I went on a 5-day social media cleanse, and it had both negative and positive effects–though the positive (probably) outweighed the negative.
Social media has become a large part of teenagers’ lives. TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat give people a constant source of entertainment, as well as a cheap source of dopamine. With how integral social media is to people’s lives, it’s interesting to see what happens when it’s taken away.
The first day, I found myself compensating for the lack of socials with other digital activities, namely phone games. This worried me a little bit because I wasn’t really doing anything except just being on my phone.
The second day went much better. I checked out a book I’d been wanting to read from the library and spent the time I would normally be scrolling through social media reading. No socials also let me focus more on my homework.
Days three through five went pretty much the same as day two, with the addition that I felt much less tired throughout the day, which I thought was interesting.
The major negative effect of my social media cleanse was that I felt much less connected to some of my friends. I don’t have TikTok, but I do have Instagram, and I was a little sad to not see what’s going on in my friends’ lives. Plus, I’ll exchange funny reels and posts with some of my closer friends and family members, and I couldn’t see anything they were sending me while I was off socials.
Snapchat was a little easier to give up because I don’t use it as much. However, the ten or so people I actually communicate with on Snapchat are people I rarely see in person; our chats on Snapchat are the main way we keep our relationships alive, so that was one thing I missed the most.
Overall, my social media cleanse did me more good than harm. It made me realize just how dependent I was on socials for entertainment — and sometimes relationships — and it’s inspired me to be more present in life instead of just scrolling through.
It makes my day better when I listen to a good playlist.
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