7 days without social media

Hello.

On today's post I wanted to write about my experience without social media for a week. I think the last time I never used social media was probably when I was in middle school (fifth.. sixth grade ??). This was actually done on an impulse at like 4 in the morning when I was watching @twirlingpages youtube video about quitting social media for a month. I just deleted all my socials without a warning to anyone. I deleted Instagram (the main black hole), pinterest, twitter, tumblr, snapchat and two days later, YouTube. I was contemplating on keeping pinterest but I knew because I didn't have Instagram I would end up aimlessly scrolling on there which was why I didn't use that as well. And the reason I deleted YouTube was because I ended up watching waay too many videos (because I didnt have any other socials to scroll through). Whatsapp was the only social app I had because I communicate with my friends on there as well as get information about my college and my brother's school work.

One of the reasons I actually also wanted to do this was because of my screen time. Normally its 3 to 4 hours a day but ever since quarantine started and I have had access to Scribd (a reading app) my screen time has gone to 10 to 14+ hours!! Yes mostly its 6 to 7+ hours of reading which meant there was 7 to 8+ hours of me scrolling through my socials. My screen time reduced drastically with less than 6 hours a day and that was only when I was using Scribd and Webtoon. If I didn't read on my phone then the screen time was less than 2 hours. If your wondering what did I ever do on my phone without my socials, it was messaging my friends, teaching my brother (cause his notes would be sent to my phone) and editing pictures.

And with all the remaining time I had I manage to do several things on my to do list that I have been putting off for no reason.

• Revamped the blog.
• Made a new blog logo and planned all the posts.

• Edited part two of the new zealand vlog.
• tried painting.

• edited all the pictures that I took for my bookstagram.

In terms of how I felt, I did miss my socials (especially Instagram) the first few days. I wondered who had messaged me (only my usual frens 😂) and what sort of stuff would have been posted (especially stories cause those disappear after 24 hours). But eventually I stopped worrying. I had more time to read, my phone wasn't constantly running out of charge and it felt good not to keep worrying about posting something on my stories. I am an over sharer. As in I share a lot of my life online (especially on my personal Instagram, if you follow me you would know 😅). Even though the content is curated and what I share is mostly highlights of my life, I am still sharing a lot. I know a person cannot derive my personality and guess the kind of experiences that I've been through just through my feed or the content I post, but there is always going to be people who will talk, judge and assume that you have the best and they don't. In a way this was a weight off my shoulders when I realized that I don't have to share if I don't want to. It is my account and I can do whatever I please to. Personally I don't know what made me feel like I had to share stuff on my personal cause it is my personal account (mostly family and friends who followed me on there). I am glad that this taking a break thing has made me understand that there is no pressure to post. I still post a lot though (mostly skies and memes and quotes now but still). Also although I didn't share stuff online, I still did take pictures and document moments that I wanted to treasure.

And now its been almost a week since I started using social media again. In terms of whether I actually reduced my screen time well its mostly less than 7 hours which is good (considering that I read for 3 to 4+ hours now on the phone). But there was on day where the screen time went to 10 hours (in my defense I was feeling really low that day and spend most of the day watching YouTube videos and cat videos on Instagram). However, I don't think a week is enough to reduce the aimless scrolling and the constant use of my phone. I might try this again for 3 weeks cause I have read somewhere that it takes 21 days to break a habit. So I might try this again soon.

In conclusion, here is a list of stuff that I can take away from my 7 days of no socials:

• I have more time to do the stuff on my to do lists.
• I can help my eye sight by not making it worse. (I swear I am half blind now).
• I don't have to post if I don't want to.
• It doesn't matter if I miss someone's update, if they consider you important in their lives, they would tell you anyways. You don't have to find out about it through their socials.
• My phone lasts a lot longer and doesn't need to be charged as often.
• Made me realize that I don't have much care for my socials as I 'think' I do. Probably because I don't have very close internet frens (like I used to, I miss some of my pen pals).

However I still got scolded from my mama for "always being on the phone" by even though I didn't use it as much 😂

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧