Hey guys!
It me! I'm alive I'm alive!
You are probably wondering why I'm screaming that I am still alive... Well... Because of this challenge you are about to read now. Yes! I was off social media for almost 2 weeks and oh my days... what a weird 12 days, more like 12 months. Since I did the challenge, I wanted to share with you guys my experience from start to end in full detail. I went transparent with my description and the only thing I missed out was the names of the people I may be mentioning through the blog, due to privacy and anonymity matters. If you are one of those whom I'm speaking about... Hello! Reply to my texts!
FYI: this is going to be a long read so I hope you have some time to read it and if you do thank you for taking your time!
A lot of you who did know about this challenge, you asked me why I took up this challenge. To a lot of you I said there are multiple reasons and it was hard to explain why I exactly did it.
I figured out these were the reasons in a nutshell:
So, my challenge involved being off social media for the rest of the month, which means I will return on the 1st October ('18). When I started, it was the 19th September. Hence, it gives me 12 days, which is basically way over a week but just under 2 weeks so it wasn't too bad. You might be wondering what exactly I went off from. It may be subjective for every individual what they consider being a social media but to me these were the ones I felt were proper "social media". These are the platforms I went off or reduced usage:
This is how my extremely long 12 days went:
Day 1
In the morning, I announced on most of my social media platforms that I was disappearing for a while, just so nobody worried (although I'm sure no one cared).
I kept on checking my phone unnecessarily during lectures.
I may have checked Snapchat to see if one particular important friend messaged me but absolutely didn't check the stories and I still used WhatsApp. I really wanted to use social media in concern of that particular friend but with great effort I prevented myself from doing so.
I had a breakdown at the end of the day. I felt really lost and literally had nothing to do.
It gave me the extra time to clean my room and delayed other tasks.
Somehow after the breakdown, I got busy and still slept really late by doing useless and nonsense work. Part of the work involved my attempt on finding a job prior speaking to my manager.
Day 2
As soon as woke up I checked my phone but only saw the texts. I realised after a bit that social media was not allowed and got up to get ready for lecture. Not going to lie, it made me feel a bit sad.
During the lectures, I kept on checking my phone only to realise I was not allowed to go into social media. I definitely kept on panicking for the FOMO but then I managed to calm down.
Instead, I took the time to look for jobs in recommendation of someone.
I lacked focus during lectures as usual but I definitely was a little bit more focused due to the lack of distraction.
When I looked around, my classmates rather kept using their phones and kept going on to social media (I can sense it from a distance, don't ask how).
I put my phone inside the bag but when it was outside, I kept checking the time every 3 minutes to be precise.
Later in the day, I deleted Snapchat to prevent myself from the temptation to check messages even though I didn't view the stories. On my way back from uni I downloaded a bored button (game)
I should admit I went on Instagram for 2 seconds to check up on a friend who was a concern at that time (not social/pleasure purpose). At that time, another friend caught me and asked why my last active was 1hr ago (detectives are everywhere!).
Day 3
Much reduced use of my phone and much more focused in lecture. I did not even play the game for too long as it got boring (irony is that the game is called bored button). I made notes in the lectures and listened (as should do). It helped because got critical information. I finally stopped worrying of FOMO and didn't attempt to go back in. Althought, I still kept on going on my phone and realising there is nothing to do. I used the phone for useful purposes that were left in the "to do later" list.
At the end of the day, we decided to go to an event as a group and everything went wrong. I actually wanted to snap what a horrible Friday evening it was but realised my restriction.
Eventually I got a bus and some teen girls were so rude (indirectly to me) and didn't have social media to distract myself. Instead, I read my assignment and the Abpi code (a guide on how to promote and market new medicine, in case you were curious).
I calmed down by night time, mainly because I got in touch with the friend I was concerned about.
Also, WhatsApp did get quite busy and exciting at the end of the day so I didn't miss Instagram a lot since I got distracted by the chats. The challenge on this day was that I avoid music on Fridays and nothing entertained me that well. I was tempted to check WhatsApp status posts a couple of times during the day but I didn't do it obviously.
Day 4
First thing in the morning getting it was going to work, which involves travelling for some time. I was getting bored and kept on deciding what to do but there was no major urge to get onto Snapchat or Instagram, which is a major improvement. Before it became tempting to get into Snapchat and save the streaks, I deleted it. I was speaking to the only friend with whom I had streaks and she said it's fine and rather talk on WhatsApp.
My WhatsApp replies were a little slow from my side but they're genuine since I was not getting distracted by anything else.
I saw a YouTuber (London Hacks) in the morning but I felt too shy to approach him for a selfie and let him go. The sad part was that I couldn't even post it on Snapchat or Instagram.
After work is the only little bit of time when everyone waits to leave work and everyone is using their phone but I had to stand idle as I had nothing to do. It makes you feel so annoyed watching everyone be on their socials from afar.
At the end of the day I got so busy with actual and useful work that I felt glad for not using social media and unnecessarily killing time.
Finally I spent the night reading how anti hypertensive drugs (blood pressure medicines) were discovered and the issues they faced with the development of the drug.
Day 5
By now, I had no urge or temptation to use my phone or social media. I had to catch up with unread chats in the morning. I saved plenty of time to get up earlier than I do even after having a long lie in as it was my only proper day off. I must say I kept feeling lazy to pick up my phone and responding to the messages. My focus was to use the time to do something productive, so I used the time to do some personal work and teach my brother maths for his GCSE.
The rest of my Sunday was spent resting from a killer headache, talking to family abroad and generally working. I should admit I did go on YouTube a lot as I got really bored but it was not in my strict no social media list in the first place, the idea was to only to avoid it as much as possible.
Day 6
Neither a strong desire to use social media, nor the bad habit of scrolling through the menu of my phone to figure out on what to do. I spent the time well, working on my coursework and switched to a thinking/reflecting mode.
During the day, I managed to meet my classmates as group and get a lot of planning done for the upcoming assessments, which rarely happens in my case as my friends before were in different courses.
I only watched anime to pass my time during the long commute. I was starting to think of what may be happening on social media but not tempted to be cheeky and check any of them.
While doing some blogging late at night and other work, it gets tiring and it's a challenge to take a break in between as there is nothing to do at the instance you would take a break and hence you get back to the work or blogging. I had a couple of situations where I wish there was Snapchat to show some daily experiences or fun things during the day. Instead, I had to show it to my friends, who honestly didn't seem to care (yay I have amazing friends). I definitely got less distracted while tutoring my students as I checked my phone less regularly.
I had no method to share new blog post due to the lack of social media. The most I could do is to spread the word within friends and hope they read it or blatantly ignore (it didn't get many views).
Day 7
I pretty much spent the time watching anime, shopping, chores, walking and visiting my aunts house. I was not too efficient in terms of work done but I really needed to relax a little bit. I was mainly off WhatsApp too and used YouTube very little. I started to slightly miss social media but as always there was no major urge. Like always, I wished some incidents could've been snapped or put in my Instagram story.
I came to realise that I often face personal issues or I get a lot of depressive moments. Generally it's hard for me to remain happy and it be associated with either an issue I'm facing, a trigger or even for no reason! When I do face such moments normally I tend to distract myself by going on to social media and I'm fine. At this time period, I was thinking about those feelings a lot and had to face the depressive emotions rather than distract myself. If I'm not thinking then I'm overworking myself to distract my mind and get some work done non stop which is surely not the healthiest thing to do.
Day 8
In the morning I got badly distracted by checking emails and messages from friends. Then I got even more distracted by the bored button game as this time it had a really good game of guessing the flags of different countries shown in small images.
I met up with my really good dissertation friends. Me being me, I took the longest route so I spent my time eating (healthy) snacks, listening music, editing this blog and sightseeing Newham and Tower Hamlets.
The friends I was meeting, one of them is a real social media freak and she HAS to Instagram everyone's food so I was a little worried about what I may have to encounter. I thought I would tell them to send me the pictures on WhatsApp so I could post them later but it was not a major concern for me as my main was to spend some quality time and to convince them to not use their phones. Of course, my friend did end up snapping the food and took normal pictures in general but she seemed to respect the decision of not using social and used a little less than she usually does. Well done! (you know who you are).
I had instances where I kept on telling my friend to go on Instagram to show her some pictures and profiles since I couldn't access it. I knew I was missing out on her posts but I could do nothing so it was tempting to check Instagram just to see what she posted. I made the commitment and I did not even peak inside. Apart from the initial days, this day was the most urge I've had to check my Instagram to the notifications from my laptop. I can just tell the DMs are piling up on Instagram but I guess they have to wait a few more days.
Day 9
I got up in the morning at a decent time after going to bed late night, mainly due to my undiagnosed insomnia. My morning was just having my boring breakfast, sitting down on my chair and desk to sort out something private about the blog and just writing/editing the blog post. Blogging takes quite a bit of time from what I experienced since the previous night and the past few days. On the other hand, it has reached to a level where I am happy to keep. When I woke up, I scrolled through my menu being unsure of what to do and wishing I had my social media back. I can't lie I was starting to feel lonely and isolated from my friends at this point. The excitement for these few days to end were high. During the day, I attempted to get some uni coursework done. The assignments are driving me crazy and time just somehow flew, only by researching about it. I was way more focused in tutorial rather than constantly checking my phone like I used to during the first few days. I stayed in uni after my curfew time (it helped me and I had a lot of fun experiencing London at night).
When I came back home I decided I was going to get on work mode. Instead I I got really distracted late at night by the chats but also by scrolling my menu to see what I could do on my phone. I did this when I knew I have to do so much work. I will admit I wasted my night time doing nothing.
Day 10
I had to wake up early and leave home quite early for some family errands. That took majority of my time so by this time I got used to keeping my phone inside my bag or pocket so I didn't end up checking that much. I just used the phone to probably check something online, text someone necessary or talk to someone. The day was mainly busy with errands and fun activities like fitness after ages so it made me feel quite calm and relaxed. At the end of the day I realised I had nothing to do and luckily I carried my tab-laptop with me, hence I just sat down and did some work. On my long walks, I had a chat to myself about how to approach the uni work as it was Friday and I was not allowed to listen to music. It was easy to speak out loud without anyone thinking I became insane as the alleyway I took is dead quite. Basically, if I died or collapsed there, no one would ever find me but it is an amazing shortcut, only safe during daytime (don't tell my parents hahah). I did not miss social media at all and felt like I was more aware of my daily activities and my surroundings, not an artificial or digital life. Late at night I was a little distracted by YouTube and practising the speech for the next day to present at work.
It me! I'm alive I'm alive!
You are probably wondering why I'm screaming that I am still alive... Well... Because of this challenge you are about to read now. Yes! I was off social media for almost 2 weeks and oh my days... what a weird 12 days, more like 12 months. Since I did the challenge, I wanted to share with you guys my experience from start to end in full detail. I went transparent with my description and the only thing I missed out was the names of the people I may be mentioning through the blog, due to privacy and anonymity matters. If you are one of those whom I'm speaking about... Hello! Reply to my texts!
FYI: this is going to be a long read so I hope you have some time to read it and if you do thank you for taking your time!
A lot of you who did know about this challenge, you asked me why I took up this challenge. To a lot of you I said there are multiple reasons and it was hard to explain why I exactly did it.
I figured out these were the reasons in a nutshell:
- Since I'm taking care of my body by trying to sleep slightly early and dieting/exercising to lose weight, I wanted to take care of my mental health by not getting distracted and getting negative/toxic thoughts from social media so I stepped out a little bit.
- I realise I struggle a lot to keep myself happy for a prolonged period of time and if I am not happy or get the depressive thought, I resort to using my phone, which is something I wanted to face and not run away from the issue.
- I saw one of the YouTubers do this challenge and midway, she started to bawl her eyes out so it got me intrigued to try this out and see how it feels from my perspective.
- Honestly, there are way too many bad news around me, be that from friends, very close friends or even family. Couple of these coincidentally happened on my birthday.
- I wanted to stop spamming people with posts through DM on Instagram, since I thought I was being one of annoying friends who keeps sending posts.
- I wanted to practice and improve my self control to avoid getting distracted. On top of that, I wanted to utilise the time to get some real work done because I realised now how much flipping time I wasted and how much time spare time I had during the challenge.
- On the side, the posts on most social media platforms now are really dead and straight up s***.
- I unconsciously like to punish myself, although I kept on convincing myself this was for a good cause.
So, my challenge involved being off social media for the rest of the month, which means I will return on the 1st October ('18). When I started, it was the 19th September. Hence, it gives me 12 days, which is basically way over a week but just under 2 weeks so it wasn't too bad. You might be wondering what exactly I went off from. It may be subjective for every individual what they consider being a social media but to me these were the ones I felt were proper "social media". These are the platforms I went off or reduced usage:
- No Snapchat
- No Instagram
- No Facebook
- No Twitter
- Minimal Messenger
- Minimal LinkedIn
- No WhatsApp status, only chats
- Minimal YouTube
This is how my extremely long 12 days went:
Day 1
In the morning, I announced on most of my social media platforms that I was disappearing for a while, just so nobody worried (although I'm sure no one cared).
I kept on checking my phone unnecessarily during lectures.
I may have checked Snapchat to see if one particular important friend messaged me but absolutely didn't check the stories and I still used WhatsApp. I really wanted to use social media in concern of that particular friend but with great effort I prevented myself from doing so.
I had a breakdown at the end of the day. I felt really lost and literally had nothing to do.
It gave me the extra time to clean my room and delayed other tasks.
Somehow after the breakdown, I got busy and still slept really late by doing useless and nonsense work. Part of the work involved my attempt on finding a job prior speaking to my manager.
Day 2
As soon as woke up I checked my phone but only saw the texts. I realised after a bit that social media was not allowed and got up to get ready for lecture. Not going to lie, it made me feel a bit sad.
During the lectures, I kept on checking my phone only to realise I was not allowed to go into social media. I definitely kept on panicking for the FOMO but then I managed to calm down.
Instead, I took the time to look for jobs in recommendation of someone.
I lacked focus during lectures as usual but I definitely was a little bit more focused due to the lack of distraction.
When I looked around, my classmates rather kept using their phones and kept going on to social media (I can sense it from a distance, don't ask how).
I put my phone inside the bag but when it was outside, I kept checking the time every 3 minutes to be precise.
Later in the day, I deleted Snapchat to prevent myself from the temptation to check messages even though I didn't view the stories. On my way back from uni I downloaded a bored button (game)
I should admit I went on Instagram for 2 seconds to check up on a friend who was a concern at that time (not social/pleasure purpose). At that time, another friend caught me and asked why my last active was 1hr ago (detectives are everywhere!).
Day 3
Much reduced use of my phone and much more focused in lecture. I did not even play the game for too long as it got boring (irony is that the game is called bored button). I made notes in the lectures and listened (as should do). It helped because got critical information. I finally stopped worrying of FOMO and didn't attempt to go back in. Althought, I still kept on going on my phone and realising there is nothing to do. I used the phone for useful purposes that were left in the "to do later" list.
At the end of the day, we decided to go to an event as a group and everything went wrong. I actually wanted to snap what a horrible Friday evening it was but realised my restriction.
Eventually I got a bus and some teen girls were so rude (indirectly to me) and didn't have social media to distract myself. Instead, I read my assignment and the Abpi code (a guide on how to promote and market new medicine, in case you were curious).
I calmed down by night time, mainly because I got in touch with the friend I was concerned about.
Also, WhatsApp did get quite busy and exciting at the end of the day so I didn't miss Instagram a lot since I got distracted by the chats. The challenge on this day was that I avoid music on Fridays and nothing entertained me that well. I was tempted to check WhatsApp status posts a couple of times during the day but I didn't do it obviously.
Day 4
First thing in the morning getting it was going to work, which involves travelling for some time. I was getting bored and kept on deciding what to do but there was no major urge to get onto Snapchat or Instagram, which is a major improvement. Before it became tempting to get into Snapchat and save the streaks, I deleted it. I was speaking to the only friend with whom I had streaks and she said it's fine and rather talk on WhatsApp.
My WhatsApp replies were a little slow from my side but they're genuine since I was not getting distracted by anything else.
I saw a YouTuber (London Hacks) in the morning but I felt too shy to approach him for a selfie and let him go. The sad part was that I couldn't even post it on Snapchat or Instagram.
After work is the only little bit of time when everyone waits to leave work and everyone is using their phone but I had to stand idle as I had nothing to do. It makes you feel so annoyed watching everyone be on their socials from afar.
At the end of the day I got so busy with actual and useful work that I felt glad for not using social media and unnecessarily killing time.
Finally I spent the night reading how anti hypertensive drugs (blood pressure medicines) were discovered and the issues they faced with the development of the drug.
Day 5
By now, I had no urge or temptation to use my phone or social media. I had to catch up with unread chats in the morning. I saved plenty of time to get up earlier than I do even after having a long lie in as it was my only proper day off. I must say I kept feeling lazy to pick up my phone and responding to the messages. My focus was to use the time to do something productive, so I used the time to do some personal work and teach my brother maths for his GCSE.
The rest of my Sunday was spent resting from a killer headache, talking to family abroad and generally working. I should admit I did go on YouTube a lot as I got really bored but it was not in my strict no social media list in the first place, the idea was to only to avoid it as much as possible.
Day 6
Neither a strong desire to use social media, nor the bad habit of scrolling through the menu of my phone to figure out on what to do. I spent the time well, working on my coursework and switched to a thinking/reflecting mode.
During the day, I managed to meet my classmates as group and get a lot of planning done for the upcoming assessments, which rarely happens in my case as my friends before were in different courses.
I only watched anime to pass my time during the long commute. I was starting to think of what may be happening on social media but not tempted to be cheeky and check any of them.
While doing some blogging late at night and other work, it gets tiring and it's a challenge to take a break in between as there is nothing to do at the instance you would take a break and hence you get back to the work or blogging. I had a couple of situations where I wish there was Snapchat to show some daily experiences or fun things during the day. Instead, I had to show it to my friends, who honestly didn't seem to care (yay I have amazing friends). I definitely got less distracted while tutoring my students as I checked my phone less regularly.
I had no method to share new blog post due to the lack of social media. The most I could do is to spread the word within friends and hope they read it or blatantly ignore (it didn't get many views).
Day 7
I pretty much spent the time watching anime, shopping, chores, walking and visiting my aunts house. I was not too efficient in terms of work done but I really needed to relax a little bit. I was mainly off WhatsApp too and used YouTube very little. I started to slightly miss social media but as always there was no major urge. Like always, I wished some incidents could've been snapped or put in my Instagram story.
I came to realise that I often face personal issues or I get a lot of depressive moments. Generally it's hard for me to remain happy and it be associated with either an issue I'm facing, a trigger or even for no reason! When I do face such moments normally I tend to distract myself by going on to social media and I'm fine. At this time period, I was thinking about those feelings a lot and had to face the depressive emotions rather than distract myself. If I'm not thinking then I'm overworking myself to distract my mind and get some work done non stop which is surely not the healthiest thing to do.
Day 8
In the morning I got badly distracted by checking emails and messages from friends. Then I got even more distracted by the bored button game as this time it had a really good game of guessing the flags of different countries shown in small images.
I met up with my really good dissertation friends. Me being me, I took the longest route so I spent my time eating (healthy) snacks, listening music, editing this blog and sightseeing Newham and Tower Hamlets.
The friends I was meeting, one of them is a real social media freak and she HAS to Instagram everyone's food so I was a little worried about what I may have to encounter. I thought I would tell them to send me the pictures on WhatsApp so I could post them later but it was not a major concern for me as my main was to spend some quality time and to convince them to not use their phones. Of course, my friend did end up snapping the food and took normal pictures in general but she seemed to respect the decision of not using social and used a little less than she usually does. Well done! (you know who you are).
I had instances where I kept on telling my friend to go on Instagram to show her some pictures and profiles since I couldn't access it. I knew I was missing out on her posts but I could do nothing so it was tempting to check Instagram just to see what she posted. I made the commitment and I did not even peak inside. Apart from the initial days, this day was the most urge I've had to check my Instagram to the notifications from my laptop. I can just tell the DMs are piling up on Instagram but I guess they have to wait a few more days.
Day 9
I got up in the morning at a decent time after going to bed late night, mainly due to my undiagnosed insomnia. My morning was just having my boring breakfast, sitting down on my chair and desk to sort out something private about the blog and just writing/editing the blog post. Blogging takes quite a bit of time from what I experienced since the previous night and the past few days. On the other hand, it has reached to a level where I am happy to keep. When I woke up, I scrolled through my menu being unsure of what to do and wishing I had my social media back. I can't lie I was starting to feel lonely and isolated from my friends at this point. The excitement for these few days to end were high. During the day, I attempted to get some uni coursework done. The assignments are driving me crazy and time just somehow flew, only by researching about it. I was way more focused in tutorial rather than constantly checking my phone like I used to during the first few days. I stayed in uni after my curfew time (it helped me and I had a lot of fun experiencing London at night).
When I came back home I decided I was going to get on work mode. Instead I I got really distracted late at night by the chats but also by scrolling my menu to see what I could do on my phone. I did this when I knew I have to do so much work. I will admit I wasted my night time doing nothing.
Day 10
I had to wake up early and leave home quite early for some family errands. That took majority of my time so by this time I got used to keeping my phone inside my bag or pocket so I didn't end up checking that much. I just used the phone to probably check something online, text someone necessary or talk to someone. The day was mainly busy with errands and fun activities like fitness after ages so it made me feel quite calm and relaxed. At the end of the day I realised I had nothing to do and luckily I carried my tab-laptop with me, hence I just sat down and did some work. On my long walks, I had a chat to myself about how to approach the uni work as it was Friday and I was not allowed to listen to music. It was easy to speak out loud without anyone thinking I became insane as the alleyway I took is dead quite. Basically, if I died or collapsed there, no one would ever find me but it is an amazing shortcut, only safe during daytime (don't tell my parents hahah). I did not miss social media at all and felt like I was more aware of my daily activities and my surroundings, not an artificial or digital life. Late at night I was a little distracted by YouTube and practising the speech for the next day to present at work.
Day 11
This day was hectic. It started really early by going to to the first tutoring quite far away. Then rushed back to the second job, where we were hosting an achievement awards ceremony for the students. We were also assigned to do multiple tasks all over the centre and to provide a speech, me being the last one to give a motivational speech. The tight schedule took all the time, not giving a single minute to even check the normal notifications. On the other hand, stage nervousness took the attention away to even think of something else. At a point, we had to cancel out the whole ceremony due to a child getting his finger stuck between the back of the door and requiring the fire services to come and rescue him/getting the finger out of the door. That means there was neither awards nor speeches. At this instance nobody even thinks about social media. At the end of work, all of us (staff members) went out offering free helium balloons to strangers on the streets and a dead random park behind my house like creeps in hopes we don't get arrested 😂. At this instance I wished to snap the fun we had but I made sure I had a lot of pictures and videos so I can share them in 2 days when the challenge is over. The remaining of the day was spent with family at aunts house and late night drives. When you drive with family, you can't even imagine about snapping or posting about driving but alone you wish to share the joy of driving, especially in such countries driving is a big deal apparently or as they say the "whip". By late night I was so tired all I wished to do was just listen to music and relax or chat with someone (if anyone is ever available late night 😔). During the day and the past couple of days I have realised and thought a lot that being away from social media made me quite isolated from people and society in general as I only focus on my work and can't see what's happening around me or around the world. I did a small cheating, where I posted a picture on messenger's story for some family to see, which I necessarily don't count as social media strongly. I went to sleep the latest since I returned from my holidays and without social media you can't show what time you went to sleep like I usually do. This basically means my friends won't know if I was awake till late so they won't tell me off in a way like they do😂. I spent the whole night picking images to surprise a friend for her birthday and deleting rubbish images, while listening to music. At some point, quite negative thoughts appeared in my and I was looking to see if anyone was awake. Surprisingly one of my friends was awake but was busy at the time, although my friend took the time to check up on me. I say surprising because we bully as a group and call "Mr 3 days late", as that's how long it takes to reply to texts (if the messages are checked). Yes, I am talking about you!
Finally it was the last day and I thought "you know what, since I did this challenge, I will do it properly today". This day was not only "no social media", it was "no internet". I turned off my WiFi and my mobile data for the majority of the day, where I did not want any internet on my phone. I needed internet on my laptop to do my uni work. I had to keep my phone on for any urgent calls or texts (SMS). The rule was this time along with no social media, it will be no WhatsApp, no YouTube or YouTube Music, no emails and no Messenger. Part of this also involves that I did not tell anyone that this was my plan for today, they may have known it from when I mentioned it was an idea, but didn't know it was executed. In the morning I woke up after a late night and I forgot to turn off the internet so all the notifications popped up and there was a lot of them. I cleared them out but didn't check them. The first hour was very difficult because I am a heavy WhatsApp user and it was killing me inside. I headed to work then came back. It was annoying me inside my mind that in my sleep I have sounded a bit rude to my friend so I had to call and say sorry about it and thanks for checking up, again got told off 😂. Since it was offline, I checked the chats after work and left them to reply at the end of the challenge. This time allowed me to do some work and relax. The main plan was to relax my mind to cool off from the past couple of days. The day seemed really long to wait for the end and check all the social media. During the day, I spent the time doing some cleaning and looking after my skin, while thinking of the future, which led me to apply for some jobs. I was a bit concerned that there might be something important, so I quickly turned on my WiFi and checked the emails and replied to the texts, as it seemed like they confused or concerned or both. I was highly concerned that I would need music as I always listen to music while working or doing something to entertain me (except Fridays). In fact, I was fine. I was doing my work and everything was well. I found some audio in my phone storage and when I clicked on them, they were songs and then realised some of my friends used to send me music and ask for my opinion if I like it. Some were rubbish (sorry but the truth) and some were really pleasant like one of them called Gulabi Ankhen (I think) and just listened to those for a little bit.
Past more than halfway of the day, I realised while working how badly I needed to use WhatsApp, not for entertainment purposes but for work related! I turned on my internet and continued doing my work, but the usage was minimal. Later in the day I was bored although I had some work and I procrastinated (but I already decided it was going to be a chilled day). Don't worry, I did sit down to do the work late at night with some music. At the end of the day I was a bit sad that the challenge was coming to an end. There was a fear inside me that I will go back to my time wasting self but I decided that it was upto my self control to let that take over me or to not.
What has this challenge helped me?
What were the challenges?
Would I do it again?
I hope you enjoyed this post as it was quite a big thing for me and it inspired you to do it as well. I highly suggest you try this as well, if not for a long period then at least for a day.
Till next time
Finally it was the last day and I thought "you know what, since I did this challenge, I will do it properly today". This day was not only "no social media", it was "no internet". I turned off my WiFi and my mobile data for the majority of the day, where I did not want any internet on my phone. I needed internet on my laptop to do my uni work. I had to keep my phone on for any urgent calls or texts (SMS). The rule was this time along with no social media, it will be no WhatsApp, no YouTube or YouTube Music, no emails and no Messenger. Part of this also involves that I did not tell anyone that this was my plan for today, they may have known it from when I mentioned it was an idea, but didn't know it was executed. In the morning I woke up after a late night and I forgot to turn off the internet so all the notifications popped up and there was a lot of them. I cleared them out but didn't check them. The first hour was very difficult because I am a heavy WhatsApp user and it was killing me inside. I headed to work then came back. It was annoying me inside my mind that in my sleep I have sounded a bit rude to my friend so I had to call and say sorry about it and thanks for checking up, again got told off 😂. Since it was offline, I checked the chats after work and left them to reply at the end of the challenge. This time allowed me to do some work and relax. The main plan was to relax my mind to cool off from the past couple of days. The day seemed really long to wait for the end and check all the social media. During the day, I spent the time doing some cleaning and looking after my skin, while thinking of the future, which led me to apply for some jobs. I was a bit concerned that there might be something important, so I quickly turned on my WiFi and checked the emails and replied to the texts, as it seemed like they confused or concerned or both. I was highly concerned that I would need music as I always listen to music while working or doing something to entertain me (except Fridays). In fact, I was fine. I was doing my work and everything was well. I found some audio in my phone storage and when I clicked on them, they were songs and then realised some of my friends used to send me music and ask for my opinion if I like it. Some were rubbish (sorry but the truth) and some were really pleasant like one of them called Gulabi Ankhen (I think) and just listened to those for a little bit.
Past more than halfway of the day, I realised while working how badly I needed to use WhatsApp, not for entertainment purposes but for work related! I turned on my internet and continued doing my work, but the usage was minimal. Later in the day I was bored although I had some work and I procrastinated (but I already decided it was going to be a chilled day). Don't worry, I did sit down to do the work late at night with some music. At the end of the day I was a bit sad that the challenge was coming to an end. There was a fear inside me that I will go back to my time wasting self but I decided that it was upto my self control to let that take over me or to not.
What has this challenge helped me?
- I don't prioritise social media as much as I used to
- Saved my data
- Gave me so much more time to do important work and give time to my close people
- Spent more quality time with my friends during the meet-ups
- I was more aware of my surroundings
- May have gone to sleep a little bit earlier than I used to
- I am not as lazy as before
- It did not allow me to procrastinate to do my work
- I improved my self control along with resisting junk food and losing weight
- I am less obsessed with my phone and I am okay with staying offline or not using it for a while
- Blogs were ready really quickly, with some new upgrades
What were the challenges?
- I felt isolated at times
- I felt bored at times there was nothing to do
- Didn't have anything to distract myself when I had negative or depressive thoughts
- There was nothing to do in order to give myself a break during my intense work sessions at night.
- I felt left out of society as I had no clue what was going on
How did it feel to use social media again?
- Ecstatic!
- At the last stage, I had some friends doing a countdown with me from when there was 12 minutes left!
- When the time was over, my friend told me to ran to "it"
- There was so much hype, Mr 3 days left was left clueless, trying to figure out what the "event" was, counting everyone's birthdays😂😂😂😂
- I even got welcomed back!
- A lot of people also remembered I was coming back and congratulated me😂
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| The cutest! |
Would I do it again?
- Definitely!
- My plan is that when I feel like I am really distracted, I will uninstall one social media from my phone for the day and get on with my work
- Once every 2 or 3 months, I will repeat this challenge only for a week, when I feel like my workload is increased to make the most of my time.
Check out the following links of the contents mentioned:
- Previous blog posted during the challenge
- Taz's no social media challenge (what inspired me)
- London Hacks (who I met in the DLR station)
- The bored button game for Apple, also available for Android.
- The anime I binged; White Album 2
- Note: none of these are sponsored
- My own socials (Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat): @dulynm
I hope you enjoyed this post as it was quite a big thing for me and it inspired you to do it as well. I highly suggest you try this as well, if not for a long period then at least for a day.
Thank you so so so much for the love and all the support through this experience. Share this with someone you think who may benefit from this post and show it some love. Let me know about your thoughts on this in the comments section.
Till next time
Yours, Nafiza
