This past week I participated in a detox. And no, I’m not talking about a diet or a cleanse, though I was working on healthy habits. I was tasked with eliminating something from my life for five days. I chose specific social platforms because I was curious about my dependence on them. Plus, I simply wanted to see if I’d be able to do it.
The Goal:
My goal was to eliminate usage on Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook for five days. I chose these specific platforms because they are all set up for continuous scrolling. When I don’t have a specific reason for checking social media, there are times when I will just flick through my feed. When the content is never-ending it can be difficult to self-manage time. Therefore, I figured cutting these applications out of my life would make my social media usage more purposeful and less time-wasting.
The Set-Up:
Before starting, I had to figure out how I would be tracking this process. In the end, I decided that I wanted to see what my dependency was on each different application. I color-coded various lines with each one corresponding to a platform (Red= Instagram, Blue= Facebook, and Purple= Tik Tok). I then had to figure out what factors I should look out for. The first was whenever I thought about checking the platform, which is represented by a circle. The second was a star for wherever I accidentally opened the application. The last factor was whenever I felt like I was missing out on information or experiences due to not having access to the platforms, which is represented by an arrow.
In Practice:
I made a few interesting discoveries during my time doing this detox. I realized that when I’m busy I don’t think as much about social media. However, when I am not thinking about anything, I tend to turn to social media to fill the space. Early on, I kept accidentally opening Tik Tok and Instagram. A lot of time I wouldn’t even be consciously making this decision. Instead, I would look down on my phone and see the application open. Muscle memory would kick in and I would be opening the apps even though I didn’t mean to. It happened so often, that after day 3 I decided to delete the applications from my phone for the final two days.
When I no longer had easy access to the platforms, I started experiencing some FOMO (fear of missing out). I started to worry that there would be some information that I was missing. There was something comforting about having access to the apps. It became harder to stay off the apps as the week continued. My iPad had notifications set up for Instagram so I would get vague updates as the app tried to pull me in.
I will admit that I did break the detox once. Earlier this week, a Quinnipiac student passed away in his off-campus home. My friend told me that I was following him on social media and asked if it was someone I was close with. I didn’t recognize the name but decided to go on Instagram to see if it was someone from my classes or student organizations. He wasn’t someone I knew well. Although it did break the detox, I thought it was more important to do a quick check to see how I knew the student.
Takeaways:
The most worrying takeaway I got from this detox is that I tend to use social media as a time filler. Although I somewhat knew this was the case, it got me thinking about all the other things I could do with my time. This was especially jarring because I wasn’t even totally conscious of my decision to open the applications.
On the positive side, when I was busy, social media wasn’t on my mind. For Instance, on Thursday I did a bunch of my schoolwork and was able to concentrate well. I wasn’t concerned with what was happening online, because I was focused on my work. This was nice because it means deep work isn’t out of reach. I put social media away while I’m working and kept it off my mind.
Overall, I can see myself doing this detox again. Most likely, it’ll be helpful during a busy time in my life. It may force me to be more productive with my free time. I also now know that for the most success, I should delete the applications from my phone to limit the temptations.