How A 1 Month Break From Social Media Gave Me The Much Needed Peace Of Mind

After quitting my job there were two things I had in abundance - time and WiFi. For hours I would just lay in an uncomfortable position, scrolling through my feeds. I would wake up looking at my phone and sleep with my phone right next to me like a lover I was afraid to lose. However, the problem was that with my phone right by my side constantly, I started to lose sleep. Raise your hand if this has happened to you: I got so fidgety that five minutes after laying down in bed, if I wasn¡¯t asleep, I would go back to scrolling on my phone and before I knew it, another hour had passed.

I was incorrigible and so I decided to take a little breather. Here is how it affected my life for a month¡­

What The First Week Was Like

Unlike what you might expect, the first week was the easiest for me. I had been putting off a lot of chores at home and finally, I got down to all of them. Not only did I tidy up my room and almirah; I also tagged all my shoe boxes with exactly which shoe was inside so I didn¡¯t have to waste precious hours on rummaging through it. On my mother¡¯s special request, even my bathroom floor was mopped and scrubbed to (almost) perfection.

I did, out of habit, reach out for my phone once in a while but the blow of an empty notifications bar wasn¡¯t hard to take.

Where¡¯s My Celebrity Gossip?

Now my work has always revolved around the entertainment and lifestyle industry. Even though I was merely freelancing, I found myself constantly feeling out of the loop with the everyday happenings of the internet. The minute-to-minute details of what exactly Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone would wear to their wedding or where PC¡¯s bachelorette party was happening - I had to manually search these topics to actually find out about them. And who even does that anymore?

This, obviously, meant that I wasn¡¯t being topical with my work that changed by the minute. So much so that I had no clue what Taimur¡¯s recent picture looked like!

Luckily I had the liberty to stick to topics and genres that didn¡¯t always have to revolve around celebrities. However, this lack of social media awareness was definitely a negative for my work life.

Good Sleep, Finally!

For the first week I did get better sleep. All the cleaning and arranging was physically and mentally exhausting and I managed to keep my phone on the bedside table rather than right next to my pillow.

Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t last long. Especially after the first week when I didn¡¯t have any external work to do and had to resort to watching movies and show¡­ on my phone! On most nights, I would find myself on Netflix and the sleep cycle was back to being haywire. However, I did develop the healthy habit of putting my phone on the bedside table while I sleep. This helped my brain and body get a distance from the radiations and sleep better. That habit has continued till date.

FOMO, Is That You?

One of the hardest parts of quitting social media, for me, was the general and constant feeling of being socially disconnected. Without the incessant buzz of my best friend¡¯s messages or hilarious discussions on group chats - I lost track of what the people in my life were up to. Sure I did start calling my friends more often but I knew there was some part of the everyday drama that I could not partake in without my social media accounts.

Entertainment, Entertainment, Entertainment

After my busy first week, I struggled a while to figure out how I should entertain myself without social media? And I realised, there is still a lot to do! I started to learn hoop art, which I had been meaning to learn for ages! I read two books that I had bought six months but never got around to reading them and I watched tons of good shows that I would generally trade for an hour of zombie-like scrolling.

The downside was that I couldn¡¯t flaunt any of this to the digital world but I guess there is a special kind of pleasure in doing something solely for yourself.

In conclusion, I think life without social media is tough. We are so used to being overly connected that it leaves us feeling restless. And especially with the line of work that I am in, I found it impossible to not be part of digital media. Having said that, I did thoroughly enjoy my break and plan to take one every six months. Quitting social media and realising that life still goes on helped me pause, reflect and move on.