Over one week ago, I deleted all the social media off of my phone, and have not downloaded any of it back yet. I lived my life happily before having social media accounts. I focused on the necessities of life, without showing the world how I was doing or what I was up to. I can truly say that my life has been so much better this past week, than at any point in the past seven years with social media.

The past few weeks have been very difficult for me. I have gone through many life changes, to the point where I have been so overwhelmed with anxiety. It was tough, but I made the decision to isolate myself from the outside world while I cope with the unfortunate circumstances. Social media was stressing me out even more because I only saw what others wanted me to, thus I created opinions of many situations that may not have been accurate.

The distress just continued to pile up on my shoulders, and I felt as though I had no one to talk to because no one would understand what I was going through. I was in survival mode. Classes started, and I began to channel all of my energy and put it into schoolwork. I was focusing on only what would keep me alive, and put my problems to the side so that I did not have to face them.

Now that I have settled down a bit, I have been observing and learning more, and one of the things I noticed is that social media portrays only what you want it to. You are not forced to post everything about your life, but you are forced to face the consequences from the things you post.

Since deleting all the social media platforms [I still have my accounts, however], I have been forced to face my problems head-on, and cope without any distraction. The first few days were hard, but I feel stronger than ever now and have not missed Instagram and Twitter, at all. Rather than putting my head down to my phone when I saw someone I knew, I kept my head up and said hi, smiled, or just kept walking (yes, there are some few people I refuse to interact with despite knowing them).

I have been able to breathe easier and worry less. I have scrolled through Twitter a few times, mostly to stay updated with my school’s sports teams, but never to tweet or post anything. I can say that I will download Twitter and Instagram back on my phone before downloading Snapchat. Snapchat is the biggest killer because that is the most accurate social media platform regarding an accurate representation of most my friends’ lives.

I do not regret deleting any social media off of my phone. I have focused more on myself and found better activities to do than sit on my phone for an hour, scrolling through news feeds. I highly recommend to everyone that they take a break from social media because, in the end, you will discover more about yourself and others than you would in a normal day.