By: Kelly Skjerven
What would life without social media look like? Would we talk to each other more? Would we pay attention at the dinner table? Would we do better in school? Would we compare ourselves to others as much as we do now? These questions plagued me throughout a social media detox I decided to go on after I realized I was spending too much time on my phone.
I have a bit of a phone problem. I’m constantly on it, scrolling through multiple feeds trying to fill my boredom. If I’m not at work, or in a lecture chances are I’m probably on my phone. Before I go to bed I’m on my phone, when I wake up in the morning I’m on my phone. I recognize the problem and I’ve tried to do things in the past to break the habit. I’ll turn my phone off for an hour and focus on homework, or I’ll plug my phone in somewhere else other than near my bed before I go to sleep.
Both methods have helped but neither have really made a difference about how much time I spend on my phone. In my last article, I wrote about going on a social media detox to promote self care. So I decided to live up to my own words and challenge myself. On Thursday I began a social media detox where I intend to delete all my social media apps for a total of five days.
This screenshot shows how much time I was spending on each social media app on my phone in the past week. It was a bit of a wake up call to realize I was spending nearly 5 hours a week on Instagram.
We’ll see how it goes.
Thursday
I deleted all of my social media apps this morning. Throughout the day I was pulling out my phone and trying to find them, out of habit of course. Later at night, I went out with some friends. One of the weirdest things I ever experienced throughout this detox was going out and not snapchatting every tidbit of my evening. I was actually able to enjoy the night and not worry about sharing it with my followers.
Friday
I had nearly 8 hours of class on Friday and it was a bit of a challenge to not resort to social media when I was losing focus in class. This year I’ve done pretty well about not being on my phone during class, but occasionally it’s nice to take a break and check my social media. As a journalism student, I get most if not all of my news from twitter and facebook. I resorted to the news section on the homepage of my iPhone and even tried to read a hard copy of the paper.
I stayed in tonight and resorted to binge-watching netflix, but before that I read for about an hour.
Saturday
I went out again tonight and while others were on their phone checking Snapchat or Instagram I was refreshing my email. This was a little depressing, I will admit. But it made me wonder, what would a party be like without phones? Would we talk to someone we never met before? Would we drink as much as we usually do? Would we get up on a table and start dancing? I’m really not sure.
Sunday
Today was a bit of a lazy day. Unfortunately I caved and checked my facebook.
Monday
I finally got social media back today. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to go that long without it again, unless I’m stuck in the middle of the woods or something. I got a headache from staring at my screen for so long, trying to catch up on all the Halloween posts.
I’ve been back on social media for a few days now and I notice that besides from catching up, I rely on it a little less and for that I’m glad. I also don’t feel the need to post as much anymore, in fact I haven’t posted a story on Snapchat or Instagram yet. My followers probably appreciate that, like I mentioned before I am that person who posts almost everything in my day to day life. The most important lesson I learnt from this is to appreciate everything in my life—even the little things—without the constant need to post about it.
I have nothing against social media. As I mentioned earlier, I use it often. Too often perhaps. This detox helped me realize that I really don’t need social media as much as I think I do, and although I don’t think it will ever stop me from using it this detox has taught me to rely on it a little less and enjoy what life has to offer without feeling necessary to post about it.