Social Media is an infinitely complex medium of creativity, connection, expression, marketing, so on and so forth. But like many people, I find myself every single day scrolling aimlessly through Instagram without a second thought. A few months ago, I found out that my average screen time was between 3-4 hours. That number was insane to me. How could I possibly spend that much time of my day staring into my black mirror? So, I made a conscious effort to get my screen time down, little by little to around 1-2 hours a day.

What helped with this was setting limitations on some of my most-used apps. Such as a social media limit of 30 minutes a day and 30 minutes for Reddit. I found that while I didn’t follow these limits 100% of the time, it made me aware of the time I was spending on my phone more, which over time made it easier to reduce my screen time.

I feel that subconsciously, our phones do control us to some extent. We impulsively open them all day long because each time we do we get instant gratification. It scratches that little itch that says, “see what’s going on now” after only 15 minutes have gone by without opening Instagram.

I have decided to take at a minimum of 30 days away from social media, to see how it changes me and my perception of social media. I know the realm of social media will go on just fine without me, I may miss a thing or two, but it will allow me to refocus my conscious attention to all the things that I feel social media takes away from in my daily life.

I will admit, I have wanted to do this for a long time, but the singular reason that has been holding me back is that I use social media to share my content with the world. It is how I’ve been able to share my writing with people and express my ideas. Social media is how we build our brand nowadays right? But sometimes a detox is exactly what we need to. I told myself that without social media,  what is the point of writing something that nobody will read because I cannot post it? What a ridiculous thought to think that social media controls how and when I write. That’s exactly the kind of thinking that makes social media the game over the mind.

Stepping back and letting go always gives helps you to see the world through a new pair of glasses. Right now, I’m letting go of social media for a little bit. See you all on the other side.