If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I love Instagram. It has long been my favorite social media app to the point where I didn’t need any other. TikTok? Nah, let me show you this “Reel” I saw. Twitter? All the best tweets get reposted on Instagram, anyway. Snapchat? Instagram stories have music, which automatically makes them ten times better.
My love for Instagram had gotten to the point where I was spending hours on the app. I would scroll through my main account until I got bored, then toggle over to my finsta and start the same scroll all over again. It’s the first thing I did every morning, convinced that the blue light was like caffeine and that it would keep me awake enough to get me out of bed for my 9 am classes. It was the perfect distraction for any situation. Whether I was waiting in line in Harris, trying to avoid making eye contact with someone, or just letting my brain have a break after class, you can bet I was on Instagram.
About a month ago, I was having a day that in hindsight might have been a breakdown (just college things 🤪). I didn’t tell any of my friends where I was going and drove over to Westerly, Rhode Island. Though it’s not too far from Conn, leaving the state felt like an adventure. I decided to go to the Westerly Library (the most gorgeous library I’ve ever been to, highly recommend) and picked out a book of poetry, despite absolutely hating poetry. Clearly being possessed by some alternate personality, I sat on a bench in the neighboring park and read my poetry book from cover to cover. While Poetry Caitlin was controlling my body, I opened my phone and deleted Instagram, telling myself I wanted a day without it and that I would redownload the app the next day.
Thirty days later I still don’t have it.
Here’s what I’ve learned in my Instagram-less month:
During the first week, it became embarrassingly apparent how accustomed I was to using the app. I found myself mindlessly opening Duolingo, which I was using as a placeholder on my home screen so that all my apps didn’t shift. I would look down in confusion at the owl smiling up at me, wondering why it wasn’t my feed before my brain caught up with my fingers and remembered I deleted the app. I also found myself constantly refreshing my email or my YouTube subscriptions with no intention of watching anything because I wanted something to scroll through. So, yeah, you could say this wasn’t my best week.
During the second week, I still somehow hadn’t caved and redownloaded Instagram. But it was this week that I really started doing other things with my time. The whole reason I didn’t want Instagram was because I felt like I was spending so much time on it and could have been using my time for things I enjoy more. I started reading on the Kindle app on my phone during those moments when I was out and had nothing to do, and was more engaged in my books because I didn’t get distracted by my phone. I have always been a big podcast listener, but I started listening to more with my new found time. Most importantly, I started using the Duolingo app that I kept clicking on. I am learning Danish and getting excited for my semester in Copenhagen (jeg snakker stadig ikke dansk, though!).
I’ll let you in on a secret: I didn’t quit cold turkey. I still periodically check instagram.com on my computer. However, instead of spending hours on Instagram every day, I now spend maybe 10 minutes on it every two or three days. I still like to check in on my friends, see if there are any Conn events that I haven’t heard about, or see what my favorite bands or celebrities are up to. I think this has been my biggest takeaway. Social media isn’t all good or all bad. Even though it may have been distracting me from more important things, that doesn’t mean I can’t still get joy from it.
If you feel like Instagram (or TikTok or Twitter, whatever it may be) is detracting from your life, you can make changes! If you really like being online and have no interest in getting rid of it, that’s also great! There is so often this extreme self-help book mentality of “if you can’t live without social media you’re part of the problem with humanity 😡”, but it’s not all or nothing. You can delete it for a day, you can decide that you actually prefer having it, or you can set daily limits. There’s not a right or wrong way to interact with your phone. But if you have been feeling like life might be better without social media, maybe this article is your sign to give it a try giving it up for a day. You will be able to wake up without it, I promise.