Taking a break from the mobile phone is an almost-laughable prospect in our tech-saturated environment, and in making this goal, it was never my intention to completely step away from contact with my family and friends. The actual goal was to take a social media break as well as a wasted-time-on-useless-time-wasters break, namely Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. My observations about these apps in particular are that they 1) waste my time, 2) don't make me feel better about myself, and 3) annoy me. You might think that since these are the dominating feelings I get when using these three apps, I would be smart enough to just stop using them all on my own. Clearly that is not the case and I am 100% addicted to these stupid socials. After my husband called me out on this (multiple times) I decided enough was enough and I needed a break.
So for one week in January, I took a break. I logged out of Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook on my phone and my computer, and told myself they were strictly off-limits. If I needed to look up a recipe, I could use my web browser, but otherwise, there was to be no scrolling!
For whatever reason, when I firmly tell myself "no" I'm really good at obeying. Guess I always have been an obedient child, I just didn't realize I could boss myself around ... good to know ...
My week began with many, uncountable instances of habitually trying to open the Instagram or Pinterest app - most of the time it was completely unconsciously done! I was bored, so I picked up my phone and my fingers knew exactly where to tap. Ugh, that autopilot got so annoying! Finally, I semi-broke the impulse and, wouldn't you know it, when I wasn't compulsively reaching for the phone all the time, I actually didn't even remember that I wasn't holding it. I left it in the other room as I went to play with my son or watch TV with my husband or work in the yard. There were even 2 days when I didn't even unplug the phone from the charger (probably bad for the battery ... oops.)
The real kicker of all of this is that, for me, I would log on to Facebook or Instagram all the time because I was afraid of missing out on something, but as far as I could tell, in the one week that I didn't check my feed, I didn't miss a single thing that I truly care about. Once my week was up and I allowed myself to log on again, I looked at the posts my friends (you know, my actual friends) had made, wrote meaningful responses to the things I truly cared about, then then (holy smokes!) I logged off and put it away.
I don't know about anybody else, but I know that my life is more relaxed, less competitive, and generally happier when I'm not worrying about something else in the back of my mind.
Yes, I'm back on my socials now, but I'm consciously choosing not to let it rule me. If I'm going to watch TV or play with my son or work in the yard, I leave my phone on the kitchen counter. Because I don't need it.
Just yesterday, I logged off of Facebook again on my phone. Turns out, most of the stuff that's on there, I 100% do not care about. If you haven't tried cutting the cord, you might just try it sometime, you may find, like I did, that separating yourself from shallow, worldly, and addictive things is unbelievably liberating, and taking control of your time, your thoughts, and your habits, it empowering. And I hope you find, like I did, you'll feel like a new person at the end of it!
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