The first time I deleted my Snapchat app was the day of the University of Florida vs. Florida State University football game that I decided not to attend.
I woke up that Saturday morning in my bed, starting off the day opening my Snapchat to see all of my friends tailgating and hanging out together. Suddenly a wave of regret rushed over me, making me question why I stayed home, rather than spending the weekend with my friends. Before the thoughts could consume me, I impulsively deleted the app.
I was comparing my situation to that of others, when there was no way I could change either of them. One of my favorite quotes flashed through my mind, reading “comparison is the thief of joy”. This made me realize how ridiculous I sounded, and turned my attitude of regret into an attitude of excitement for the weekend at home I had ahead of me.
For the past month or so, I have been stuck in the constant cycle of randomly deleting my Snapchat app and immediately re-downloading it the next day, in fear that I would miss out on something. In other words, I had a severe case of FOMO. When I would re-download the app and watch my friends’ stories and check my “group snaps” I found myself putting all of my attention into the app, checking it too often, for seemingly no reason at all. Whenever I would look at the snapchats I received, or the ones posted on my friends’ stories, they all seemed to run together, not one sticking out from the rest.
About a week ago I decided to just cut the app completely out of my life. I may download it again in the future, but for now I’m perfectly fine without it. When the app was readily available in the palm of my hand, I found myself spending two hours of my day on it, if not more. I look back on those two hours and wonder what else I could’ve done with that time.
I could have talked with the people sitting right in front of me at lunch, instead of sending a picture of my face to someone in class. I could have taken in the moment with my own eyes and ears, that I was too busy recording and watching through a screen.
Life is so much more important than how you look in a “snap”, or how many views you get on your story. It seems silly, but not having that social media app has made me realize how meaningful the little things in life are, when you are actually there to live them.
