in person to have a conversation.
It has now been less than two months since I deleted the last social media app I had on my phone. All I have to say is that it was a fantastic decision. I went from having no time in the day to have so much time that I started doing more art, studying even more and spending valuable time with my friends. Stopping my use of social media has not only given me more time in the day but it has also brought me closer to the people I care about.