This seems ironic and hypocritical of me to promote a social media detox on my blog, but I'm going to do it anyway. In August I went a social media detox. I made a conscious effort to spend less time on social media, and while I have backtracked a bit, once I am back at university, I am going to start being strict again.
When I went on holiday to Bruges, the first thing I did before going was to turn off all my notifications to social media. Instagram. Twitter. YouTube. FaceBook. Emails. The only thing I left was Snapchat as it's the only way I talk to my best friend. I was away for six days and it was so unbelievably freeing to not be checking social media every five minutes. I can't remember the last time I did that. I didn't click on any form of social media for almost a week. I kid you not, I felt like a completely different person. I wasn't concerned about missing out or needing to know what everyone was doing.
When I got back to the UK, I implemented this "strict" routine when I was allowed to check social media. I was allowed to check it once in the morning and once in the evening. That was it. I should mention I was only allowed to do this on my phone and I didn't really follow these rules on my laptop. I stuck to this schedule for the remainder of August. I continued to feel light and unencumbered by everyone around me.
Social media has become such an ingrained part of my life. I can still remember a time when I didn't use social media. To put it into context, I was around 6 years old when most social media sites were invented. I remember when social media exploded in 2012. I remember my life before social media. It's cheesy to say, but I used to love meeting up with my friends at the park or beach and just talking to each other. I used to love spending all day with them and there was nothing to distract us. We would just go for walks and enjoy each others company. Now when I spend time with my friends, we all inevitably end up on our phones.
I think there is something to be said for finding a balance between not using social media at all and using it all the time. My plan at the moment for when I go back to university is to only go on social media three times a day. Once in the morning, afternoon and evening. I probably will cut down on the amount of YouTube I watch. Something I did before going on my social media detox was to go through all my accounts and clear out who I was following. I tailored it down to the people I was really interested in and who's content I interacted with most. I did this predominantly on YouTube and streamlined who I was subscribed to. It was refreshing to be able to go online and see the content I cared about, rather than people's whose videos I watched every now and then.
It's hard for someone like me to want to spend less time online when I run something like a blog. I actually (technically) run two blogs and I used to run my YouTube channel. I realised all this time on social media, along with various other life-related things, was making me miserable but since making this decision to spend less time online, I have noticed I'm a lot happier. I think having some structure to your social media usage allows you to put your life in perspective. I already read a lot of books, but I've been reading way more since I made these decisions.
If like me, you are looking to cut down the amount of time you spend on your phone or online, then I'd highly recommend a screen time tracker. I know the iPhone comes with one. I started keeping an eye on how much time I was spending online and I was horrified. On average, I was on my phone for around 16 hours a week. This boils down to about 2-3 hours a day. I am making an effort to use my phone less, but I've been slipping recently. Something I am going to do when I am working, especially at home, is to use an app I used to use a lot called Forest. It allows you to plant a virtual tree and to keep that tree alive you have to stay on the app. You can use it to track tasks from 10 minutes to 2 hours in length. I used to use it when I was studying, but I am going to start using it more. I'm also going to start putting my phone on night mode in class and to put my phone in my bag so I'm not distracted by it.
I was alarmed by how much my life had been consumed by social media. However, at the same time, I don't want to become one of those preachy people that scream at others "don't use phones, they're the devil's work, social media is the route of all evil". I can see that social media is both a good and bad thing. I just know that for someone like me, who likes to feel productive yet gets very easily distracted, that limiting my time online will be a good thing. I can achieve more things and then when I actually check social media, it feels like a bit of a reward or a break from my everyday life.
