social media

It has been 43 days since I deleted Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok off my phone. If there is any part of yourself that has been wanting to get rid of your social media, this is your sign to do it.

Do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it do it

44 days ago, something happened in my life made me step back and think, what the actual f*** am I doing?

I’m sure you’re just dying to know what that thing was, but that’s a story for another time.

I deleted my social media for a fresh start after this thing happened. My 3-week-long Winter break had just begun, and I wanted to be completely off the radar. I was tired of worrying about whether certain people (okay, a certain person) snapped me back or not. I was tired of seeing girls on Instagram that made me feel not skinny enough, not pretty enough, not happy enough; just not enough, period. I was tired of scrolling through TikTok and looking over at a clock seeing that I had just wasted 25 minutes.

So, I bit the bullet and deleted it all. And let me just tell you, the next three weeks were absolute bliss. I know, I know, it sounds like I’m completely bullshitting you; there’s no way I was happy for three weeks, at home, having little contact with people from my outside world.

But I was. It was amazing.

I found myself feeling less insecure and critical of my body. I can only explain this by the fact that I wasn’t seeing pictures of girls all day and thinking “Ugh, I wish I had her ___”. I started worrying less about what others were doing. Without seeing people’s stories all day, my FOMO disappeared. I also became way more productive. I finished my homework faster and I’ve begun reading, journaling, and sleeping more.

I thought I would redownload everything after three weeks, treating it as a kind-of “social media cleanse” rather than a new habit. But, in going back to school, I realized I didn’t want to have it back. I wanted to continue this newly heightened quality of life and work on living in the moment.

A few days ago, I re-downloaded Snapchat to send a message to a group of people whose phone number’s I didn’t have. I sent the message and spent some time scrolling through my snaps and people’s stories. I found myself bored and thinking, “what’s the point of this?”. It was not difficult for me to press delete once again, making my triumphant return to Snapchat last about 11 minutes.

I’ll probably return to social media one day (besides TikTok, which has absolutely no purpose or positive impact on me). But for now, I’m happy focusing on myself and the people that are important to me.

I encourage anyone reading this to delete all of their social media, even if just for a week. You will not only have more time on your hands and be more present, but you will also learn about how the content you’re consuming is impacting your life.