3 things I learnt from quitting social media for 30 days
Despite growing awareness around ‘digital health’, social media use continues to grow and is currently at an all time high. 62% of polled UK adults say they ‘hate’ how much time they spend on their phone, with Millennials being the worse offenders, spending around 4 hours on their phones every day.
Aware that these figures described my own habits quite accurately, I wondered what benefits I might gain from stepping away from social media for an entire month.
Would I become more productive, more focused? A better parent or partner perhaps? Maybe I’d just be bored.
So I decided to quit social media for the entire month of March. I deleted all the social media apps from my phone and signed out of my online accounts, vowing not to return for at least 30 days. (I also deleted any other apps on my iPhone that were non-essential, such as Amazon and Gmail as this was part of a wider ‘digital detox’ experiment.)
These are the 3 most important things I learnt from living without social media for a month.
I had more time to spend on meaningful activities
Before my social media detox I was averaging 5 hours of screen time per day. This seems crazy to think now, as I write this article a few days after the end of my detox. By the last week of my social media detox I had my daily average down to 1.5 hours, and yesterday I spent under 45 minutes looking at my phone!
Less time on my phone has freed up time that I can spend doing the meaningful activities in my life I care about.
We’ve all found ourselves guilty at times of blaming an inability to pursue our passions, or even something as simple as to read a book on a lack of spare time. You know, “I’d love to learn the guitar but I just don’t have the time.” This kind of excuse doesn’t hold any weight if, like I was, you are spending hours a day on social media.
So what did I do with all my spare time?
Not wasting my time on social media allowed me to read 4 books last month (if you’re interested in which ones I’ve listed them at the bottom of this post) and publish 4 new articles on this blog. As well as this, I scheduled more time with my daughter and set aside time to organise my finances (more on that later) and plan for the future.
I got distracted less and could focus on my work for longer
Disconnecting from social media for a whole month made me realise how much of a distraction my iPhone is. A recent study revealed that we check our phones, on average, every 12 minutes and it’s estimated that over 210 million people worldwide suffer from internet and social media addiction.
Most of us are probably more addicted to social media than we’d like to admit. I know from my own experience that having constant access to social media apps on my phone is a huge source of distraction in my life. Social media dilutes my attention in so many situations, from work tasks to lunch break conversations.
As soon these social media apps were not my phone, I had nothing to distract me. In the first few days I really noticed how much I’d impulsively reach for my phone and unlock it, only to remember that there was nothing there. My attention span had obviously suffered over the years since owning a smart phone.
Happily, it didn’t take long to retrain my attention muscles.
By the second half of my social media detox I was becoming much better at sitting down to a piece of work and maintaining my focus on that task for longer periods of time. I rediscovered how satisfying it is to commit full attention on my work, which is ultimately a more rewarding (and productive) way of working.
I spent less money and saved more
I’ll admit it: spending time on social media leads to me spend more money. I blame Instagram mostly.
Social comparison has been proven to lead to depression and feelings of inadequacy. As I scroll through my own Instagram timeline its likely that I’ll see images of expensive bikes, clothing, lavish food and exotic holiday locations. Most of us know that we’re seeing a curated highlights reel of people’s lives on Instagram, yet these images start to feel like the norm and consequently this fuels a subconscious compulsion in us to keep up with a fake lifestyle.
It’s no coincidence that in March, when I quit all social media, I spent less money than I have in recent memory. (I checked as far back as I could be bothered in my bank statements!) I made it to the end of the month comfortably with money in my account to spare, that I distributed into various savings pots. I also invested money into a stocks and shares ISA while I was away from social media — something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but never got around to.
It’s said that it takes about 21 days to break a bad habit and since the end of my detox I don’t feel a strong compulsion to return to social media. I’ve logged onto Twitter in the web browser to share some of my blog posts but have not returned to Instagram (and do not intend to). If you feel like you might be addicted to your phone and social media, I strongly suggest committing to a 30 day detox and seeing for yourself what changes it might bring about in your own life.
ps. Here are the book’s I’ve read this month. Both of the Cal Newport ones are great if you are interested in kicking your digital addictions and reclaiming your attention!
