This week, I decided to delete Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram from my phone. To some, this might seem like a strange decision; for me, it is just the break I need. There are several reasons that I decided to do this.
I decided to get rid of the Twitter app because I felt that I spent so much time being absorbed in what other people were doing — I was constantly comparing myself to them. When I say it was constant, I'm not kidding. I would check Twitter when I woke up in the morning, in between classes, walking home from class, eating in the dining hall, watching TV, when my friends were driving us somewhere, before I went to bed — all the time.
I never realized how addicted I was, until I didn't have it anymore. I follow many different people from different organizations, and everyone obviously thinks their friend group is the best friend group. I got so tired of reading tweets of people trying to convince everyone else that they had the best friend group to walk the earth, or that they were funnier than everyone else over social media. It began to feel like a competition that I didn't want to compete in 24/7 anymore.
After two days of being Twitter-free, I decided that I would also remove Facebook and Instagram from my phone. It felt refreshing not being constantly connected to every single person I am already usually in contact with. Sure, social media is great because I am able to stay in touch with some family members and people from high school, but the majority of the people I keep in contact are those who I go to college with and see on a regular basis.
I'm not completely social-media-free because I still look at the websites when I am on my laptop while procrastinating writing a paper and doing other homework varieties. However, just from taking these apps off my phone (where the majority of my usage came from), I already feel less inclined to check every single thing on each app. When it comes to Twitter, for example, I have not been checking back to the last tweet I saw. Maybe only the tweets within the last hour.
Even after only being on my social media hiatus for about a week, I feel less stressed, more positive, and more engaged, likely because I no longer compare myself to other people at all times of the day, and I don't constantly read other people's negativity.
Social media allows you to get a glimpse into someone's highlight reel. It shows off the best parts of their lives. It makes you believe that they are living the life you should be living and that everything for them is perfect. Images, tweets, and posts all the time make it hard to not compare your life to theirs and feel inadequate next to a peer who seems so much better than you are. It can be hard to remember that it is only one part of their life and they have struggles also.
On the other hand, there are people out there that only use social media as an outlet to vent about their problems and frustrations. Reading about how their job sucks, how their restaurant order was messed up four times in one night, or how lonely they feel can get annoying. But, more than that, consistent negativity affects the mind and makes you think about the negative things going on in your life. Without these constant reminders, I feel more like myself and less like a culture-hungry zombie. The best part is, without always being attached to my phone, I am more engaged in class, conversations with friends and family, and in the world as a whole.
After only being on social media hiatus for a week, I still go on my phone to check social media apps because I am in the habit of doing so. Once I remember that I deleted them, I put my phone away, feeling indifferent.