Let's reflect on the Experience

“Now that  the whole thing is over and done, I’m beginning to view my scrolling habits differently…”

Ultimately, it was just three days… three long, difficult days with their fair share of hiccups here and there. The days felt much longer without social media, but I did get more work done. First coming into this, I was under the assumption that this would be a cake walk; after all, I’m typically busy with many different things: schoolwork, workouts, work, etc. In addition to this, I don’t post on my social media accounts at all, except for my spam Instagram account. What I didn’t initially anticipate were those quiet moments to myself—those periods where I’d usually just pick up my phone and scroll for a few minutes or hours to keep my mind settled. Those small moments of my day are huge because they steadily compile and sometimes lead to hours of my once meaningful day being eradicated. Some of the urges that I felt really showed me how habitual my usage of social media has become with age.

However, during the three day period, particularly those seemingly very long periods on Thursday and Friday, I had to sit there with a semblance of unease. I was without my typical distraction device as I call it, and while it can seem like a very minute thing, it was a bit of a wake up call. The time without it made me a lot more present in the quiet moments where thoughts can creep in leading to overthinking. However I didn't overthink during these stretches. I actually appreciated the peace and quiet; allowing myself to often do one of three things: sleep longer than I should have, workout a bit longer than I typically would have, or get schoolwork done without procrastinating. All of these are very positive outcomes I must say based on the fact that I often get a dopamine release from each of these three activities. At first, as I documented in the previous entries, I was kind of struggling to be away from my phone. By Friday, those struggles were relieved and I was beginning to gain something from this distancing that I can't quite explain. 

Beyond that, I found myself engaging more so with those around me. Talking to friends, family, having game nights, and overall, just enjoying those true genuine moments with the people that love and care about me the most. At one point, I even had an in-depth conversation with one of my professors. An event that likely wouldn’t have occurred because I would've been staring down at my phone while leaving the classroom. Small things like this over the three day period are what I began to growingly appreciate because they bring back an element of inclusivity that technology and social media have led us to neglect. More often than not, we live these two separate lives: our internet lives and offline lives. On the internet we interact with everybody regardless of their height, weight, socioeconomic status, etc. However, these same people on the internet that we interact with underneath comments, in direct messages, on snapchats, are the same people that we are either scared to interact with, won’t interact with, or look down upon. Online we think they’re funny, creative, and witty people, but in live settings we only interact with the people that we know and trust. At one point in time this wasn’t the case, but unfortunately we’re living in a completely new reality. 

Ultimately, the social media blackout has taught me that I’m not addicted, but I most often use social media as a way to fill in the lapses in my busy days. It’s such an unfortunately natural thing that interferes with the productivity of my days that it often leads to things being put off, and then slightly stressing me closer to deadlines. Although I didn’t come away with the thought of completely cutting social media out for good, I foresee myself being a lot more conscious of my utilization on social media platforms.