Do you do it for the gram a little too often?
We all know that social media has taken over the world (literally though), but do you ever realize how much it takes over your life? The dangerous game between you and scrolling through Instagram for “just 5 minutes” is not one to play at your 12 AM bedtime.
Toward the end of the quarter last spring, I noticed how much Instagram was controlling my life. The amount of times I picked up my phone and clicked on it when I was just scrolling five minutes ago was absolutely HORRENDOUS. I started becoming aware that I was only checking to see if certain people were on the app and clicking through stories just to be doing something even though Netflix was on in the background. I started asking myself, Why am I so attached to this app? How did it get this bad?
I remember in eighth grade when the app first came out, when people (including myself) started posting cringy edited pictures of quotes or cute family photos just to increase the number of likes. As time went on, we started to think of cute emojis to go with captions, then overthinking clever jokes to make sure people thought we were funny. (I’m looking at you, awful dad jokes and countless puns.)
So, I finally challenged myself this summer to get off of social media for 30 days. Just 30 days, and then I could re-download it. So of course, I started looking for the perfect picture to post letting other people know I was taking this break, and honestly? I had mixed feelings about this.
I’m always seeing people who post photos on their social media feed about taking a break or posting a story saying that you should contact them elsewhere because they’re deleting the app. Before I did my own, I thought all of that was ridiculous. I believed people were doing it for even more attention. In my mind, if you wanted to take a break, you should have just deleted the app; why let all of your followers know? But now I finally get it–it’s for accountability.
Do you know the amount of times I have deleted the Instagram app telling myself that I was going to take a social media break? So. Many. Times. And each time I never posted anything to anywhere because I thought it was unnecessary. This time I took an extremely different approach to the situation, which included some reflecting.
One of my best friends told me that she journaled about the reasons why she was taking a social media break before she even started it. I thought that this was a good idea, so I followed her words of wisdom and started journaling. Not only did I write down the reasons why I was taking a break, but also wrote down some ideas of what I would do instead of Instagram. Some of these included reading, writing, water coloring, cooking, spending time with friends, meditating, yoga, and going to the gym. I knew that the 30 minutes of scrolling on my couch could (and should) be made much more productive by doing other things that I love to do.
So after the journal entry, I posted the photo (and not going to lie–I looked at the amount of likes it had), then deleted the app. *Cue the dramatic music*
So let’s talk about post-social media life. Because WOW.
First few days: I won’t lie to you, the first few days were the hardest. And oh boy, as I write that, I really get to embrace the full meaning of first-world problems. I couldn’t tell you how many times I picked up my phone, did the exact number of swipes through my apps to get to where Instagram used to be, and then remembered that I didn’t have it anymore. So that was pretty much my first days of the break: picking up my phone a lot even though there wasn’t anything ‘on it’ anymore, trying to do the things I put on the replacement list in my journal, and honestly just being so bored even though I tried to do other things! It’s ridiculous. I know.
Rest of the 30 days: Honestly, after those first days, everything got better. I started to actually text or call my friends instead of DM them a funny post or snap them a good video of some stranger. I was opening the Camera app and recording my own memories instead of feeling the need to post it online with the right filter and colored font. I noticed that you also learn who you’re actually close to. With Snapchat and Instagram DMs now a days, I don’t think you ever really know the capacity of the friendship for your streak “friends” or the certain memes you send with that one person. I started texting, calling, and FaceTiming my friends, which is something that I definitely took for granted in the past. The 30 days went by quite quickly after the first-days struggle. It’s like Instagram had never even been there to begin with. And that’s the point, right?
Main Takeaways: If you don’t get anything else from this article, get this. You know when people go on any kind of social media break and they tell you that they feel “so much more present in their life”? See, I was the type of person to just politely smile when they told me but I never really understood what they meant. Sure, you can be more present in your life, but what does social media have to do with any of that?
Here’s the way I like to put it: when you take a break from social media, you’re not necessarily more present in your own life, but you’re less present in other people’s lives. So you know that one person from high school that you never really talked to, but you still follow each other on Instagram because you know of each other? And you know how you scroll through your feed and you like their stuff because they have a partner now and are going abroad soon and a really cute dog who pops up frequently on their stories? Well you get to be less present in that person’s life. A person who you shouldn’t be present with anyway since you’re not really friends, and a “social media relationship” isn’t really contributing to either of your lives. So you now get to choose what you would like to do with that time and “present-ness” that you’ve gained from being out of their life. And as an added bonus you get to choose which people you would like to be present with in your life. Game changer if you ask me.
So after my 30 days, I did re-download it. For literally 2 days. Then, I noticed that I couldn’t scroll anymore or even watch stories like I used because I didn’t feel good about it! I didn’t feel like I was wasting my time, but more so my energy that could be used for something much better for my soul. I re-deleted it (which is literally something I never thought I’d do) and now we’re here, officially free from the #doitforthegram life.
For all people out there who are thinking about a social media break or even for those who never thought they’d survive? Try it. You owe your mental and emotional health the chance. One week or one month, you’ll certainly be surprised by the results.