Antisocial: An experiment without social media

 As technology evolved over the years, the ability to communicate and share our lives online became common, essential even. Nowadays, we carry some of the most important aspects of our lives in our pockets and most people would be horrified at the prospect of being a day (maybe even hours) without their phones.

Some can admit social media is like an addiction to them, but most people I know (myself included) would disagree. I always thought I didn’t really need socials in my day-to-day, I only have them because I like taking pictures, checking up on my friends’ lives and that’s basically it. But lately I’ve been wondering what it would be like to not have social media at all. Would it make me more active? More depressed? That’s where the idea for an experiment came along. I decided I was going to delete all my social media from my phone for 7 days and record my thoughts and feelings about it.

Are you ready?

 

Day 1 – No more procrastinating?

I think my relationship with my socials has more to do with impulse than addiction. I tend to search for them when I’m feeling bored and want to distract myself. A funny thing I realized was that, after lunch, I had to do the dishes, right? Well, normally, before that I’m used to sitting for a while browsing Instagram and then I realize it has been 30 minutes and I still didn’t do what I was supposed to. Today, since I’m social media-free, I did the dishes right after lunch and then went on with my other chores for the day, without procrastinating.

Me? No procrastinating? That’s a first.

 

Day 2 – Charge for days!

Second day is over and I’m alive and well. Didn’t think much about socials, to be honest and I noticed I hadn’t charged my phone in two days. Can you believe that? Two whole days?! I normally have to charge it, at least, once a day! Incredible...

I started a bunch of interesting, productive activities today and, since I’m not wasting time on socials, I manage to divide my time evenly between them. I started exercising, reading and writing more, I also got back onto my National Geographic magazines that I love... I’m just more present. I love it.

 

Day 3 – Battling against boredom?

Today was a slow day, especially in the afternoon. This had me worried about craving social media in order to distract myself. Normally, the more bored I am, the more I “spiral” into my socials. Literally lose hours browsing Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, looking into all the interesting things others are doing, while I’m in bed or buried in the couch doing nothing.

I am so proud to say that today was not one of those days, at all! I watched a good movie, read and had a really good cuddle with my cat. I was all good.

 

Day 4 – What about sharing?

Today was a beautiful day and I was outside for a while with my mom, appreciating all the adorable flowers growing in our garden and my instinct was to grab my phone take pictures to post on Instagram. Of course, this was all going on in my head and I stopped myself in my tracks and thought about why I wanted to do that. Why did I want to share a picture of flowers? Who did I want to share them with? Why would 400, 500, 600 strangers (mostly) care?

Then I realized that it would be a lot more special to share the pictures we take with the people that come to mind when we take them. Like “I think my friend would find this funny” or “This reminded me of this person”. So, just send it directly to them. No one else needs to be a part of it making it more special and personal.

Also, there’s nothing wrong with taking pictures just for yourself. I did that with the flowers I saw, and I know that in a year, when new, different flowers are growing, I’ll look back on these photos with my mom and I’ll ask “Hey, do you remember these? They were gorgeous!”.

 

Day 5 – Social media, who?

I swear to the Gods that I forgot about socials today. It was a beautiful sunny day, I got up, got in my car, read for about an hour before work, worked, came home, worked out, spent time with my parents and I just went on with my day doing a bunch of stuff... That was it. They didn’t even cross my mind until now, that I need to write about them... Says a lot, doesn’t it?

 

Day 6 – Spreading awareness

A few days ago, I told my colleagues about this experiment. Today, my manager came in and told me “I totally thought about you yesterday!”. Apparently, after dinner she decided to sit down and check on her socials before doing what she had to and then she realized it had been over 30 minutes! She was baffled that she never noticed this before we talked about it. Now she says that she pays more attention to it and makes sure that she gets things done before going on her socials, just in case!

 

Day 7 – One more day

It’s been almost a week? How?!

I mean, it’s another one of those days where I have nothing to say about socials. I’m feeling pretty well and productive without them. Who would’ve ever known how liberating this would feel?

I love this.

 

Day 8 – The end?

This is the last day of the experiment but, to me, it’s the beginning of a totally new “lifestyle”. I won’t be installing the socials back at all. I still have all my accounts active and I intend to keep them like that, but I won’t use them unless I absolutely have to!

 

Final thoughts: I’m glad that I tried this out and I feel proud of what I realized and accomplished throughout this week. I think that, lately, social media was doing more harm than good in my life. Besides being a big “crutch” for my procrastination, they had me looking at many posts and thinking “why can’t I look like that?”, “why can’t I have a house like that?”, “I wish I had that much money” or “If I looked like that, life would be a lot easier”. And yeah, these thoughts would be temporary but, at least for a few moments, I was comparing myself and feeling bad about what I had. Now, I enjoy my life and appreciate every day and every little thing I do have. I’m thankful for embarking on this journey. I 100% recommend it to everyone who’s willing to give it a try.