I’m someone who struggles with getting stuck on my phone and scrolling for hours over the span of the day on social media apps such as Twitter, Instagram and Discord. Alongside scrolling through my feed, I use social media to talk to my friends and post my art and photography. Scrolling through my feed allows me to receive small amounts of dopamine in the form of memes or images.
Although I may sometimes find cool music or art, the amount of time spent is not worth it most of the time. A while ago I realized that I could be using the time I spend on social media to complete my homework or pursue my hobbies. In 2024 I wanted to break this habit so I set off to try and use social media less for a whole week to see the results
On the first day and second day, my strategy was to keep the apps on my phone but ignore them by turning my notifications off and not opening them whatsoever. But once I got to school I instinctively grabbed my phone and opened Instagram without even realizing it. I think it’s interesting how my muscle memory knew exactly where to go upon grabbing my phone. I was motivated to make a change in my life so I was able to ignore it for most of the day, but towards the end I faltered and ended up talking to my friend on Discord.I noticed that speaking to my friend and scrolling on discord had taken up a lot of time which I could’ve spent studying,which made me feel angry since I had an upcoming test on Friday.
On the third day I decided that simply ignoring the apps on my phone wasn’t enough, so I changed my strategy by deleting the apps completely. This day was the day before my test and while I was studying I realized that I grabbed my phone and opened it only to find no social media, which made me focus on the task at hand. I usually turn my phone off to study but the thought of there being nothing on my phone to entertain me even if I did have it off made me focus much better.
On the fourth day I was forced to download Instagram again due to a group project for a school assignment. I checked my notifications and realized it only took a couple minutes to respond to the messages I had received. This made me think of all the time I spent on the app before in comparison to the actual amount of time I needed to respond. This realization made me want to go on social media even less.
The sixth and seventh days were the weekend. Even though I had the apps on my phone again, my new realization made me angry with the time I had wasted on social media when I could’ve been doing things I wanted to do. I had been wanting to get into watching more films so I spent the weekend making art and watching the movies I had saved on my watchlist. I was astonished at the amount of things I could accomplish when I regained the time I had spent scrolling.
The last day was on a Monday, which went smoothly. I was motivated to watch some movies which made me try to get my homework done as fast as possible. This efficiency wouldn’t have been possible with my old habits.
During this challenge I learned that I am more than capable of being much more productive with my free time, and that while a breaking bad habit that provided instant gratification was hard, I ended up being much happier in the long run. Although I may still use the apps for communication and posting art and pictures, I use them much less and try to spend much more time doing more fulfilling things that I enjoy more. I would consider this habit break to be successful.
