To be honest, I wanted to stay away from people. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the company around me, but sometimes I feel tired listening to other peoples’ problems when I can barely cope with my own stress. I felt pressured to pay so much attention to other peoples’ lives that I was starting to lose focus on mine. So I decided to be selfish and leave social media, the center of all my connection and communication, for the first time. Here’s a glimpse of my first seven days after deleting all social network platforms.
Day 1: Thumb Problems
I caught myself several times automatically moving my thumb to the spot where my Instagram app used to be on my screen. I realized that I have little to nothing to do on my phone without checking on others through social media. But it is a little boring not being able to scroll down to anything new. I keep checking for notifications, but my phone stays quiet. It’s a strange but relieving feeling.
Day 2: Self Time
I feel a little detached to the people I used to talk and laugh with inside silly group chats, but now I also feel lifted from the burden to constantly check my phone to read and reply to everyone. I feel focused on my studies, like I should be.
Day 3: Real Interactions
I texted a few friends just to ask about important things in class, but I didn’t make an effort to lengthen the conversations because I felt weirdly lazy for that. Instead, I tried to talk to people more in person. This was the first day of school after the break, so I was definitely excited to see people I haven’t seen in awhile in person and interact with them in real life. I realized almost everyone had problems and complaints every day, and they didn’t match their perfectly happy images on social media. The reminder that everyone is going through hardships in life gave me comfort that I wasn’t the only one.
Day 4: Productive
I didn’t feel distracted easily with the presence of my phone. I’m used to using my phone for more academic purposes now. I’m getting more sleep than usual, and I feel relaxed.
Day 5: Unproductive
I snapped. I was angry about the unreasonable amount of work assigned in one of my classes today. Stressed, I went into Youtube for some free time but that was a wrong choice. I ended up wasting a few hours and stayed up even later. I wanted a break from all the workload I had, and I wanted to escape from my responsibilities, which is often why I want to go onto social media. But the harsh truth is that the more I’m lured into wasting my time to procrastinate work, the more I’ll end up unhappy, sleep-deprived, and filled with guilt.
Day 6: Minimum Waste of Time
I decided to pull myself together again. So not only is it no social media for me, but also the minimum amount of internet usage. I still ended up sleeping three hours, but with social media, I probably would have pulled an all-nighter, as I usually do on Thursdays.
Day 7: Stay Focused
Another day of feeling unbothered and less stressed. This was not the last day of no social media for me. I’m going to continue to try to stay off of social media and my phone, in general, to stay on top of my real life.
It’s only been seven days without social media, but I’ve already learned how slow time goes by, once I invest my all into every second of it. I’m not saying social media is just a waste of time for everyone, but I recommend breaks to people who feel overwhelmed with life and online communication. Most importantly, if you’re tired, please save up your time to sleep.
Day 1: Thumb Problems
I caught myself several times automatically moving my thumb to the spot where my Instagram app used to be on my screen. I realized that I have little to nothing to do on my phone without checking on others through social media. But it is a little boring not being able to scroll down to anything new. I keep checking for notifications, but my phone stays quiet. It’s a strange but relieving feeling.
Day 2: Self Time
I feel a little detached to the people I used to talk and laugh with inside silly group chats, but now I also feel lifted from the burden to constantly check my phone to read and reply to everyone. I feel focused on my studies, like I should be.
Day 3: Real Interactions
I texted a few friends just to ask about important things in class, but I didn’t make an effort to lengthen the conversations because I felt weirdly lazy for that. Instead, I tried to talk to people more in person. This was the first day of school after the break, so I was definitely excited to see people I haven’t seen in awhile in person and interact with them in real life. I realized almost everyone had problems and complaints every day, and they didn’t match their perfectly happy images on social media. The reminder that everyone is going through hardships in life gave me comfort that I wasn’t the only one.
Day 4: Productive
I didn’t feel distracted easily with the presence of my phone. I’m used to using my phone for more academic purposes now. I’m getting more sleep than usual, and I feel relaxed.
Day 5: Unproductive
I snapped. I was angry about the unreasonable amount of work assigned in one of my classes today. Stressed, I went into Youtube for some free time but that was a wrong choice. I ended up wasting a few hours and stayed up even later. I wanted a break from all the workload I had, and I wanted to escape from my responsibilities, which is often why I want to go onto social media. But the harsh truth is that the more I’m lured into wasting my time to procrastinate work, the more I’ll end up unhappy, sleep-deprived, and filled with guilt.
Day 6: Minimum Waste of Time
I decided to pull myself together again. So not only is it no social media for me, but also the minimum amount of internet usage. I still ended up sleeping three hours, but with social media, I probably would have pulled an all-nighter, as I usually do on Thursdays.
Day 7: Stay Focused
Another day of feeling unbothered and less stressed. This was not the last day of no social media for me. I’m going to continue to try to stay off of social media and my phone, in general, to stay on top of my real life.
It’s only been seven days without social media, but I’ve already learned how slow time goes by, once I invest my all into every second of it. I’m not saying social media is just a waste of time for everyone, but I recommend breaks to people who feel overwhelmed with life and online communication. Most importantly, if you’re tired, please save up your time to sleep.