I would not consider myself someone that is addicted to social media. Sure, I like to share what goes on my life, but I am not someone who posts everything that goes on in my life.
I am, however, an avid user of social media. I check Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat all day, every day. Any downtime that I have is usually spent flipping through these different apps seeing what everyone is up to.
One day recently, I discovered myself falling down the social media black hole. Since it happens just about everyday, I didn't think much of it. Then all of a sudden I looked at the clock on my phone and realized it had been two hours. Literally....I WASTED two hours of my life just mindlessly flipping through social media.
There was no new content for me to see. There was nothing interesting going on. I probably ran out of new information after being on my phone for about 15 minutes. I asked myself "why do you do this?" And honestly, I couldn't come up with a good answer besides procrastinating my responsibilities.
I decided that day to delete my social media until I finished my summer school class, which just so happens to be today. Here are the most important things I learned, and I hope to carry with me, from logging off of social media for the past two weeks:
I use social media as a way to distract myself when I am bored.
After these past couple of weeks, I realize that the second I finish whatever I am working on, I jump straight onto my phone to check out the latest stories. I do not allow myself to have any downtime to just ponder on my days or just think about my life. I use social media as a way to keep distracted, to always have a method of entertainment. I almost feel as if there is an awkwardness if I am just sitting around with nothing to do.
Procrastination becomes a lot harder when I am not using social media.
I am a master procrastinator (as explained in this article). Social media is probably my main method of procrastinating. Not having these apps on my phone, I found much better uses of my time. I felt more like a lazy bum if I wasn't working on things around the house, or the assignments that I was needing to get done. It was pretty awesome to see how much work I get done when I don't use my phone as a distraction. (Trust me, I know this is a sad statement.)
Being disconnected is honestly a weird feeling.
Deleting my social media seriously disconnected me from not only my friends, but from recent events. I do not have cable/satellite tv, so most of the information I get is from Instagram/Facebook. Not using these apps kind of cut me off. Though a lot of the information that gets shared on social media is not serious news, I felt out of the loop when friends would message me asking if I had heard about the latest stories. Of course they would fill me in, but I am used to being up with the times.
Moving forward, I hope to keep my social media use to a minimum. I want to be able to enjoy my days without this constant need to be connected. It makes for better use of my time, and really just gives me the time to take myself into account and understand how to better my life.
