What I Learned from Deleting (Some) Social Networks

Late last year I decided that I was ready to take a hiatus from Twitter. It took a few attempts, but by November I’d finally committed to deactivating my account. Feeling freedom from having to read everyone’s inner dialogues with themselves I decided to take it a step further and “temporarily disable” my Instagram account too! 

I will admit Instagram was harder to let go of because let’s face it – a picture is worth a thousand words. My reasoning for leaving my favorite app behind was because I found myself choosing what and when I posted based on how I wanted to literally be seen. I wasn’t necessarily posting false accounts but I was posting them for the wrong reasons. The only social media accounts that survived my purge were Snapchat and Facebook. Snapchat because it’s my most frequently accessed app – equivalent to texting but faster and more spontaneous. Facebook remained for the sake of not missing all those important group messages.

What I Noticed

I’ve been quite the experimenter lately so it’s only right that I share my findings with fellow collegiettes!

1. Just because you don’t post an event or experience doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. You don’t need an Insta Pic to credit your adventures or accomplishments. Plus wouldn’t that concert with your best friend be more enjoyable if you both didn’t have your phones out the whole time?

2. People’s lives always seem more interesting – and frankly, better than yours – on social media. Toss out the endless scrolling and you will rid your life of unlhealthy upwards comparisons.

3. You won’t die if you refrain from posting every inner thought you have. I promise. However, I will admit a few times I made some lengthy snapchat stories full of text because of my Twitter withdrawals.

4. Although, I don’t find out about some pop culture news as quickly as I previously would do to these apps, discovering them on my own allows me to form my own opinion rather than whatever comment, message, or meme would otherwise accompany it.

5. I have gotten much better sleep since I no longer am constantly refreshing my timelines for new pictures of my favorite celebrity gurus and “late night Twitter” jokes. I find myself becoming disinterested in my phone much earlier and not sleeping with it in bed with me. This allows my brain to officially wind down for bed instead of leaving me tossing and turning for hours from the visual stimulation.

6. It’s nice to finally read things that a composed in complete sentences again. 

Media Credit

http://cdn1.theodysseyonline.com/files/2016/02/22/635916968759890106-248…

http://blogs.adobe.com

• break
• hiatus
• instagram
• internet
• social media
• social networks
• twitter
• unplugging