Today I want to talk to you about a recent life experience I had. After watching the documentary ” The Social Dilemma,” I decided to freeze all my social media accounts and use my mobile devices less, and I did this for about two years. If you’re curious about how my life changed, let’s get started.
How did it all begin?
Like many people, I was confined to my home during the COVID period while continuing my master’s studies. With the arrival of the pandemic, I, like everyone else, started taking classes online and doing many things in my life via the internet.
Even before the COVID period, I regretted the time I spent on social media and mobile devices. When you’re indoors all day, you naturally become even more dependent on these devices, and while looking for something to watch on Netflix, I came across the documentary ” The Social Dilemma “.
This documentary is the kind that details the harmful effects of social media on different age groups using scientific research. And I found many of its conclusions to be correct. I was born in 1996, so I can say I’m from the last generation that had a wonderful childhood. These kinds of devices exploded in popularity during my final years of high school and throughout my college years.
Therefore, I actually feel somewhat lucky, because I think those who reach adulthood without being exposed to too many electronic devices can live without being overly dependent on such platforms.
First step
But after finishing the documentary, I first asked myself what would happen if I didn’t use these devices for anything other than necessities for six months. Then I froze all my social media accounts, starting with Instagram, which took up most of my time, then Twitter, and finally Facebook and LinkedIn, which I hadn’t touched for years, one by one. I only kept the essential apps on my phone. If you’re wondering what those apps were, banking apps, navigation, WhatsApp, note-taking apps, Spotify, Translate, Dropbox, Amazon, Uber, and the app for the gym I go to – the apps I constantly need.
What has changed in my life?
Honestly, I experienced many of the things they talked about in the documentary during the first week. They mentioned that the addiction level of social media and mobile devices is almost the same as drug addiction, and I realised that was true in the first week.
For the first few days, I was constantly picking up my phone, unlocking the home screen, and looking for something to kill time, just like a drug addict. Especially when I took a break from studying, social media was a kind of distraction for me. However, none of the apps I left on my phone were apps I would frequently check. For example, you only use a banking app when you have a banking transaction, and that takes at most 5-6 minutes. Or, when you use navigation to get somewhere, you don’t need that app again once you reach your destination.
Since you didn’t have any interesting apps, I reverted to an old habit that anyone in my age group would remember: reading old messages. But nobody sends messages like they used to, so that wasn’t enough to keep me occupied either.
At the end of the first week, I decided to check my total screen time, and I can say the results were shocking. My average daily usage time, which was 4-4.5 hours, dropped to less than 40 minutes. In the following weeks, I used my phone much less and no longer felt the need to use it as much as before.
I’m going on vacation, but I don’t have Instagram.
After 4-5 months, my need for social media and other apps I used to spend time on had completely disappeared, until I went on vacation. As the effects of COVID-19 lessened, life was returning to normal, and I decided to go on a vacation with a close friend. Generally, people use these platforms more frequently during vacations. I, too, would share a few stories and add a few photos to my social media accounts when I was on vacation. I can say that this social media-free vacation was much better than I expected. While many people around me were busy recording stories and posting photos on social media, I realised I was one of the rare people who simply enjoyed the moment.
It has become more important to show that you are somewhere than to actually be there.
When we went to the world-famous Museum of Natural History, there was an incredibly long queue outside, and even though I’m a big museum enthusiast, I only visited it twice. However, everyone visiting the museum, young and old, was touring it on their phone screens. People preferred watching the experience on their phone screens rather than seeing it with their own eyes, and the effort to prove they were there had taken precedence over being physically present.
There’s nothing wrong with taking photos and immortalising those moments, but dedicating every single second to it somehow seems ridiculous to me.
So what’s the current situation?
So, how long have I been doing this, and what’s the current situation? For about two years, I didn’t go back to any of the apps. After two years, I reactivated my Instagram account, but I didn’t return to Twitter and Facebook because I didn’t use them much. However, after such a long break, I now only add 2-3 things to Instagram at most per year. If you ask why I returned to social media after two years, it’s because even though I had the phone numbers of the people I met, I never called any of them, and our connection was broken very quickly. The ability of these platforms to connect people was the factor that pulled me back. Being able to stay in touch with friends living in different parts of the world is perhaps the only benefit I’ve seen from these apps.
After this long journey, I’ve concluded that while these platforms definitely have advantages, their developers are also constantly increasing the number of ways they can make you addicted. After such a long break, I realised I’m not someone who searches for these tools very often anymore. Also, since I dedicate my free time to other things, like creating this podcast, I don’t have much time to spend on these platforms.
What should be done?
But I’m in my early 30s, and even as a mature individual, it’s very difficult to disconnect from this platform. You go through the same processes as those with substance addiction, and then I think about the generations who were born into this technology.
The question is, what is the extent of their addiction to these devices, these tools, and will these young people, these children, be able to detach themselves from these devices in the future? This aspect of the issue is shared in a very painful way in the documentary ” The Social Dilemma .” There is nothing wrong with using these devices, but when they turn into an addiction, it can have truly terrifying consequences.
Therefore, please be a little more careful when using these vehicles and at least try to limit the time you spend using them.
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