Well, well, well. I made it through my first week social media free and lived to tell the tale! I’m not gonna lie, it wasn’t easy. After the initial high of clarity and inner peace wore off, I went into a serious detox.
I was constantly picking up my phone and scrolling to the location of my apps, searching for an opportunity to zone out. It was so crazy! Of course, I knew how much I was scrolling and scrolling, but I didn’t realize how much of it was routine and automatic and unconscious. I was literally opting out of my real, actual life it a major way and I didn’t even realize it.
Removing my device so suddenly created a literal void that I didn’t know how to fill. Before I knew it, I was spending an inordinate amount of time on Google, reading the articles they served up to me ‘based on my interests’, which were just junk. I knew I was replacing one thing with another, so I’m trying to be more intentional about using Google and even removed the blog reader from my phone so that I don’t substitute one thing for another when I am trying to cultivate more mindfulness and inner peace.
But, all in all, this has been an amazing change for me so far. I’m loving it. I have had more time to think and contemplate, especially because I was traveling for work last week and didn’t have my phone to distract me during the downtime. Instead, I journaled and read real, actual books and found a new podcast about writing that I’m excited to listen to on my commutes during the week. It’s nice to be more present in my life. On Sunday, I took a nap and afterwards left my phone in the bed for five hours without even realizing it!
The main downside to being social media free has been not keeping up with my friends. My friend was DM’ing me on instagram and really needed to get in touch with me, so I downloaded the app to read her messages and communicate. I also accidentally saw that my friend got engaged and I felt like I couldn’t comment on her post with all my congratulations emojis like I normally would. My niece is traveling in New Zealand right now and I want to see all her pictures. But, I’m just noting the things I miss so that when it comes time to thoughtfully add social media back to my life, I know where to start. I also want to use this as an opportunity to connect with those people in more personal ways in real life, whether over the phone or face-to-face.
This post was a bit stream-of-consciousness, but I’m happy to keep you all updated. One week down, eleven more to go. Can’t wait to see where this leads me.
How much time do you spend on social media? Want to take a little break with me?
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