Remember being told, “Get off your phone!” by a parent or older family member? I recall shrugging this comment off and moving on. I didn’t see the value in DOING that until now.
We’ve all been guilty of it: scrolling through timelines or TikTok’s “For You Page,” swiping through stories, and spending endless amounts of time checking our phones. The time we spend on our phones adds up, and hours of the day are taken by phone use. On average, people spend five to six hours on their phones daily. Personally, I never put much thought into how many hours I allocated towards snapping, texting, and scrolling; things that would never benefit my daily or future goals. Yet, six hours of my average day were consumed by phone use.
Last summer, I turned off my notifications for social media. I initially got anxious about this. I was worried about missing out, having to catch up on the know, or not responding to my friends fast enough. As the weeks went on, I noticed how much less time I spent on my phone. It felt freeing, and I began to resist any urge to check my phone. I kept reminding myself that there were better ways to spend my time and put my energy towards people, which drastically improved my mental health.
One of the biggest takeaways from shutting off my notifications was prioritizing who I wanted to connect with. I wasn’t worried about responding to people with whom I didn’t have a strong relationship or entertaining myself swiping through posts and stories from those I barely knew. Instead of giving my time to every person I talked to, I focused on maintaining and keeping up with my close connections instead of those I didn’t really know. I also found that the negative tendencies that social media promotes, such as social comparison and evaluation of self, vanished.
Turning off your social media notifications makes you the main character because you decide what deserves your attention and what doesn’t. Your time becomes more valuable when you disengage from what everyone else is doing. Protecting your time allows you to invest more of your day toward goals you’re working towards or things that bring you joy instead of mindless scrolling.
These are realizations that I had when I turned off my notifications, and I feel it’s made my life more authentic. I now have a short attention span when I check social media, my average daily phone usage is much less, and I allocate more time to those who are important to me. I highly recommend turning off your social media notifications because you will find inner peace too.
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