My idea to start a week free from social media really began when I started to notice how much time checking all my social media apps took.

My typical routine after a long day in class would be to pull out my phone and scroll through the endless posts and photos on Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Going through all these apps took me about 20 minutes (roughly) and sometimes even longer if I got extremely sidetracked. It became my habit and I just couldn't seem to break it.

Thinking about how much time during the day that I stare at my phone, even my laptop concerned me a little bit. I know we live in a technology based time (don't get me wrong I love my techy stufff), but sometimes I wish we could all just step away from the screens that seem to take over our lives.

So my main goal behind my experiment from this past week was to see how cutting social media out of my life would effect it for better or worse. I learned a lot...

1. I am addicted to my social media apps.

The first day, I began to notice that even without thinking about it, whenever I would open my phone, my fingers would automatically move to my social media apps. I would open the app and be like "wait, what am I doing?" This was a huge wake up call for me to see how much social media is intertwined in my life.

2. You are less in the know.

Like many people, I get a lot of my information from my social media apps. My friends use snapchat a lot to chat and since I wasn't using this, I was less connected. I also am a part of a few organization pages on Facebook so when things were posted, I was unaware. I had to ask my friends for updates on anything important.

3. You notice your surroundings more.

Before my cleanse, I would always say that I was going to watch Netflix but would find myself with Netflix on in the background and me starring at my phone trying to get through the days worth of news feed. I would sometimes have to rewind my show because I missed to much of it. During the cleanse however, I wasn't distracted. I could watch a show completely, pay attention to my reading, and I also enjoyed nature a little more. I found myself going on more walks and swimming.

4. You miss a lot of big events.

I picked the week when two major events happened (just my luck). The first was the solar eclipse and then the publicity behind Taylor Swift's new album. I'm not going to lie, I broke my social media cleanse just so I could check Taylor Swift's Instagram page (it was too tempting) however, I did not look at anything else while I was on the app.

5. It was somewhat refreshing.

I kind of liked not seeing every single post on every medium. I think a lot of the time, we can sometimes get sad when we see everyone else doing exciting things when we are just laying in our beds. Seeing all the fun other people are having can get you in the dumps without you even noticing. I felt like I lived more in the moment this past week and less of my moments online.

6. The week wasn't without it's challenges.

I'm super glad I tried this cleanse, however, it was extremely challenging. Sometimes I think I use social media as my stress relieving activity, so after long days in class, I missed not being able to look at exciting, happy, funny things on my apps. I wasn't able to look at the Reddit channel all about adorable animals, which by far was the ultimate struggle.

My big take away!

I think my biggest take away from this experiment was that no one needs to cut social media COMPLETELY out of their lives. It is a valuable medium to get information and as much as people want you to believe that technology is bad, it really isn't.

Going forward from this experiment, I have decided that I am going to limit my social media use a little, but not restrict it. I may delete a few of my apps that don't seem extremely important to me, but I'm not going to feel bad if I want to sit for a few minutes scrolling through my Instagram feed.

My advice for everyone is to do you when it comes to social media and the time you put into it! It is only up to you!