Deleting your social media apps for a week probably doesn’t seem like much, or anything at all, to most people. But for someone who checks up on their timelines at least every few hours or so, it’s a big change.
Which seems bizarre really.
Even when I took a big step back from blogging and the blogging world, I still spent a large amount of my time on social media.
I’d wake up, check it. Have breakfast, check it. Get to work, check it.
You get the picture.
Despite not really putting a great deal out there nowadays, I still felt this constant need to be ‘in the know’ of what everyone is up to and that seemed to grow considering what we’re all going through right now.
(Covid-19 if you’re reading this in the future.)
We’re going through a really weird time right now and, like many, I’m not dealing with it too well at times.
I’m finding myself feeling really sad, having depressive episodes and having that overwhelming feeling of being lost. Plus, I really just want to give my Mam a big cuddle.
But again, I found myself (like always) reaching for social media to escape and it became a bit of an unhealthy, obsessive habit.
I felt like it was making me less productive, I was beginning to look at things I know spiral negative thoughts and I wasn’t using it for entertainment purposes.
It was almost as if I was wanting to self-sabotage.
Right now, during this period, I’m a firm believer in DOING WHAT YOU WANT. If you want to be productive whilst we’re in lockdown, be productive and if you want to live slower and more relaxed, you do you.
But those thoughts don’t stop me from still giving myself a little kick when I feel as if I’m not doing enough.
When all I’m trying to do right now is just survive.
So I thought to myself, ‘Megan, when did you last not use social media for prolonged period of time?’
I’ll tell you when.
When I volunteered in Ecuador for a month in 2012.
That’s 8 years of constant and consistent social media checking.
I thought to myself, ‘hang on a minute’. I take holidays from work for a bit of rest, I have rest weeks from training to recover my body, so why not almost have a bit of a ‘mental detox’ and remove social media from your life for a bit?
So I did.
[NOTE: I deleted Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Messenger. I kept LinkedIn for work reasons and TikTok because I don’t post, I just have a 10 minute binge on a night lol’ing.]
I’ll be honest with you. If I was seeing my friends and family on regular because some pandemic wasn’t going on, I would have lasted longer not having those apps on my phone.
But there’s already that aspect of not having as much contact with people that I felt there really were some elements of social media that I was starting to miss.
But anyway, here’s what I took from my little experiment;
One of the biggest things I learnt from not having and using these apps is that *shock horror*, I really don’t need them. They are a luxury to me.
I can still function, maintain important relationships and find entertainment without having to scroll an Instagram feed.
The fact that I have these little bits of technology on my phone is a complete luxury that I get to have.
It’s almost like an added bonus that I get to see what my friends are up to when I’m not around them. It has also given me the opportunity to make friends with people who I wouldn’t have met otherwise.
I’ve learnt that curating your feed for it to show you exactly what you want and need is so. damn. important.
If you’re not interested in someone’s content or it no longer serves you purpose, there is no harm in unfollowing someone.
& on the other end of that stick, it’s ok if people unfollow me too! You’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea and god do I need to learn that that is completely okay.
I am an absolute nightmare when it comes to comparing myself and I feel as if a lot of people will be able to relate to this.
Whether it is what someone is doing, what they’ve baked, how much they’ve worked out, how nice their house looks, how productive they’ve been – I’m a BUGGER for comparing myself.
This is one of the biggest things that I’m going to be consciously working on over the next few weeks.
Learning to live at my own pace, recognise other people’s achievements and doings but still not taking anything away from how I’m living my life.
This was a hard pill to swallow but only when not using these apps have I realised how god damn rude it can make people, including me!
I know that I can sometimes be ignorant, sitting on my phone and scrolling/messaging away and it’s not until you take that away from yourself that you see it in others.
It’s now, more than ever, we should value spending time with loved ones and I for one can’t wait for that first family get together. I’ll tell you what won’t be in my hand the entire time…
I’ve probably said this before, but now that I’ve seen what life is like without, I’m going to make some changes going forward.
First things first, I’m going through my following lists and waving a social media goodbye to some folk. It’s just got to happen. I know it can be pretty savage, but some things are necessary.
I’ll then be considering how much time I spend on those apps on a daily basis, I mainly wanted to reach for them on an evening to see what’s gone on in the day. So I’ll try put a real stop to scrolling several times a day.
Whether I put a ‘time limit’ on my iPhone I’m not too sure, but I’m making myself aware of how much my thumbs are scrolling.
It was a really good experiment and I never expected to learn so much in such a short space of time.
But like you can all imagine, with what we’re going through at the moment, time away from stuff gives you lessons.
& I’m not letting these go to waste.