Social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are two popular social apps that can become very consuming for your average college student. I spent a week without them to focus on midterms and honestly get my head out of a constant state of brain fog. I originally did this with just my sister, but after discussing it with a friend she decided to join as well. Here’s how my detox journey went to try and help me get out of a constant “blah” mood and focus on the things that I needed to get done.
Instagram was very simple for me to delete. It was the app that I was able to stay off of the longest because I never found myself down a rabbit hole on Instagram and always felt as if I could live a good life without the app. It was easily known that it would be forever deleted in the future after this experience.
I found that when I had the app it was more so used for daily scrolling through random people I know and never felt fruitful. Deleting the app allowed me to stop going on random social media when I was bored with another social media app.
TikTok
TikTok was the hardest to let go of. However, letting go of it made me slightly more productive than I tend to be. I was able to not get distracted while I focused on homework and studying, I found myself paying attention to what I was reading and listening to without feeling a need to get distracted again.
Remember how I said a friend joined me… well she lasted less than a day. She was on TikTok for less than 24 hours. (Yes, we lack discipline). This goes to show how hard it can be to fully go through with a detox, regardless of how beneficial the results can be.
I did find myself at night, going onto my phone and trying to go open the app just to realize it was not there. By day 4, I thought to myself “I finished the hard exams. I can download this app again.” It was like a craving that wouldn’t quit. So if you ever try a detox, I hope you can do better than my friend and I.
What did I learn from this?
I learned that social media is overwhelming. There is so much media that we consume on a daily that can distract us from our daily lives very easily. I will not say that I live on social media, because I do take breaks from social media often, but for some reason during the school year, it seems a lot harder to let go. Instagram and TikTok are two prominent apps that have dominated the audience of younger people. This makes detoxes from them difficult, but I learned that I can fill my time with other things that I enjoy. I can discover new songs, read more books that I enjoy, and just continue to capture my normal moments. So as difficult as a detox can be, it can be done, and the benefits will make it worth it!