I Took a Week Off From Social Media. Here's How it Changed My Life.

I recommend anyone who is reading this to try it for themselves.

Screens were designed to distract us, and their use in our lives continues to grow exponentially. I would be at a stoplight, and when I look left or right the drivers around me are almost always on their phones. Even when observing the people crossing the street, I notice that the majority of the time that they are looking down at their phones. As a product of the digital age, choosing to give up social media for a week was a big deal for me. For most kids of my age, social media plays a huge role in their lives.

If you want to comprehend the growth of screen usage, think about two of the most valuable companies in America, Alphabet Inc. (Google) at $790.61B and Facebook at $577.63B. According to the IAB, there has been an exponential growth in the amount of money spend on digital advertising, with the rate at around $900 million in 1997 before jumping to $88 billion as of 2017.

At the start of 2019, I started to realize that I was addicted to my phone. I started to place time limits on apps on my phone, but most of the time I would find myself overriding the app restriction. Initially when I made the change, I felt as if I had so much free time on my hands. It sounds cliche, but I was more present than ever, properly living in the moment. It felt like there was an empty void that normally filled my attention.