Day 002. Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL

The Daily Chronicles of a Millennial on a Social Media Detox

Oct 02, 2024

📢❗🚨 Reminder: I’m doing something a little different this October! 📢❗🚨

I’m stepping into a digital detox and taking you along for the ride—five days a week, Monday through Friday.

I’ll publish daily for the month of October, with no promises on what each day will bring. At the end of the month, I’ll assess whether this pace is a welcome change or just a bit too much. But you can chime in and share your feedback with me, too.

If your inboxes feel under siege, you can also tweak your settings here. Otherwise, stay tuned—for a little while— to see what I’ll create.

This detox is my mini-revolt against the attention-grabbing, time-sucking digital overlords. It has been an annual tradition since 2016, but this time, I’m doing my longest one yet—and sharing it all with you here.

It’s my way of reclaiming a sliver of independence over my time, headspace, and attention. It’s a cherished ritual that lets me escape the noise, however brief, to reconnect with my thoughts and creativity.

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Hello friends!

Day two! If you’re not caught up with day one, you can read it here.

It’s also time to get you up to speed—with my 8th Instagram sabbatical.

Let’s start by admitting something we all know but rarely say out loud: Instagram is addictive. It's really, really addictive.

Futile Attempts at Self-Control

For a couple of years, I thought removing Instagram off my iPhone app menu would help me manage my use. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

On an iPhone, you can ‘have the app’ without displaying it on your actual app menu. This means, I literally have to pull up the search function on my iPhone to type ‘i-n-s-t-a…’ before the app appears. Yes, this is the extent I’ve gone to create more barriers between myself and the app.

I’ve even subscribed to the one-hour daily limit available through Instagram itself. It’s a feature I’ve welcomed and found helpful on most days.

The Dopamine Dance

These brief ventures are enough to disrupt my day. Not only does it serve me flashes of quick hits and doses of stimulating content—and dopamine—to interrupt my day, but it also gives me the option to extend for an extra minute, an additional fifteen, or to ignore the daily limit completely. How helpful *eye-roll*.

Image courtesy of Unsplash (Drew Colins).

On those ‘naughtier days’ when I succumb to my digital addiction and ignore my self-imposed limits, I feel like a sugar-crazed kid set loose in Wonka’s factory. But, instead of chocolate, I’m devouring an all-you-can-eat buffet of reels, posts, and content.

The rush? Exhilarating.
The crash? Soul-crushing.
The shame? Let’s not get into it.

It’s a vicious cycle of manipulation that leaves me feeling like a lab rat, deprived and desperate for a pellet of dopamine.

It feels absolutely ridiculous admitting to all of this, but it's the truth, so here we are. An hour a day may not seem like a lot, but that’s 365 hours a year, which equates to about 15 days of my life—vanishing into the Internet ether. And that’s only if I’m disciplined to stay within my hourly limit.

It was not until my first six weeks of abstinence in 2016 that I realised I was, in fact, a full-blown Instagram addict, in total denial about my level of dependence.

That was my wake-up call.

The Instagram Dilemma

Here’s my dilemma, and maybe you can relate: Instagram has become essential, practically synonymous with a corner of the Internet.

It’s not just an app; it’s a digital tool kit. It’s like the Yellow Pages, a personal diary, a TV channel, and a library all at once—if not more.

Need to check out a new restaurant? Instagram. Want to judge a hotel before booking? Instagram. Deciding on a new sneaker to buy? Instagram. What about some laughter in funny videos? Instagram. Looking to connect with new people? Instagram.

Recently, I’ve found myself exchanging Instagram details instead of phone numbers on several social occasions. Wild!

So, to me, leaving Instagram feels almost like I am saying I am rejecting the Internet. Wouldn’t you agree?

Also, as someone trying to build a community online, Instagram is like a free interactive billboard on the high-speed highway of the global Internet, with billions of potential eyeballs. Walking away from it permanently feels like self-sabotage.

The Mission: Coexist Without Losing My Mind

What I hope to learn is how to coexist with Instagram without losing my mind, attention, independence, and self-control. That’s the mission here.

I want to use Instagram without feeling entirely disempowered. I want to avoid falling into groupthink, regain my independence, retain my individuality, and preserve my headspace. Is that even possible? Honestly, I don’t know, but that’s why I am trying to do something about it.

Instagram is rewiring our brains. Silently reshaping how we think, behave, and perceive the world. It’s a greedy consumer of our most precious resources: time, attention, and emotional energy. But, as I said, I am also not shy about admitting that it can be enjoyable, helpful, and practical. Hence, the dilemma.

But it’s also why I believe it’s crucial to examine for ourselves the role Instagram plays in our lives. It’s a deeply personal evaluation based on our values and goals.

We must go deeper and ask ourselves: ‘why am I using it?’ ‘why am I posting this?’ ‘what’s my objective?’ ‘what am I getting out of this exchange?’—and drill ourselves into clearly identifying our whys.

Because is free actually truly free? We need to decide for ourselves the trade-off we're willing to indulge.

On Autopilot

I logged off all my accounts yesterday, October 1st, at around 10:25 am. It’s now 12:59 pm on October 2nd as I finish this first draft.

Guess how many times my brain has redirected me to look for Instagram? Even though I am fully aware that I am on this sabbatical—and fully logged off.

FOURTEEN TIMES.
That’s once every two waking hours— and it’s only midday.

Oh, hello, we have a problem!

The Pavlovian Experiment

What shocks me most is how automated my behaviour has become. My brain is wired for Instagram, visiting the app not by choice, but as a conditioned habit.

Ever caught yourself opening your phone to message someone or pay a bill, only to lose minutes to aimless scrolling? That’s me. By the time I snap out of it, I’ve forgotten why I looked at my phone in the first place—also me.

Removing the app off my app menu suddenly feels pointless, as it’s always at the top of my searches. Instead of a barrier, I think I’ve created a drive-through window. Instagram’s become a persistent dealer, always ready with my next dopamine fix.

These technologies were first introduced with the promise of liberation through convenience. But that pink-orange glow—carefully engineered to be irresistible, by the way—is always lurking, offering easy dopamine hits.

Like Pavlov’s dogs, we’re in this grand social media experiment. Notifications are our bells, and we’re salivating for likes and validation. As we scroll mindlessly, chasing digital approval, our minds are reshaped, our attention fractured, and our essence commodified.

In a world of infinite scrolling, are we still the users, or have we become the used?

Stay tuned. More on this tomorrow.

This series is accessible to as many eyes willing to read as it feels more like a public service announcement (PSA).

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Stay tuned for the next edition of this series tomorrow! Thank you for spending some of your day with me.

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