From a young age many of us are taught the difference between a want and a need, but in certain circumstances that line has blurred. We need air, food, and water and some want Chipotle, fancy phones, and expensive cars. But where does social media fit into all this? 

Slowly overtime many people have started to become dependent on social media to the point that they are on it for almost 12 hours everyday. Over the years the bounds of social media have extended so much and continue to extend every year. A large majority of the people in the US use social media on a daily basis, whether it’s to communicate, share things to the world, or just scroll through posts and catch up on the latest “trends”. But what about the minority of the people who choose to stay off social media? If only I could live like them for a week…

Day 1- Saturday, April 27, 2024

Day one without social media proved being social media free may be harder than I thought. Picking up my phone and checking Instagram, Tiktok, or Snapchat has become like second nature for me. It’s so embedded into my brain that it’s become muscle memory at this point. Without social media I had so much free time that I didn’t know what to do with myself. Throughout the day I was slowly getting more and more irritated with everything around me. Someone would try and talk to me, ask me a question, or even just give me something and I would lash out on them. Seeing my family on social media made me want to check my Tiktok, even if it was just to scroll for a bit; but I couldn’t. 

Day 2- Sunday, April 28, 2024

Day two I noticed I had so much time on my hands and I was becoming more productive. Not only was I getting all my school work done, but I was also doing a lot of work around the house without even being asked. Usually my mom would have to bug me in order for me to even clean my room, let alone the whole house, yet I cleaned the house top to bottom to distract myself with the overwhelming need to just check my socials at least one time. It was slowly becoming harder to ignore all the notifications from my social media accounts, at this point I didn’t know what to do.

Day 3- Monday, April 29, 2024 

School made it even worse. I went from missing social media to having withdrawal symptoms like an addiction patient. Something I heard a lot from the people around me was that I was being extra, they would tell me quitting social media is the same thing as getting your phone taken, but is it really? When you get your phone taken you have no access to anything, you are left with no way to access social media but when you’re willingly giving up social media and still have access to your phone it makes it even harder. I had the ability to check my social media accounts yet I made the choice not to, it took a lot of restraint but I made it through. 

Day 4- Tuesday, April 30, 2024

It was getting easier to live without social media. While it still bothered me a bit in the back of my mind, I was getting used to not being on my phone all the time. My daily screen time had gone from being almost 16 hours to being 4 hours. I also took more time to connect to the people around me and was starting to notice things about my peers that I didn’t notice before. I was actually having in depth conversations with people instead of just sending them snaps or endlessly scrolling through Tiktok. Instead of making me disconnect from the things going on around me, it made me aware of things I didn’t think to look for before. 

Day 5- Wednesday, May 1, 2024

I started to notice how attached to social media we all happen to be. I walk into all my classes and everyone has their head down attached to a phone screen watching something on social media. I walk into my house and get bombarded with Tik Tok sounds coming from everyone’s phones. I walk into the bathroom and girls are using their snapchat camera as mirrors instead of the actual mirror in front of them. There is no communication going on, no connections being made, no compassion being shown. Social media is supposed to be used as a way to connect us to one another, but how come everyone seems more disconnected than ever? 

Day 6- Thursday, May 2, 2024

I’ve gotten so used to not using social media at this point it doesn’t really bother me anymore. I’m enjoying my time being disconnected from social media, it gives me more time to think through important things and actually spend time with people instead of being on my phone 24/7. While I do regularly enjoy scrolling through Tiktok and Instagram, I have enjoyed not using any of it. It’s nice to actually be able to think for once without watching meaningless videos and posts. 

Day 7- Friday, May 3, 2024

Even though I have enjoyed my social media free week, I am excited to be able to check all my social’s and catch up on everything I missed that is going on online. This week without it has been peaceful and opened me up to new ideas and viewpoints on social media’s effect on today’s society. While I probably won’t be completely quitting social media accounts any time soon, I would be willing to take a week or so break from social media to help better connect with myself again in the future. 

Social media has completely taken over today’s society. My week without social media has not only taught me that I’m more dependent on social media than I thought, but it has also taught me that sometimes it’s better to take a step back and look at things from a different perspective because you’re probably not seeing the full picture. Consider taking a step back from social media, even if it’s just for a few days, and it may just open your eyes to a whole new world.