In the morning before class, how many times do you pick up your phone? Even if it’s just to glance at it for a second. How about before bed; do you scroll on your phone? What about while eating meals or going to the bathroom? If you said yes to those questions, you might have a problem.
It is very normal to have a problem with your phone, especially in the last few years. Most of the time, people feel connected through their phones. Using social media as a replacement for actually socializing might be normalized, but it isn’t normal. Smart phones have only been around for 30 years, and social media has only been around for 25 years. People existed for thousands of years before that.
A year ago, if you asked me about my screen time, I wouldn’t show it to you because I would be embarrassed. It was much higher than I wanted. Little did I know, most people my age had a similar screen time. I only attempted to rid myself of this problem in the last couple months.
I wasn’t having as much success as I would have liked, until I realized the root of the problem was social media. I spent hours scrolling through TikTok. It wasn’t my fault, though. It was designed to be addictive. The more people see the ads on these platforms, the more money these companies make. Of course I would fall into their trap.
The week that I removed all social media apps from my phone was the week my phone problem went away. It took me a couple days to adjust to life without social media. I wasn’t expecting the amount of free time I would have. I thought all my time was taken up by school and work, but it turns out that it was the time I was spending on my phone.
In the morning, I wouldn’t check my phone. I would just get out of bed and get on with my day. I suddenly had so much time to start and end my days. Every moment that I spent checking my phone during the day was freed. Of course, I still check texts, and my friends will send me videos from social media that I would like. As long as I don’t have the app on my phone, I don’t have a problem.
A big part of the decision was being okay with feeling left out of trends and jokes that I wouldn’t understand. Bonnie, a UMass Boston student, also doesn’t use social media. She said, when you’re on social media, it’s like “you’re in your own bubble. I can see how everyone else is so into it. They’re always scrolling. It’s all people do.”
Because everyone on social media consumes the same content, they form similar thoughts and ideas, which causes trends. When deleting social media, it may seem like you are cut off from that world, but the people in your real life have so much more to offer. Hearing the thoughts and ideas of people you know in real life exceeds anything on the internet.
When you delete social media, you’re forced to socialize with the people around you. Instead of bonding over a trend from the internet, you bond with each other on a deeper level. You don’t really have a choice on this because you wouldn’t know any social media trends anyway. It becomes easier to make friends in real life, when you stop trying to be friends with people over social media trends.
“It’s worth it to delete it,” said Bonnie to people who want to delete social media. “You don’t miss out on anything. There’s more to life than what’s on your screen. I think it would help a lot with social anxiety and making friends.”