Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr are a part of our everyday vocabulary. Instead of being happy when a baby utters “mama” as their first word, we’ll be happy when they say “tweet” or “‘gram” because social media is so embedded in our lives.
Like most adolescents of the modern era, I strongly believe in the use of social media, but I never thought I was addicted. Addicts are those kids who tweet pictures of their sandwich and post all their business on Facebook, and I wasn’t guilty of any of those offenses.
So, when my boss asked for someone to do a social media cleanse for a week, I eagerly volunteered. I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to prove to the older generation that young people can survive without social media. In retrospect, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, and I definitely downplayed my addiction to social media.
Day 1: The beginning of the end
The night before, I signed out of all my social media accounts. When I woke up the next morning, it felt weird not seeing any notifications on my phone. I had a mini-panic attack because I thought, “What if it’s someone birthday today? How will I know without a Facebook reminder? What if today’s the day Drake follows me on Instagram, and because I didn’t follow back, he unfollowed me?” After 20 minutes of this internal dialogue and fighting temptation, I put my phone away and got ready for school.
While at school, I completely forgot that I wasn’t on social media because I was so pre-occupied with classes. I wish I could say the same for when I got home. That night, I got around four hours of sleep because I would randomly wake up and just stare at my phone. I needed to see what was going on out there, I needed to know what Buzzfeed article was trending today, and I needed to read my friend’s stupid Facebook statuses. It was at this moment that I realized that it was going to be a long and painful week.
Day 2: The relapse, aka the end of my cleanse
I gave up. I had to check my Instagram and Facebook. I didn’t even try to talk myself out of it; I just signed in and started scrolling through my newsfeed. Afterward, I felt disappointed; in the 24 hours that I signed out nothing monumental happened. My friends were still posting stupid videos, girls were still complaining about their boyfriends, and Donald Trump was still a train wreck. I refreshed my feed a few times just to see if I missed anything. Remember when I said I was moderate in comparison to most people my age? Well, I was completely wrong.
Day 3: Road to redemption
I decided to start over and really commit to the social media cleanse. I signed out of all my social media accounts again, and when I woke up the next morning, I checked my phone for the time and got ready for school. Of course, I wanted to check my feeds, but then I remembered how disappointed I felt yesterday, and that was enough to stop me from caving in. My day was humdrum, as I had nothing funny to share with friends, nor did I see any cute or funny pictures on Instagram. Aside from the boredom that I felt, I found that I was unusually productive. I finished all my work and was in bed by 9 p.m. “What an anomaly — me in bed by 9 p.m.?” I thought as I drifted off to sleep.
Day 4: Morning sickness
I started to realize that the toughest part of the social media cleanse came in the mornings. Between 8 and 10 a.m., the urge to check my Facebook, Instagram or Tumblr was at its peak when I was in bed contemplating life, school and breakfast.
Any time after that was smooth sailing because I was busy at work or in class, so being preoccupied worked in my favor. The only time that I got tempted to backtrack on my cleanse was when I was in between classes, and I didn’t want to make eye contact with professors or students in the hallways. So I just popped my earphones in and walked around listening to nothing.
Day 5: Renewed hope
For once, I wasn’t looking forward to my Friday because I didn’t have any classes or work to preoccupy my time. Thankfully, my mom is always there to save the day. After I told her what I was doing, she decided to take me shopping for a couple of hours. Well, a couple of hours turned into a whole day and put a dent in my bank account. Regardless, I didn’t go on any social media sites, and, by the time I got home, my feet were sore, so I just took a bath and headed to bed.
Day 6: ‘Top Gun’ sealed my fate
I was broke, so I couldn’t go shopping again. It was a beautiful Saturday, so my mom and I decided to play tennis. Tennis was absolutely awful, and I hated every second of it, but, as always, my mom sees the best in everything, so I pretended to like it for her sake.
After tennis, we drove to West Palm Beach to visit my grandfather. On the way there, we pulled up beside a lady who was dancing her butt off to “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins. If you’ve ever watched “Top Gun,” it’s that song that Tom Cruise flies to while looking super-hot. Anyway, the lady was dancing so hard, and I wanted to post something on Facebook about it, but I couldn’t, and it ruined the moment. Social media was made for moments like these, and the fact that I couldn’t share such a glorious moment dampened my mood and ruined the rest of my day.
Day 7: I’m a social media addict
I woke up and immediately signed in to all of my accounts. I thought about sharing the story with the lady dancing in the car, but, for some reason, it felt irrelevant. I scrolled up and down my feed and, again, the lack of content disappointed me, but I was happy to be a part of the world again.
I hated being unplugged from the world; I went on a “liking” spree on Instagram and reposted almost everything that I saw on Tumblr. It felt good, and I spent around two hours just going from one site to the other. I wasn’t bored anymore, and, even though nothing great happened while I was gone, there’s something about being included that makes social media appealing. Not being on social media made me feel like Regina George in “Mean Girls,” when they told her, “You can’t sit with us.”
Needless to say, I definitely won’t be doing anything like that again, but I understand why there’s an obsession — no one wants to feel like an outcast, but, at the same time, there’s more to the world than Facebook statuses and good pictures on Instagram.
The more I discovered was getting a full night’s sleep, spending time with my mom and finishing all my assignments on time. If there’s any lesson here, it’s that I should spend less time on social media, but that’s too cliché, right? Well, maybe it’s cliché because it’s accurate.
Now I am conscious of how many times I go on social media, so I try limiting myself to just a few minutes throughout the day and I also try to put my phone away by 10 p.m. so I can actually get some sleep. The social media cleanse wasn’t a complete failure because I am no longer in denial about my addiction. If you’re sitting there judging me right now, why don’t you try to do a social media cleanse?
