February 2, 2024 (Thursday)
As many of you may know, I’m taking a social media hiatus.
I’m a writer; I process my thoughts via writing.
“I don’t know what I think until I write.” - Joan Didion
I’m also an artist at heart. The right side of my brain is visually compelled to document my surroundings; my world.
I realized I needed a place to process my thoughts and document my digital social hiatus. (February 1, 2024—February 1, 2025.)
This blog post will be my “blank canvas,” and a place where I’ll be applying the brushstrokes of my experiences as it pertains to the digital world.
“Social media platforms drive surges of dopamine to the brain to keep consumers coming back over and over again. The shares, likes and comments on these platforms trigger the brain’s reward center, resulting in a high similar to the one people feel when gambling or using drugs.”
www.jeffersonhealth.org
Yesterday, day one, I checked my Facebook and Instagram apps “just to make sure” I didn’t have any new notifications.
Random thoughts:
One of the daughters of a dear friend is going to be having a baby. I’ll miss out on watching everything leading up to, and including the birth announcement. I’ll miss the newborn, 3-month, 6-month pictures. I’ll miss Baby’s first Christmas pictures.
What if someone on Facebook gets sick or dies within this year, and I won’t know about it?
What about next summer’s vacation pictures? I won’t be able to share them until next February!
What will happen throughout this election year? What will be my friends’ and acquaintances’ thoughts about various candidates?
How will I know the latest social media gossip and trends?
I’ll miss seeing graduation pictures this spring. I’ll miss vacation pictures this summer, and bonfire pictures next fall. . . not to mention, everyone’s Christmas pictures.
I’ll miss posting my gardening pictures, and recipes and such. I’ll miss seeing other people’s gardens.
I’ll miss seeing the warm, fuzzy puppies of Instagram!
I’ll miss the video clips of “Everybody Loves Raymond” reruns.
I’ve been following an influencer, a mom of six boys and a complete stranger to me. I watched the births of her last two babies; her family’s move into rental houses; and now, the final move into their dream home. Actually, thanks to her willingness to take the viewer into every aspect of her life, I know every aspect of her family’s life. . .in a creepy sort of way if one really thinks about it. Recently, she put wallpaper on the walls in the kids’ playroom—and it’s not sticking to the wall. I’ll be missing how she fixed the problem!
And the list goes on.
But then I remembered the fifteen-minutes of meditative music I played on my Bible app before falling asleep last night.
Instead of scrolling social media updates and news sites before bed, I shut off my brain, closed my eyes and soaked in the presence of the LORD instead.
I hadn’t done that in years.
And then I slept eight, undisturbed hours.
It was the first deep sleep I’ve experienced in months.
Then, this morning, I played the meditative Bible app again—and soaked in the promises of God Word.
There was no quick Facebook or Instagram scroll. . .that always snowballed into more than a brief glance.
Also, yesterday, I sorted through all of my painting inventory. . .a project I’d been putting off, thanks to social apps.
I also walked with a neighbor in the sunshine and got caught up with her life. (We hadn’t seen each other since Christmas.)
And perhaps one of the best perks from this hiatus. . . it inspired my husband to shut down his apps too. His time on social media and news sites was incrementally increasing throughout the years as well. (He did open a new account with a new name for limited access to a group who share focused information.)
We both engaged in more face-to-face conversation last night without the competition of social scrolling.
We watched a new episode of “Call the Midwife.”
It just felt right. Restful. Peaceful. Calm.
We’re going on get away to Turkey Run State Park this weekend. . . one of our favorite hiking spots. Hopefully, a weekend in the great outdoors will help us get through the worst of the withdrawal phase of this digital addiction. Mindless weekend scrolling tends to be our worst habit.
February 3, 2024 (Saturday)
This morning, I realized I’ll be meditating/soaking in the presence of God for nearly 180 hours this next year. That replaces the 15-minute scroll I did in the early morning and last thing at night. It happened in incremental steps over time.
Now it’s time to hike Turkey Run State Park.
February 5, 2024 (Monday)
So far, Saturday evening was the most noticeable challenging time of detox.
The withdrawal symptoms were an overwhelming “emptiness and sadness.” Not the kind that’s long term, just a momentary “What do I do without scrolling Facebook or the news?” type of subtle panic.
It’s a dopamine surge withdrawal.
It was a sunny day. (A rare occurrence for this time of year.)
Kurt and I had hiked 15K steps of rugged terrain. We were staying at a state park inn with a roaring fire and comfy stuffed chairs—and after dinner in the lodge, my legs were just too tired to move.
I wanted to mindlessly scroll.
I sat through the uncomfortableness of not knowing what to do with my hands; my thoughts.
We watched another episode of “Call the Midwife,” and then I fell into a deep sleep until morning.
On the drive home yesterday, we re-listened to Dr. Phil’s interview with Dr. Kardaras on device addiction in order to solidify our commitment when we returned home.
It was a bit challenging once we got home.
I wanted to post pics of our hiking trip.
I wanted to scroll the latest updates. I’ve now missed several days of updates.
So instead, I watched a YouTube update of a family of six who are homesteading a place in Idaho.
Then, I realized YouTube is the most popular social media app in the US, so I decided to scratch that channel as well.
If I subscribe, I’ll want the updates. [The brain gets a rush of dopamine when an individual gets a social media notification (quote above).]
I unpacked, showered, and then went to bed early instead of scrolling or posting pics.
I notice I fall asleep earlier, and I sleep deeper now without waking a couple of times throughout the night.
My device must’ve done something to rev my brain to prevent deep sleep.
Withdrawal does have its challenging moments of downregulating the dopamine high, but so far, I’m okay.
Random thought: My greatest “panic” so far. . .is not knowing if/when someone is having/had a baby; or not knowing what college someone’s child will be attending next fall; or not seeing someone’s random vacation pictures.
But then I realized, if today would’ve been twenty-one years ago; February 4, 2003, I wouldn’t have known any of the above information.
I go back to life before the invention of Facebook in 2004.
Prior to that time, I only knew the news of close friends via attending a church event, a social gathering, or a phone call or letter. . . and possibly via an annual Christmas letter update from a few close friends.
And even then, I never saw their vacation pictures, etc.
Now, it’s normalized.
Were our brains wired to know the ongoing news of multiple people in one 15-minute scroll?
For centuries prior to 2004, there was an ebb and flow to friendships and acquaintances.
When I went away to college, I made new friends.
When I started my first job after graduation, I made new friends.
When I became a first-time Mom, I made new friends.
For any of these major transitions, my old friends were not tucked in my back pocket or purse. I couldn’t scroll and get an instant update on their lives.
The lack of social media forced me to get out and meet new people—and invest in new relationships.
How has this form of constant updating and communication affected our brains’ capacity to store information? Is our working memory recall now better or worse as a result?
I have so many questions.
Have social media apps gradually encroached on the desire to gather with others in person?
In the interview with Dr. Phil, Dr. Kardaras mentioned the number of young people who date in person is now at all-time low.
It takes too much effort to “go on a date,” not to mention many teens aren’t adept at face-to-face communication skills due to overuse of devices.
Plus, they can get instant sexual pleasure online with just the click of a button. (Not to mention, I recently saw in the news that the invention of AI girlfriends/boyfriends that can now replace in person relationships.)
Dr. Phil mentioned that some teenagers have even lost the desire to get their driver’s license at age sixteen due to devices and gaming.
What?
I joined Facebook around 2009, followed by Instagram in 2017.
The weird thing about social media apps, is prior to using them, I rarely knew the national/international news in real time. If it was really important news, I may have heard about it the next day.
However, in recent years, I’ve saturated my mind with national/global news every morning before getting out of bed—and every night before falling asleep. The door to social media has also opened the door to constant news updates.
Slowly; incrementally; one day at a time, my life went online.
Kurt and I recently watched The Circle starring Tom Hanks and Emma Watson. If you have any doubts about the affects of social media on a society, that movie will clear out sinuses. (I highly recommend watching!)
According to searchengingejournal.com, the Top 10 Social Media Platforms worldwide:
Facebook 3 billion
YouTube 2.5 billion (You Tube is the most popular app in the US.)
Instagram 2 billion
TikTok 1.2 billion
Snapchat 750 million
Twitter 541 million
Pinterest 465 million
Reddit 430 million
Linkedin <350 million
Threads 100 million
There are also 3.32 billion online gamers worldwide.
My random thought: where will we be in another decade of device addiction? What will happen to the next generation addicted to devices?
as the worldwide addiction is getting incrementally more excessive. . .
as this addiction creates more impulsivity, mood swings, and lack of concentration.
Today, I have way too many questions that I hope the next twelve months will answer.
[Throughout the next twelve months, I’ll be posting random blog posts about this experiment on my website. I have absolutely no idea what I’ll learn—or how I’ll change, but I’m excited to find out!]
Emily Boller, artist, mother, and author of Starved to Obesity, lost 100 pounds more than fifteen years ago by eating an abundance of high-nutrient, plant-rich foods. Today, she’s certified in whole plant nutrition from the Nutritarian Education Institute. She’s on a mission to combine practical, no-nonsense and cost-effective tips—with easy to understand science—in order to help anyone escape the addictive grip of the Standard American Diet. And now, she’s on a mission to bring awareness to the suffocating and potentially deadly trap of eating disorders as well.