Things changed for me this summer when life took an interesting turn. My lease in my terrible, dumpy house was ending soon, and I was about to start the life of sofa jumping from house to house. I had very little money and life was happening very fast! I started working six to seven days a week, doubling on the weekends, working long and tiring twelve hour shifts that seemed to last an eternity. Also, due to my lack of money, I trained myself to eat only once a day to save money. To top it all off, my roommates and I had gotten behind on our bills and our WiFi had pretty much been off for the majority of the summer. Now, I know what you're thinking, no WiFi, how did you survive, are you okay? Yes, I am alive and well, but I will not lie. Not having WiFi the first couple of weeks straight up sucked. As a millennial, I've been with my iPhone for the last five years now, and it has stayed by my side everyday probably since the day I got it. Without WiFi, my phone was only valuable for calling and texting (What phones were made for), and my connection to social media had practically been cut off. No social media, what was I to do? Well here's what I did!
Without the constant distraction of social media gnawing at my mind, I realized that I had spent a lot of time just sitting around on my phone. I would not have considered myself a huge social media junkie, but i'll admit, I spent way too much time online looking at silly memes or just looking at pointless things that had nothing to do with me. If I could calculate all the time I spent looking at all the fake, staged photos on Instagram, i'd have graduated college by now. It is amazing how much time we really have when we put it towards more meaningful things. Without social media being in my life I started using my time more wisely and doing real world activities that benefited me in one hundred percent more ways than looking at a screen ever could.
I started doing things I probably would not have done if I had my instant, constant distraction of the internet at my finger tips. My roommates and I everyday would go outside and play street hockey in the bar parking next door. Hockey, such an interesting sport that i knew little to nothing about. We had such a great time playing outside in the summer sun, inviting all of our friends who were still in town to get in on the action. When I was out in public, I was a more social being, talking to my fellow humans when I got the chance instead of just normally looking down at my phone, avoiding eye contact and interaction. One of the best things I discovered, which is not necessarily a hobby, but more an interest, was exploring nature. It is amazing how beautiful this planet is, and it's even more amazing how we take advantage of such natural beauty everyday without giving it a second glance.
It wasn't just new things that caught my eye though. I spent more time on activities that I barely did to much anymore, such as playing guitar, reading and writing. I soon realized I enjoyed these things more since I spent more time one them, soon getting better at them as the days went on. When I moved into my new house, finally getting that precious WiFi back, I realized I didn't really need it as much as I did before. I soon deleted my twitter account, and removed all other forms of social media off my phone. I feel as if I started living a human life like it was meant to be lived. I started living a life that people on say twitter retweet about, instead of actually going out and doing it.
Overall, social media can be a very fun and interesting tool. It can also be a very wasteful, and pointless tool as well though. I can generally say my time has been spent more productively since I cut it out of my life, and I feel as if I am getting way more out of life. I traded a social media zombie lifestyle for a fun, interesting human lifestyle, and I am forever grateful for it.
