Recently psychologists and scientists have said that social media is an addiction similar to smoking cigarettes. So for the sake of my lungs, I decided to delete the app for the last week of the term.
Day One – I miss it:
I won’t lie, the initial deletion of the app was more difficult than I’d like to admit. I had been so accustomed to being able to open my phone and have something to do that I felt as if I had no purpose for my phone; I felt empty, almost. Throughout the day I would find myself turning to my phone searching for something to do and coming up empty-handed. No random Instagram Reels to keep me entertained, pictures of teacup pigs on my explore page, or my friends never-ending spam posts to look at.
Day Two – Weaning off/Spotify:
Day two was just as much of a struggle as day one. The initial instinct to grab my phone and check Instagram in the morning was quickly interrupted with the reminder of my disconnect from social media. Throughout the day, I thought about the people I might be leaving on delivered, the recipes I might be missing, or the newest piece of information on March Madness, Princess Kate, or Diddy. Over time the involuntary reaction to go for my phone subsided, and I think I played the same three songs over and over again to try to fill the space.
Day Three – Light Work:
By the third day it was as if I’d never had Instagram. I went about my day, completely unbothered. Class to class instead of my face to my phone, I think I actually made eye contact with my teachers… outside of the classroom. Not only was I more present in the moment, but the few times I checked my phone I didn’t go straight to Insta. When I checked my screen time statistics, they had significantly dropped—probably close to one to two hours.
Day Four – Netflix:
The fourth day was equally as easy, though I found myself looking for entertainment elsewhere. Netflix. I swear my screen time went back up by two hours due to Netflix alone. The amount of cliche rom-coms I watched is illegal—I think I watched seven movies in less than 24 hours… they get repetitive.
Day Five – Last day of term:
As many JR students can relate to, all of Friday I spent my time catching up on work, eyes locked to my computer screen. Frankly, there wasn’t enough time to think about Instagram, the surprise English assignment I was given on Tuesday had priority. As the day came to an end, it was time for me to do the inevitable. I re-downloaded Instagram. Shockingly, after a couple of hours, I realized I hadn’t even opened it yet. After all the fuss from Monday and Tuesday, my brain didn’t even register that the app was back on my phone.
