Taking a Media Break
// VF File Photo by Ashley McKean
When most of us wake up in the morning, we’ll either be thankful that we have another beautiful day ahead or, if you’re like me, curse the alarm for waking us up from a good night’s sleep. And then, almost without a second thought, we reach for our phones and check what we missed
on Instagram and Facebook in an attempt to catch up and reconnect with everyone.
Social media has changed how we interact with one another in a variety of ways. One thing that most of us can plainly see is that we are all on our cell phones more than we’d like to admit. A significant reason for this is social media.
Life Without Social Media
A lot of us who use social media have become frustrated with it at some point. Some of us have thought about taking a break from it to see if it really would make our lives less cluttered. There are even some people, such as Ian Bennett, who have never used social media at all. How is that possible in today?
According to Bennett, he simply has “never got around to it.”
He’s not trying to stand out with this decision; he simply doesn’t feel the need to use social media the way most of us do.
“It seems like a good way to keep in touch with friends,” Bennett said. “It’s just not something that I feel like I need to use to do that.”
It’s not as if Bennett was isolated from people without social media; he has many ways to stay connected to friends other than traditional face-to- face gatherings.
“I think a big reason why I haven’t gotten social media yet is because I interact with my friends through all the gaming I do if I don’t see them in person,” Bennett said.
// VF File Photo by Ashley McKean
Getting Away From Social Media
Bennett kept mentioning the idea of “needing to use” social media throughout our conversation. He’s not the only one to mention this idea of needing social media. Trisha Griffin has also noticed this during her time away from social media, which was roughly from her sophomore year at Grand View to her senior year.
“It’s always been a pet peeve of mine when I’d go out to eat with my friends and they’d be taking pictures of their food,” Griffin said. “I’m over here like ‘I’m gonna eat now’ because I don’t need to do that. I’m actually going to enjoy my food.”
Instances like these are part of the reason why Griffin gave up social media temporarily. She thinks it’s good to do at least once.
“I would say try it for a couple weeks; otherwise you won’t feel a difference,” Griffin said. “You’ll begin to see how much you can actually do without Twitter or whatever as a distraction, and you’ll actually be able to really interact with people in your life.”
// VF File Photo by Ashley McKean
My Experience With Taking a Break
I decided to put myself and a friend, Pedro Cardoso, up to the challenge of giving up social media for at least one week.
The first couple of days for me were a bit tricky. I know for the first three days after I deleted Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat off my phone I found myself trying to access them anyway. I would be lying in my bed watching TV, and my hands would almost magically get my phone out and try to get on Twitter.
I had to remind myself multiple times that I no longer had those applications on my phone, but even after the first few times of repeating this process, I still found myself trying to access them.
Cardoso noticed this as well, but he didn’t have the problems that I had with them.
“I forgot once or twice that I didn’t have these things anymore, but after those first couple times, it was easy,” Cardoso said.
For Cardoso, the inability to speak with those back home in Sao Palo, Brazil was the hardest aspect of the social media absence.
“It’s just always good to see what everyone back home is up to when I’m over here,” Cardoso said.
After the first three days, it was actually very easy to go about my day without any need to connect to social media. In fact, I’s been over a week since I accepted this challenge and I still haven’t put any social media apps back on my phone.
This is because Griffin was right. After I did away with social media temporarily, I was far more productive. I had more time to accomplish important tasks without being distracted by all the entertainment aspects of social media.
The biggest area I saw improvement in was my schoolwork. I am fantastic at procrastinating, which is not something to be proud of, and social media doesn’t help. In the past I would take a simple 15-minute break from editing audio or video cuts to get on Twitter or Facebook to see what’s up. And it never fails that somehow I end up watching videos on YouTube or looking for the most recent memes of Michael Jordan crying.
“Bro, it’s crazy!,” Cardoso said. “I don’t go near my phone when I’m working because I know I’ll end up doing the same thing.”
While I saw a major improvement in my productivity, I also noticed I am more inclined to talk to people when my face isn’t buried in my phone. To my surprise, I rediscovered how much I like personal interaction. It sounds really weird to say something like that, but in a lot of ways, I feel like we have all in some way or another gotten away from the best kind of human interaction, face- to-face contact.
Social media has done wonders in terms of creating new avenues of interaction, some good and some bad. I have fully endorsed Griffin’s perspective on social media, which is, “You just have more freedom when you don’t overuse it.”
You could take Bennett’s approach and not have social media at all, but in some ways that’s almost an indictment on social media. In fact, Bennett has said he might join social media in the future, but he’ll hold true to his desire not to let it become a need for him.
As I look back on my time without social media, I have learned to really appreciate the benefits that come with this temporary break. Anyone who follows the leads of Bennett and Griffin and stops using social media for a while will be able to see this too.
So the next time you wake up, don’t get on Facebook. Resist the urge to see the latest on Instagram or Twitter, and when you walk to class, don’t put your face in your phone. Try to talk to someone, whether it’s a friend or a stranger. You’ll be surprised at what you’ve been missing while being connected to social media.
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