My 2020 Detox

I am coming off of a 12 day social detox. By social, I mean instagram. Why 12 days? It just felt right.

A couple weeks back when we were in the middle of the wildfires in Oregon, I was in a funk. Our air quality was so hazardous that we were more or less quarantined back inside once more. It was a flashback to the early days of the pandemic when we were locked up inside with no knowledge or understanding of when things would or could get better. Newsflash: covid is not over. We have just adapted and adjusted. Remember when hand sanitizer was out of stock everywhere and people were hoarding it? Now think about how nearly every shop or restaurant you walk by or into they have it free and ready for your needs when you enter, exit and reach the register. Wild right?

When the smoke rolled in we were forced to hibernate inside. Typical ‘covid normal’ activities like a walk in the neighborhood, backyard play, visiting a coffee shop to wait in a socially distanced line for an iced latte even was paused. Shops and restaurants were closed down. The smoke was too thick, like a super dense fog for 9 days. This had me spending a lot of time on my screens and specifically my phone.

Cue a text thread with my friends and mention of the Netflix doc Social Dilemma. As a result of my friends’ reaction to the doc and our subsequent discussions I did a quick review of my own habits with the app and decided a detox could be a good personal commitment and why not just start now?

In the early days of quarantine, March 2020, I put some boundaries around my intake of the app. I would wait until noon each day to check in. The news & noise (read: memes) surrounding the pandemic were way too much for me. There was too much to take in. I kept this up for about two weeks but then soon returned to my regular app usage. Checking absent-mindedly and sometimes just instinctively when I would open my phone.

These days I have a lot more free time and down time since leaving work. So, I found that I was checking the app way too often during virtual school spirals and when nothing was going on. Add on the extra anxiety of the wildfires and being stuck in doors. I was giving in to opening the app & scrolling way too often.

Acknowledging this was all that I needed to make the decision to check out from it and see how long I could go. My weekly screen time reports have been down significantly since logging out and I have had a chance to reflect on what I like about the app and what I don’t. I do like sharing my experiences, perspective and point of view, snaps from my life. I do like the conversation that I get to have with friends and followers on the app. But I don’t like how often I was using and checking the app. This is part of why I like having the blog and took some time last week to explore substack. That was most definitely a plug :)

I checked back into the app Sunday and posted a photo I took from the first day of Fall, last Tuesday in Nevada. A run in the desert & a pretty memory of that, very ‘og’ instagram of me. We are road tripping this week back to Oregon & I will definitely be logging into instagram to share some moments from our adventures. But I will be limiting my time and even setting a time limit for the app thru my iPhone settings as well as checking in with myself to see why I am logging in or not. No more scrolling before bed or when watching a show or series.

Not too sound too GOOP-y for ya but I truly recommend a social detox. I think I have in the past tried to tell myself that social media was part of my job, which is true. But a detox is good to give you fresh eyes and perspective on the work you are doing and the work around you. To be inspired by real life and not just digital squares in the palm of your hand.

Have you done a digital detox, considered one? What made you consider it or what is holding you back?

xx ly