There are many things that I love about Instagram. After a long day, I love laying in bed, drinking tea, and scrolling through Instagram for an hour or two before I fall asleep. I like being able to keep up with my friends who go to different colleges and gawking over the Kardashian’s latest posts.
If only I could limit myself to one or two hours on Instagram before bed, my life would be much more productive. Instead, I find myself constantly refreshing my feed. While I am doing homework, I finish one simple task and yet again, I find myself checking Instagram. I could easily spend all day on “the gram”.
So when I decided to spend a week off Instagram I knew that it would not be easy for me. At the beginning of the week, I had strong urge to redownload the app, but as the week went on I noticed some extreme benefits of living life without my Instagram.
1) I realized that I actually have free time?!?
During the week I have a busy schedule consisting of classes, work, clubs, homework, the gym, and anything else that comes up. Usually, I find myself desperate for more hours in the day. But this week was different, I found myself with so much more free time. Without spending hours on Instagram, I was so much more productive while I did my work, and had a few hours to relax at the end of the day.
2) I am more focused on myself.
Without constantly seeing the faces of people I know or wish that I knew (lol) on Instagram, I am so much more focused on myself and my own goals instead of what everyone else is doing. I am thinking about what I need to do in the next few weeks to get ready for finals and how I can make the most of my freshman year of college before it is over.
3) I stopped comparing myself to others.
While scrolling through my feed, I constantly would compare myself to others. Wishing I was as pretty as someone else, as happy as someone else, and was doing the amazing things that some of the people I follow do. It almost becomes a competition of who can get the most likes, look the happiest, and live their “best life.” This could not be more ridiculous because anything can be posed for a picture on Instagram. I really do believe that Instagram can be detrimental to our mental health, as it is easy to compare yourself to other people, and become depressed when you feel like you do not measure up.
After my week, I definitely recommend others taking a social media cleanse too. Especially with finals coming up, this is the perfect time to challenge yourself, because you will get so much more studying done if you do not constantly check Instagram every time you get bored and do not feel like studying. I challenge everyone who reads this to take a week off of Instagram. I am sure that you will learn more about yourself and your own personal goals when you are no longer comparing yourself to others on Instagram.