I’m taking a class named “Introduction to Communication Theory”, or “Comm Theory” for short. I’m in love with my Communications major, and the professor for this class (who happens to also be my advisor) is incredible. The week before break we were given the assignment to either a) Keep a social media journal or b) Take a social media fast. at first I chose to keep a journal becasue I was busy and needed to keep in touch with my friends and family. But then our spring break came along and I decided it might be a good idea to take a hiatus from social media. Lately, I’ve been a bundle of stress and I figured that this would be a good way for me to distance myself from everything weighing on me. The first day of vacation finally came around, and I put my phone on Airplane Mode.

I thought I was going to immediately regret making the decision to not use my phone at all, but I actually loved it. I sat down and read a few books from start to finish, and I finished the outline for the work-in-progress novel. I’ll admit, the only time I cheated on my hiatus was to message one of my friends to tell her that I finished a book she gifted me and that I cried. I felt productive and surprisingly calm, and I quickly realized that I was letting my phone take up so much time out of my day. As the week went on, I found myself thinking about my phone less and less. At times I would leave my phone in the cupholder of our family’s rental car and forget it was there until I went to take a picture and it wasn’t in it’s usual place in my back pocket.

Oddly enough, I still used my phone quite a bit. I used the camera to quick take a picture so I could look back on scenery or the delicious food I ate; I recently currated a few playlists on Spotify and I downloaded them for the hours in the car when I needed some tunes. I think the app I used the most over this hiatus, though, was the notepad. I used it to jot down idea for my novel, I started writing a poem about a friend, I noted some of the locations we stopped at for future travel idea, and I even worked a little bit on this article via notepad. At first I couldn’t figure out why I was taking so many more notes, but it was becasue I was forcing myself to be in a more creative state.

I learned from this social media hiatus that I was wasting creative energy on tweets and posts. In the early moments of the morning and in the monotonous hours in the day and in the restless hours of the night, I was filling those times with social media. But I belive those times should be more sacred, more spiritual. On vacation, I was reading and writing and singing instead sitting on my phone. And even when my sister begged me to go on Snapchat so I could see her “amazing Story” I was content with my data turned off because I was living real life with her and not the pictures she shared.

Don’t get me wrong: This isn’t me saying, “You need to delete all of your apps and throw away your phone! Heck, while you’re at it, move out to the middle of a forest and go off the grid!” (Even though my father and Henry David Thoreau both probably think it’s a good idea) What I’m saying is that we need to be more aware of the vast amounts of time we’re spending on social media. We need to be aware, and we need to spend more time doing other things. Read, write, participate in a hobby - if you don’t want to do any of that, sometimes it’s nice to simply sit and just exist for a little bit. And when you’re done existing, go back on Facebook and reshare that meme your friend just posted. Really! Enjoy social media! Just remember to enjoy life outside of Instagram as well.