30 Days without Social Media

Does Twitter, Facebook or Instagram dictate our lives more than we think? Does it really have that much control over the decisions we make? Once I came to the honest realization that I spend an obscene amount of time scrolling through pointless Facebook feeds and Instagram stories, I began comparing myself to everybody I was following. I was envious of someone's adventures to new countries, I was in awe of someone's workout regiment and toned physique, and I admired the perfect profile photo with the wittiest captions and killer filter choice. I began feeling like  my life was boring, lifeless and bland with no purpose.

I have to admit though, I have a love hate relationship with social media. I get that there is a lot of good that can come from it. It's kind of like modern day scrap booking. You get to share the highlights of your life with friends, family, co-workers and neighbors. You have the opportunity to reconnect with old classmates from your childhood and catch up on what's been going on the past 10 years. We have to remember that people's profiles are strictly highlight reels with only the best they have to offer. Who wouldn't want to remember the greatest memories from our lives? But, when does that pose or place or person, all become a facade, a mask that we hide behind. I was determined to take a break, to remember what it was like to be disconnected. 

I decided to start my "cleanse" from social media the day after my birthday. I was excited to take a much needed break from that weird feeling of having to double check everything when it came to Facebook or Instagram. I'm much more of an social observer than a poster anyway, but I still felt the unexplainable attachment to checking feeds was very apparent.

The first things I began to notice is that my days became longer. I wasn't wasting nearly as much time on the couch mindlessly scrolling through photos and videos. I would get bored of the T.V. pretty quickly and either start cleaning and straightening up. I would also started more side projects like organizing my office and cleaning out the garage. I realized I started to get to bed sooner. I wasn't sitting up in the middle of the night watching make up tutorials or cute animal videos. I just went to bed when I felt tired and fell right asleep! On nights that I would go out with friends, I felt so much more present! I enjoyed the drinks, the food and even the conversations seemed more interactive. I even felt like my memory improved a little because I couldn't rely on notifications from social media to keep me in the loop. 

About half way through the experiment is when I actually began to "miss" social media. I probably heard, "Well didn't you see her snap chat last night?" over 50 times. This reaction would often lead to feelings of being left out of particular conversations whenever friends posted something supposedly monumental. I had no idea what she was talking about so obviously I asked her what her post was about. As if it were off putting to make her explain something that she already posted for everyone! Needless to say I dropped the topic quickly and commented on something else.

Whenever I came home from a long day of work, I didn't want to do anything. I wanted to be lazy and take a break, which made it pretty hard to not to get on social media. I had to occupy my mind with something else. I then began to think of my to do list. I would ask myself, what's something I could get done today that I've needed to do for a while?  It wouldn't take long for me to get going which made my days become more valuable. I was able to keep track of time better and accomplished the little things that tend to pile up!

In Conclusion, everyone needs to to take an honest break from social media every so often. You don't realize how much it affects you until it's gone. I'm considering for another experiment, I could see how long I go without it to see what that would feel like!

Thank you for reading!

What other kind of "social experiments" should I try?

Love, Nick