I know you’re probably thinking that I’m crazy and you’re kind of right.
I thought I was crazy too. Much like most people my age, I grew up always having some way of connection to others through my phone. We have become professionals at social media because we grew up with it.
I got rid of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter on June 13th. For full disclosure I did keep Messenger so I could keep in contact with friends that I don’t normally text. I also kept YouTube, because I cannot miss a Vlog Squad upload.
Since I was still in school, it occupied my spare time until mid-July when the first set of summer classes ended. But after that, I had a lot of time on my hands that I was not prepared for.
For a week I did not know what to do with myself, and I found myself spending so much time on social media. It wasn’t until I saw this notification on Instagram that I knew it was bad.
Up until this point, I didn’t even know Instagram had this feature and I felt a mix of emotions. I was confused, shocked, and felt like I was doing nothing with my time. So I made a decision and took Instagram off my phone.
Then I went several steps further and uninstalled Facebook too, then Snapchat, and lastly Twitter.
The first week was the hardest. I was going through what I can only describe as withdrawals. I was having nightmares, I kept going back to the App Store to download them, and it was harder than I expected. I did not know that deleting them would affect me the way they did. I actually thought that it was going to be easy.
At first I spent A LOT of time on YouTube. I binge-watched channels, and had to go look for new YouTubers because I had already seen most of what was being recommended to me. This happened about 3 days into project “Free Me From Social Media.” I soon realized that I had to take a step back from YouTube too, because what I was doing was not what I set out to do. I wanted to take a break, not force myself to dive into another app.
It took me a good 2-3 weeks to get to a good place. In those few weeks, I kept thinking I was missing out on something. I thought that I was going to miss the biggest news and there were days that it got bad, and I asked my boyfriend to tell me what was happening on social media. Doing that made me realize that I wasn’t missing much. Since I had a group chat going with some friends, they would talk about the big news. They are the ones that kept me semi-connected to the world.
I will admit there were times where I “cheated the system” by Googling “social media buzz.” Each time I was disappointed because there was nothing of interest. I also felt some guilt because I promised myself I wouldn’t do that, and when I did it nothing came of it.
I’m not perfect though, and I have logged into social media websites on my browser when I knew something happened. The worst was when I got a notification about Manu Ginobili’s retirement. I got the notification while at my internship, and was heart broken. I felt that I needed to see his famous highlights that were bound to be on social media already. I hopped on twitter and started looking through the #GraciasManu tag and scrolled through real quick. When I got home, I spent an hour reading/watching everything– then I logged out and turned off my phone. I wasn’t guilty about what I had done, I just didn’t have the same feeling as I did before. I got on Twitter to see the goodbye’s to one of my favorite players from everyone in the NBA family.
It was with Manu’s retirement that I realized what I wanted to keep up with, and what I need to keep up with are two completely different things. Before, I thought I needed to keep up with everything on social media, so I could have something to talk about or know what is going when people are talking about it.
I am obsessed with knowing the whole picture, even if I don’t find the topic interesting. I wanted to know what was going on just in case it came up in conversations, and I think that was my problem. Everything that I need to know about, I can easily find out on my own by reading the news or talking to my friends and family.
When I started writing this article, I didn’t know how or what exactly I was going to write about. Did I want to write what I felt in the past 3 months? The reasons why, or how far I’d come? I ended up just starting writing, and then it would come naturally. Something I didn’t expect came out of it, I finally figured out what my goal for this project is.
When I started this little project, I didn’t have an end date in mind. At first I told myself that I would reinstall the apps when I didn’t miss them anymore. When that happened, I decided to wait for enough news to catch up on. When a month passed, I thought that was enough. However, I couldn’t reinstall them. I was worried I was going to fall back into my old habits, and I didn’t come this far to just go back.
Now I have figured out what I really want. I want to not feel like I need social media in my life, and I want it to be something that I look at occasionally, instead of once an hour. I don’t want it to affect my life as much as it used to. It doesn’t need to be in my life, and it surely doesn’t have to run my life.
I was recently at a family function with cousins I hadn’t seen in a few years. When I told them what I was doing they asked me how I did it and this is what I told them:
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Delete everything cold turkey.
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The first week is the hardest, and if you can get past that then you can do it.
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It’s ok if you mess up, just make sure it doesn’t stay on your phone.
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You don’t have to set a goal.
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FOMO is normal, but don’t let it break you.
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It’s okay to get updates, but don’t go down the rabbit hole.
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Lastly reinstall them whenever you feel you’re ready.
Being a millennial means you were basically born with the internet. You grew up with dial up or for the younger end (me) some high speed. So much advancement in technology has happened in the last 20 years. Social media was meant to connect you to others, but there comes a point where staying connected and being obsessed meet. When you cross that line, that it becomes unhealthy. Taking a break is not the end of the world, and it doesn’t have to be long-term. It can be 1 day, 1 month, or 1 year– but that choice is up to you. As for me, I’m at 3 months and I’m still not sure if I’m ready for social media to come back.