I left social media and do I regret it?

Hiya!

So it's been a month and 8 days since I quit social media. 

What do you mean QUIT?!

You asked? So when I say quit, I literally mean I quit. I left Facebook, Instagram, twitter and snapchat. I permenantly deleted my main accounts on these platforms. 

To be truly honest with you, so far I have not really felt anything about it. It has just been a quiet month for me. And a month of social-media-voidness in my life is too short of a period of time to actually comment on it.

I am a social media addict hands down. My biggest problem was Facebook. I literally couldn't stop scrolling down. I could lie down on my bed or on the sofa and start scrolling for hours and hours non-stop! It just never ends. My addiction was as bad that if I open my web browser on my computer or on my mobile the first thing I would do would be to press "F" and hit enter. Bam! Facebook will officially be the first thing I would go to even though I needed to do something else. That's how bad my addiction was. 

But that is not the only reason why. I feel that Facebook had become so impulsive for me. Everything I saw on Facebook was like "The News" for me that needed my attention. Every comment made was so wrong that they always trigger me to hit reply to that nonsensical, rude and blasphemous remarks. I become so overwhelmed with emotions every passing day. 

This is too sad, that is too outrageous. Why do people do this? Why can't they understand?


When I look back and really contemplate on how I utilise my time, I couldn't lie to myself that I have engaged in so many superficial things especially social media. It adds NOTHING to my life. Well probably frankly ever SO LITTLE! I wanted to do online courses where I actually learn something. I wanted to add value and transferable skills. I want to read more books. And I want to start blogging again. I want  to do A LOT of things and I could not afford to waste it on social media.

I woke up one morning realising that I needed to quit now. Whatever the consequences I will have to embrace it. I went to youtube and listened to Cal Newport's lecture at TEDx talks, Quit Social Media. He is the famous writer who coined the term "DEEP WORK" and whom later became one of my favourite authors! I even bought a copy of his book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World and later bought the accompanying audible version of the book. ps Let me know if you want a review on the book :p

I thought to myself, whatever this guy is saying is so true! It was so mind-blowing to me. I have listened to a few others YouTubers who shared their experience of quitting social media. Cal's insights made the most sense to me. I contemplated for a while and decided to just... Do it. 

I went to https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account to permanently delete my account. I clicked the "delete my account" button and thought, THAT'S IT, I'VE DONE IT!! I was about to celebrate my new accomplishment but there was a glitch. Facebook gave me 14 days before it was permanently deleted. 

14 DAYS? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE I DON'T HAVE THAT MUCH WILL POWER TO LAST ME A FORTNIGHT!!!!!

I thought that was it. I could have never lasted 14 days without logging into my facebook back. Looking at my past records of million attempts on deactivating Facebook only to log back in again, I really doubt myself. But I eventually did it. 

Do I regret it?

Not really. In fact, I think I would like to keep it this way as long as possible. Don't get me wrong, I do intend to go back to social media BUT when I do, I really wanted to do it deliberately, not impulsively.
It takes a while to social-media-detox your mind. Even though I was not engaged in social media anymore, I tend to slip into the world of gaming. Whenever I feel extremely bored, and being an ENFP  I will become bored 1000 times faster than the rest of the humankind, I will go to the app store and install some games.

I still had not become as productive as I would like to be but, baby step at a time. At least there were no games that I have not uninstalled within a week.

I still need to read more book, rather than watching movies or dramas.

I still need to finish a hundred courses I have signed up for but never finish any of them.

I still need to review my course contents.

In a nutshell, I am still very far from my target but right now, I am happy to know that I can gain enough will power if I work towards it and persevere.

That is all of my rant tonight. Till next time,

Adios <3