Over the last year or so, I’ve found myself constantly checking the feeds of the social apps on my phone. It escalated to a point where I felt it was taking time away from things I wished to do in my free time — read books, research, think, strategize for world domination betterment. I would pick up a book, but 5 mins in, I’d put it down to check my Snapchat feed or reply to WhatsApp messages. My Instapaper reading list was getting out of control.
If you want to change something in your life, especially, habits, I’ve found that you’re often more likely to succeed if you take small steps than make drastic changes. Having had enough, I decided to take a small step and delete a couple of social apps from my phone for 10 days. Snapchat and WhatsApp were the ones to go.
The first day, I had major withdrawal symptoms. I thought to myself: How are people going to reach me?! What if I miss something really important that’s going on?? What are people doing, where are they going, what are they eating??!! I felt so out of the loop. FOMO was off the charts.
Over the next few days, as I learned to disconnect and be more comfortable with my solitude, I felt an almost numbing sense of calm. I started meditating, thanks to NYTimes How to Meditate guides. I started picking up my Kindle in the evenings and on trains. I started writing. I started noticing the serene silence of time pass by. My attention increased. Work-related email became even more manageable and my responses became faster. I felt I could put myself in the coveted “zone”, where all the magic happens, more easily.
I finally realized all the stuff I was tuning into day in and day out, by sheer force of habit, was making me tune out from things I actually enjoy in life.
Since I still had text messages and email, people who really needed to reach me still could. Worst-to-worst, they could call me, God forbid. I’d still reach out for my phone while reading or writing, but only to find a barren homescreen. The absence of an endless stream of dings instilled a sense of.. freedom at last.
To all you heavy social app users out there, if you’re struggling with a lack of focus and want to recalibrate with the human inside you, I highly recommend this small experiment.
As of yesterday, about 10 days following my hiatus, I got Snapchat and WhatsApp again, owing to the “small steps” ideology. But what’s different this time is that I disabled notifications and put those apps temporarily in a folder labeled “🌀” on the 2nd page of my homescreen. Not only will this test my resistance powers, but also empower me with the skill of not needing to be “off something” to be in control of it.
The value that social media really adds to our life has been a topic of hot debate and research in 2018, with several mitigation strategies. I suspect it will continue to be even more so, and it ought to, as we all struggle to find the signal amidst the noise in our lives.