A Master in the Making

Before diving deep into this juicy and amazing blog post, I think it is important to establish something. The title of this blog in NO MEANS should infer that I didn’t complete my five-day social media detox. Not to toot my own horn here, but I think I did a wonderful job. I can confidently say I’m walking away from this detox feeling much more aware of my social media habits than I had ever been before. Before this, The only thing I knew was that my screen time in general seemed a bit excessive, but beyond that, I never put too much thought behind it. All of this aside, I just don’t think I completed this social media detox in the way that I think it was intended for me to have done so (more on that later).

Thinking more about my history with these apps, I don’t think I have ever spent this long an amount of time away from these platforms. Instagram especially, which I have been a user of since 2015. It’s hard to believe I have had the app for nearly a whole decade! As someone who isn’t even 20 yet, this means that I have spent close to half of my life as an Instagram user. I don’t think this would have ever deemed on me if it weren’t for me completing this social media detox. In terms of TikTok, I have been a user on the app since it was first released in 2018.

Starting this process, I don’t think I gave myself enough time beforehand to think through what this process was going to be like for me. I wasn’t even willing to give up Instagram when I first learned about the assignment. It wasn’t until I met over Zoom with the rest of my class that I realized I wasn’t challenging myself as much as others, who were giving up any app that involved contacting others through the internet. Looking back on this now, I’m glad I decided to include Instagram as part of this detox, and in many ways, I wish I also included a lot of the other apps on my phone. 

Going through the actual detox process itself wasn’t too bad of an experience. I think it was healthy for me to step away from these apps for a bit, after all, I was hitting close to 10 hours per week just on TikTok alone. The first couple days felt more like a game than something I was doing for myself. I would think about going on TikTok and then would laugh when I realized I wouldn’t be able to go on. It wasn’t until the third day that things started to feel less like a game and more like an annoying little test that I just wanted to end.

It got to the point where I ended up on apps like YouTube and Facebook, apps I’d argue I haven’t been on in months. Not only did I start going on these apps, but they completely replaced the screen time that was usually spent on Instagram and TikTok. For example, I discovered that I had basically the same screen time for YouTube as I did for TikTok in the weeks before. I’m not surprised this happened, according to the article She makes $2o,000 a month to make 1-minute Youtube Videos. Inside Google’s strategy to beat TikTok, YouTube has been looking to become a stronger competitor against TikTok. With reels almost identical to what’s seen on TikTok, and additional long term video options as well, YouTube could slowly be on the rise and even surpass TikTok’s domination over short video reels.

I must admit, now that I have access to Instagram and TikTok again, I can’t keep myself away from the apps. Going on the for the first time after being gone felt exhilarating. I was having a full-on conversation with a friend when I realized it was midnight and officially marked the end of my social media ban. I’m not proud to say this, but I instantly stopped talking with my friend. My heart started racing and I couldn’t help myself. It felt like I had been missing so much stuff and I needed to catch up on every single thing I could have possibly missed. I don’t think I will be ready to do another social media detox for a bit, but when I do, I am going to take a lot more time to think about how I can make it a smoother and less distracting experience.