Day 021. Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL

A Millennial's Digital Detox Diaries: Reflections.

Oct 29, 2024

Let’s reflect on social media for a moment.

It’s honestly more than a platform. Whether or not you’re ready to admit it or not, social media is really, more a way of life than mere product or platform.

How do I use social media? What value does it add into my life (or doesn’t)? Does social media add to my life or does it steal value?

I am clearly, still deciding.

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Does my social media use align with my values?

Is the way I use social media a way to define my values? What do I gain from using it? What do I lose from using it? Do I feel more empowered and connected while using it? Or do I feel more depleted and disconnected? Do I gain a sense of connection when I am active on it?

Setting clear and healthy boundaries is what I am after.

What time limit is appropriate for me? Which platforms do I want to continue to use and which do I want to stay off completely? Does it matter which ones I use? How do I want to continue to engage with social media that’s beneficial for me? Am I adding value to others by staying active? What value can I create when I am on it? How can I use social media to enhance my life’s mission?

These are some of the questions I am asking myself.

Can I be more mindful with my social media use? Can I change the paradigm of how I choose to use it, to add more value into my life and the world? If it’s a neutral tool, then how do I use this tool to my advantage?

Can I practice being more mindful while scrolling? What does mindful scrolling look like? Is it about creating better boundaries about the content I allow through? Is it about the accounts that I engage with? Or is it about decluttering the people I no longer interact with in person, but still follow?

Does it matter who I still follow? Do people care if I unfollow? Does it even matter if I don’t see that person in real life, ever? Should our online worlds reflect our real life networks? I wonder.

If social media is a tool, then I certainly am able to curate my experience of it.

Am I able to recognise when social media is a positive or a negative in my life? How do I safeguard myself from negativity? How can I embrace more positivity through it?

Which accounts make me shrivel? Which accounts help me glow? Are there particular types of content that inspires and uplifts me? Which accounts does the opposite? Do I need them all to be in my life?

Is it really all a waste of time or am I looking at it all wrong? How can I use social media to enhance my real-life relationships? How can I use social media to compliment my experience of life?

It’s nice to contemplate these questions because I realise more and more that I am the one that’s responsible. I am accountable to whatever I decide.

These regular, self-imposed, regular breaks are needed and nice.

What offline activities can I prioritise while I am off? How do I stay connected with friends and family without relying on social media? But I admit, there’s also something nice and simple about engaging over social media, what are those reasons? I wonder.

These are just some questions I am thinking about. They’re not particularly monumental—I realise— but they’re important, especially if we’ve never paused to think about it all.

If social media is going to continue to exist and our world increasingly continues to be ruled by algorithms, then at the least, I want to give myself the chance to think independently without it always convincing me of things all the time.

What do you think?

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