Well, I have been back on social media for about a month now and have yet to share my experience going without social media for 30 days. As I wrote in my previous post, I wasn’t entirely free from social media, but I did give up Instagram and Snapchat completely. Disclaimer: once my internship began, I found myself hopping on Instagram every so often, but I never went through my feed or looked through my notifications.
I will admit, the first few days were extremely hard because I was home with nothing to do and I was used to relying on social media to entertain me whenever boredom would strike. I ended up downloading a few games to entertain myself with for when I found myself craving the sound of my Insta feed refreshing.
One of the things that I found most shocking was after I shared my previous post about giving up social media, six people unfollowed me on Instagram. Through an app that tells me when I lose followers, I was able to see who unfollowed me, and the six people who unfollowed me were mostly people from high school that I didn’t mind keeping in touch with through Instagram. But, the fact that these people unfollowed me the day I said I was not going to use social media for a month, led me to believe that they were most likely unfollowing me because they wouldn’t be receiving likes on their posts from me for a whole 30 days. How tragic. This is exactly why I think it is so important to step away and realize how much social media is consuming our lives on a daily basis. Why are we basing the people we follow off of if they are going to like our pictures or not? Why are we depending on likes in the first place? Life is so much more clear and joyful when you take your eyes off the pettiness that derives from social media.
After my first week off of social media, I began to notice just how much social media is taking away from my quality of life. I noticed that I was more engaged in conversations with people, I was asking people more genuine questions about their lives since I didn’t see any of their social media updates, I was able to see what was in front of me and I was able to do what makes me happy without thinking about how I could make any given situation look perfect in the eyes of my Instagram and Snapchat followers. I began to really see just how joyful life is. I didn’t find myself getting upset about little things as much and I was just overall a lot happier.
It also helped that I began my summer in New York City just as I was beginning my social media cleanse. During my first few weeks in the city, I went to a Yankees game, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, joined a gym, ventured to Westchester, tried amazing restaurants, met up with friends, saw Mean Girls on Broadway, walked through Central Park and started a fascinating internship. All without posting anything on social media. I was doing these things for the sole purpose of self-enjoyment and improving the way I see the world.
Now, after about a month of being back on social media, I still don’t find myself checking it or posting nearly as often as I used to. Through these 30 days, I learned to live in the moment and not to rush to post something online just so everyone can see how great my experiences are. That being said, I am still an avid poster and feed scroller, but now I post not because I want to brag to people about how amazing my life is, but because I want to share with people a perfect memory of mine that will hopefully make others as happy as it made me in that moment. I never feel the urge to check my phone at the table anymore or check my phone every six seconds when I am waiting for Snapchat back from someone. I just enjoy the moment that I am in.
This all may sound a little dramatic, but believe me when I say, as a 21-year-old stuck in a generation fixed on social media, giving up social media for 30 days has been one of the best things that I have ever done for myself. I highly recommend the experience for anyone who feels like social media is taking up an absurd chunk of your life. You won’t regret it (unless Kevin Jonas posts about how he’s literally outside your work but you walk right past him because you weren’t able to check Instagram to see that he was there and later learned that you could’ve talked to him. But it’s fine, I’ll get over it).
xx, Lex