A Month off Social Media
At the end of July, I saw a post on Instagram by a man called Dr Rangan Chatterjee. You may or may not follow him, if you don’t, I highly recommend it. He posted something which really intrigued me, he said, for the month of August he will not spend any time on social media, he’ll schedule posts but will not spend any time on the app. It hit me like an hammer. I thought, what a brilliant idea and asked myself is this something I can do. I am sure I can but I have found myself over the last few years slightly addicted to Instagram specifically. I use it a lot for posting photos, videos, getting news, finding work, getting inspiration and generally to distract me.
What I found, some days, I just can’t stop scrolling on it, and then realising that hours have gone past and there are a number of items on my daily to do list which have been forgotten. I know I am not alone in this. Instagram even have stats in the backend to show you how much you’ve been on their app. There are apps you can download which restrict usage of some apps and your phone in general.
Simple things like doing the dishes, washing the bathroom, exercise, getting to sleep at an early (and regular) time and cooking something nice for myself. Time flies by and it gets late, so I rustle up something quickly which doesn’t really hit the spot. You start to realise that if one thing isn’t in place, i.e. the discipline to plan out the day and stay off social media… the whole day is affected, sleep is affected, my thought process is affected and more. It’s an endless cycle and if you don’t jump out of the hamster wheel, it can build into something much worse.
When we are on social media, we get addicted because it is that feeling of instant gratification. Open the app, boom, smile, happy, laugh. Ooh, I like this feeling. I want more and more and more. There really is no hard work in getting that high feeling.
So anyway, thinking about it, I thought about how much value am I actually gaining from using these social media platforms and will it really change if I am not on it constantly. Some people may feel you get the feeling that you are missing out on something i.e. FOMO (fear of missing out). So that settled it, I would move the app shortcut from the homescreen and I will not use it for the month August.
How has it been?
It was incredible. I discovered I had more time for the things that really mattered like… family, friends, food, fresh air and creativity. I have so many things I am interested in and getting off social media really help me focus. That instant gratification is such a huge thing in this day and age. We have it easy. People decide on a whim to change their minds on things based on something cool they’ve seen on social media. The world is painted so very much perfect on social media so we spend most of our time on their wishing our own muddied lives were that perfect. Here’s the thing that I cannot focus on, putting in that hard work that I know will bare fruit in weeks, months and years time. The age of social media tests our boundaries of concentration.
The push of discipline in lives. It’s that discipline that I know will benefit me and yet a few weeks later I have lost that discipline and I go back to being distracted by a fucking dog wearing a jumper, an artist drawing his face upside down or a footballer doing some insane skill. The truth is, yes that may be entertaining for a few minutes but then you are back in the room wondering what you set your mind to an hour ago.
I have so many ambitions for myself, my home and my career. The distractions of entertainment like TV, film, adverts, social media etc give me that temporary high before I realise I don’t have any of that and I never will because I won’t put that hard in. People that do read, practice and try things out, do they have heros and mentors that keep them on the path to their goals or is it a lonely road to that ultimate goals. I read that the goals will be ever changing and if it changes, that means there has been progress. If those goals stay the same, you are not putting that hard work in and you are still.
Time to make those changes and put in the hard work. Some people like encouragement, some need a push and some just put in that discipline that so sorely needed otherwise what will you say to younger self in 30 years time. What will you say?
