I decided that I was going to challenge myself. No social media. At the time I didn’t know how long I was going to do it. I decided that I needed a break. Christmas break was two days away, and I was looking forward to not having to put up with any drama at school for a week and a half, but I realized that I wanted to get even further away. The only way I could think of doing that was to take a break from social media.
DAY 1: Thursday, December 20.
I had had a very bad day at school. I was sick and tired of the drama and I was stressed about my chemistry final. I think it was about 6 or 7 that I decided I was going to stay off social media. I had done a social media fast a few months before. I had only challenged myself to 24 hours and I allowed myself to use Snapchat. This time I was not going to use Snapchat.
I posted on my story that I didn’t know how long it would be and gave my phone number in case someone needed to contact me.
That first night I did really well. Of course I would catch myself clicking on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat but I’d put it down. I didn’t delete the apps from my phone because I have everything arranged on my home screen how I like it, so I just logged out. If I did happen to click on an app I would see that I was logged out and stop myself.
DAY 2: Friday, December 21
Usually everyday when I wake up I have a planned 10 minutes that I lay in bed awake before I get ready for school. I usually spent this time on social media. I caught myself reaching for my phone to do just that. Then I remembered. So I was on my phone but I was doing a puzzle.
I don’t ever use my phone at school so that was no problem. But I got home and I was constantly picking up my phone to just scroll through Facebook.
This was the day that I cheated a bit. I looked on Snapchat to see who all saw my “I’m leaving social media” post. I had also found out that one of my friends brothers had gotten engaged. I logged onto Instagram to see the post.
DAY 3: Saturday, December 22
That morning we went out of town to get together with family to celebrate Christmas. This was the day that I was really thankful to be off social media.
I was able to sit and hang out with my cousins without the temptation of looking at my phone all the time.
The two girls close to my age and I went to Barnes and Nobel and hung out for hours just talking. We only looked at our phones if our parents were texting us.
It was AMAZING. I was able to enjoy being with them and genuinely having fun and meaningful conversations.
DAY 4: Sunday, December 23
This day went really well even though there was a long car ride. I wasn’t really tempted to go on social media at all. Instead, I hung out with my cousins for the last little bit we had and talked to my sister.
Since I wasn’t on my phone as much on the drive home, I was really able to stop and think. At this point I don’t know when I am going to go back on social media. I think I want to stay off until after Christmas though. I want to really be able to spend time with my family this holiday. I want to be able to really enjoy it.
DAY 5: Monday, December 24
This was a super easy day. It is getting easier everyday to stay off social media.
We had a big family get together and I was able to visit rather than sit on my phone all day.
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The rest of the days went similar. I logged back onto social media on Wednesday, December 26. I had successfully gone through Christmas without using social media.
As I was going through the fast, I thought that once I logged back on that I would want to catch up with everything that I had missed, but that was not the case. I checked one account and that was it.
In the days that followed I found that I was using social media a lot less than I had been before. It was actually really nice. I have only snapchatted one person since my fast and it doesn’t even bother me. I find myself forgetting to check people’s stories and I found that it didn’t matter as much to me now as it did before.
I went into this fast just needing a break from everything. I had no idea what I was going to get out of it or even how long I was going to do it for.
I am so glad that I did this. It made me realize that social media is not that important. It also showed me that I don’t have to be on social media 24/7, I’ll survive. I am also happier when I am not on social media too much.
I think that everyone should try to do a social media fast, you will be amazed at the results.
Kaitlin’s Life 