By Laura Johnson
Today we live in a world that is full of technology and our obsession with this technology blinds us to other important factors of life. I remember when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do was go outside and play. To my younger self, it didn’t matter if I was jumping on the trampoline, riding a bike, catching butterflies, or looking for four leaf clovers, as long as I wasn’t stuck in the house. I remember one of my first memories and it was getting caught in the rain outside when I was just a tiny tot and I made my daddy dance with me in the rain. I also remember my mom making me learn how to ride a bike. I skinned my knees so many times on our driveway, I never thought that I would get the hang of it, but I finally did. All of my favorite memories from my childhood are outside.
However, gradually as I got older technology started becoming a huge hit. We always had a tv, but now gameboys and PlayStations were coming in at their prime years. Yes, I did have those forms of technology and I loved them, but they never stopped me from going outside. Next thing I know I’m a freshman in college and I would rather scroll through my social media for hours on end than actually go for a walk. It was becoming a problem. I found myself never wanting to go outside unless it was to walk to class, I was becoming annoyed with tiny raindrops, and then one night I noticed that instead of studying for my exam I was checking all of my social media pages. What did I do? I decided to give it up.
I’m not catholic, but lent was only a few days away from starting and I decided that I would give it up for lent, as if that somehow justified to my friends what I was doing. The first week was HARD. I found myself constantly looking at my phone for no reason but to just stare at a blank screen. Then I started checking my emails every few minutes hoping for something interesting to come in. Around halfway into the second week I realized something. It was getting easier. I didn’t have the desire to be on my phone 24/7, I had more time to study, and when my fiancé would come over, I had more time to focus on just being there with him instead of being on my phone. When lent ended, I added all of my social media apps back to my phone, but only to find myself deleting them again because I wasn’t dependent on them anymore. Instead of grabbing my phone, I started reading novels again, and my grades improved significantly. So here are 8 things I realized during my social media detox.
1. I didn’t feel I need to have my phone on me all of the time. Actually, I was only on it when I needed to talk to someone through text or by calling them.
2. I found the time to get off of my couch and be more active. I went for walks, I started exercising, and I tried to study outside if at all possible.
3. The need to impress people faded. Many people say “I post for myself” but in all reality, no one really does. The reason we post pictures is to make our lives seem so much more interesting to people who don’t really know us. If that weren’t the case, then we wouldn’t spend an extended period of time choosing the perfect pose, caption, and filter.
4. I noticed a large time gap. I didn’t really realized how much time I spent on social media until I didn’t have it. I had make myself find things to do just to fill the gap in my day that took the place of my social media.
5. My grades improved. Instead of taking several study breaks to check my phone, I would just relax and fill the gaps with more studying. Also, I didn’t have to study as hard because I payed better attention during class, and took better notes without certain distractions.
6. My relationship improved. While my fiancé never deleted his social media, I saw a significant change in our relationship just by me deleting mine. We took more time to talk to each other and when we talked we payed attention instead of checking our snapchats and interrupting each other about funny things that other people were posting. We really reconnected.
7. I realized who my friends were. I stopped talking to a lot of people and didn’t really know what was going on with any one. I noticed that I had a few choiced friends stay in contact with me and we made a point to still care about what went on in each others lives without having to check Facebook, Snapchat, or Instagram to do so.
8. I was happier. I didn’t worry about if I was following all of the new fashion trends or if my pictures weren’t taken in just the right angle to make me look a size smaller. I just lived. I lived plainly and simply with people who really mattered to me. I learned to appreciate things that I had once loved again. I learned that you are more than what you try to be on social media. Now I’m not saying that everyone should go and delete ever account they have until the end of time. I’m saying, give it a shot. Let yourself learn more about who you really are by just shutting down everything for a little while. Realize lost pleasures and who your friends really are. Once you get past the first week it’s the easiest thing you’ll ever do and I promise it will help you in more ways than you think.