Starting this course, I have started thinking more and more about my behaviour regarding to digital media, and the effect digital media has on my life. Especially during the discussion groups I have talked about things like screen time and doomscrolling a lot. This made me curious about what the effect would be if I stopped using digital media for as much as possible. I thought it would make for an interesting experiment to do during this course. I decided to cut out only social media completely entirely for a week, as I’m to much dependent on some other digital media for other points in my life (like education etc.). This meant for me that I deleted Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and YouTube off my phone, and also did not use the web app on my laptop. I did not count WhatsApp as a form of social media, as this is too much of an essential medium of communication.
Here are some of the things I experienced:
“Symptoms of withdrawal”
During the first few days of no social media, I was not feeling good at all. I experienced some feeling of emptiness and boredom. I also sometimes felt anxious or stressed, with a big feeling of fear to miss out. Sometimes I found myself, without really thinking about it, opening my phone and scrolling through it to find the Instagram app, before realizing I did not have it anymore. I thought I could describe it as some form of symptoms of withdrawal. Researching this online, I found that this is actually true. These anxious feelings can be caused by a neurobiological withdrawal of the feeling of always being connected. Also, using social media consistently, can lead to increased levels of dopamine, so if you stop, there is some withdrawals. (https://www.thehealthy.com/mental-health/quit-social-media/ ) This feeling fortunately went away after just a few days.
Increased concentration and productivity
It is often said that not having social media makes you concentrate better and be more productive, and I found this to be true. During this week, I had to study a lot, and I was also busy with some other things. After I got used to not having any social media, I found myself picking up my phone way less often while studying, which made my concentrate better on the things I was doing. I also got more work done in less time, if I compared it to the week before. My overall screen time also significantly dropped, which gave me more time overall. I think it maybe also made my breaks different and better. Instead of just being on my phone for 15 minutes, I would actually get up out of my room, talk to my housemates, drink some water, walk a little bit, etc.
Less stress and better sleep
After a few days, when I started to get more used to being “offline”, I also started feeling a bit more “free”. It felt quite nice to not always be present everywhere, and felt like I did not have to pay attention to everything all the time. This almost felt like a stress relief. This also has a declaration I found online. On some sites I found that constantly being aware of what is going on online can lead to higher levels of cortisol (the stress hormone), so quitting can make you feel more calm and relaxed. (https://parade.com/1152970/kimberlyzapata/quitting-social-media/) I also felt like I started sleeping better. I felt more well rested after a night of sleep, and also my smartwatch gave higher sleep scores. This can maybe be explained because I used my phone often before I went to sleep, which is proven to be bad for your sleep.
Filling the time with other things
During times that I am not busy, and mostly just relaxing, I started doing different things. I used to often scroll on Instagram during these periods, but now that wasn’t an option. I picked up things that were quite good for me, such as reading a book before I went to sleep, and reading a paper newspaper during breakfast. These were good things to do, but there were also bad things. I also started adopting playing games on my phone on a more regular basis. I had these games already on my phone, but never really played them. Games also aren’t good for me, however playing such stupid games like Subway Surfers and Surviver.io can sometimes be relaxing.
Lack of information
I also found that I started missing out on important information often. This also is the reason why I never have really kept up with no social media. For example, the rowing club where I’m currently at, uses Instagram and Facebook as the main channels to communicate information about events, information I have to receive in a different way without social media. This can be hard and quite annoying, to always ask for information all people already know. I also found it hard that I felt like I missed out on information about my friends. Maybe less important, but I found it quite a shame that I missed out on Instagram posts or snapchats from my friends. Also, most people don’t really understand that you don’t have social media. When I said that I deleted Instagram, people found that quite strange.
To conclude this experiment, I think that it is really good for you to stay off social media for more extensive periods of time. However, it is so normalized in the current world to be on social media, that I personally found it very hard to keep it up, and also I am not sure if I want to keep it up.
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