I deactivated my Facebook.

Audience: *gasp*

I’ve also deleted Instagram from my phone, and am severely curtailing my Snapchat and Reddit usage. I’m still going to use Messenger, because logistically it’d be a nightmare trying to coordinate group members and classmates. I’m also going to use Twitter sparingly — for podcast research about once a week and to tweet happily whenever the Sixers win a game (#TrustTheProcess). And obviously, I’m not going to be a total hermit so I’ll still text and call people.

There isn’t a concrete reason behind this, but I’m going to try to codify why I’m doing it, mostly so I can look back and post monthly status updates on how it’s going.

  • It’s become a habit. I wake up every morning and slide my hand underneath my pillow, pull out my phone, and start swiping away notifications and messages and emails. I don’t even put on my glasses. If I’m sitting on the toilet, I’m on Twitter. Immediately after opening a new tab, my finger will hit ‘F’ because I’ve conditioned myself into going to Facebook. This is f**king terrifying.
  • It’s too repetitive. This is a by-product of the bubble I’m in. Social media stinks when everyone posts the same thing from a current event. I saw it on November 9th, when everyone in my online circle (including me) ended up posting similar statuses filled with shock, hashtags, sadness, and links to thinkpieces and open letters. I saw it yesterday when everyone made Instagrammed the same picture of themselves at a #WomensMarch and made Facebook posts about it. I was an active participant in the online hivemind, when I and others live-tweeted our reaction to Trump becoming President and his subsequent speech, spitting out tweets that preached to the choir because we chased that dopamine rush that comes from the retweet and the like.
  • It’s affecting my mental state too often. I find myself being constantly upset over the things that are happening in the world because I’m constantly plugged into what’s happening. I could stop caring about what happens in the world, but that’s a callous response and I’m just not wired that way. I could do without the shitty hot takes from people I follow both sides of the political spectrum, because I’m neither willing to spend time to argue about the topic nor am I willing to unfriend or mute the offended person. Which in turns leads to me raging internally until the next hot take comes around or I find something else to distract me.
  • It’s too distracting. This one you know. There’s so many apps and Chrome Extensions out there that block the distracting sites so you can get work done. I could be so much more productive if I was able to focus on the task at hand instead of being distracted by the memes, snapchat stories, and conversation that resulted from social media, and given the ridiculous amount of work this semester promises to throw at me, less distractions is a good thing. Not 100% of the time I spent on social media will realistically be directed to productivity, but it could help in other areas like eating and sleeping right, exercising — silly things like that.

Social media is a really powerful tool, and I think that I along with others are starting to abuse it. It’s great when used to discuss and debate ideas between people with different opinions, or being used to connect people with similar interests and mobilize them like yesterday’s #WomensMarch. It’s when it connects people with others that have similar interests and only those with similar interests is when it starts to spoil. Hopefully, withdrawing from the Internet and getting myself back into the real world is a good detox diet.

I’ll try to make posts on Medium every so often this semester, updating my three dedicated readers on how this experiment has affected my life. In the meantime, talk to me in person.