Towards the beginning of the semester, I wrote a little bit about my New Year’s resolution to get off of social media. My original plan was simply to become more conscious about how I used it, to stop myself from mindlessly scrolling, and to force myself to use my time more productively. Now, as it turns out, that’s insanely hard when you’re in the habit of pulling your phone out anytime you get the slightest bit bored. Because of that, I realized that I was going to need to go cold turkey, which meant deleting some apps. In my case, it only ended up being one app in particular that caused most of the problems: Instagram.
I know a lot of people say they spend all their time on Snapchat or Twitter, but for me, it was Instagram that ended up taking hours out of my days. Now, I know deleting an app doesn’t seem like a huge deal, it actually seems pretty trivial when you think about it. I didn’t delete my account, and I still occasionally visit on my laptop, but by making the choice to take it off my phone, I essentially eliminated the habit and all of the negative effects that came with it.
Since I made the change, I honestly feel like I spend much more time on my school work and things that matter to me. If I’m bored, I take the time to think about things I could do for fun (reading a book, going for a run, etc.) or for productivity. My phone is much less of a distraction to me now, as there’s really nothing to waste my time on anymore. If I’m doing work, I’ll only pick it up when I get a text, not when I feel the random urge to go check social media. Because of this, I’ve been much more engaged and focused on what I’m doing, and my attention span has definitely benefited.
It’s honestly scary (and a little embarrassing) to think about how much time I probably spent on social media before I decided enough was enough. My roommate also decided to delete her social media as well, and all we can talk about is how much better we feel without it. Without realizing it, I had been adding extra stress and anxiety to my life that was anything but necessary. To anyone who’s thinking of taking the plunge and deleting social media: do it. I promise it’ll be worth it, and you’ll probably learn things about yourself that you never knew. It’ll give you time for new hobbies and for simply having quiet time to think without things cluttering your mind. If there’s one thing I know for certain, it’s that I won’t be re-downloading anything any time soon.
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Source 1: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/19/phone-addiction-depression_n_6712882.html
Source 2: http://time.com/3855911/phone-addiction-digital-distraction/
Source 3: http://www.blakorskrs.no/2017/04/22/lorena-ny-publisher-hos-bla-kors/