I knew something had to change, I just didn’t know what. I wasn’t sleeping, I was slacking in school, and I had no motivation to go to work or do any of the things I needed to do, but as hard as I tried I didn’t know what to do about it. That’s when I decided to focus less on myself and more on the other people around me to try to find a solution. What do other people do to motivate themselves to be better?

So I started to watch people, to see what other people did with their time. Through doing this, I really began to see how captivated everyone was by their phones. Regardless of all the drama on Instagram, and the ceiling pictures they received on Snapchat, and the #cancelled parties on Twitter, everyone kept going back. I couldn’t understand why we were all surrounding ourselves with all of this negativity and disconnect without a second thought, so I decided to stop. I deleted all of my social media accounts for a little under a month, and it wasn’t what I expected it to be.

Social media is known to have some negative effects on mental health and quality of life in general as people are spending hours a day on social media when they really should be on for a half-hour maximum every day which can cause an increase in depression and anxiety. The unrealistic standards portrayed on social media can lead to low self-esteem, negative body image, and the fear of missing out on the things they see on their timeline. There is also the issue of cyberbullying, which can be another cause of all of these things.

Regardless of all of this, I found that things only got worse when I deleted my social media. The main thing that really improved was my sleep schedule as I wasn’t scrolling through Instagram or Snapchatting people late into the night anymore. When it comes to school, I did have a lot more motivation to get homework done and my work ethic has improved. I got the motivation to go out and get a new job and found myself looking forward to work because there was nothing else to entertain me anymore. I had more honest conversations with people because we weren’t talking through a screen, if I was having a conversation it was almost always face to face.

Despite all of these positive things that came out of this, I would still say that it affected me more negatively. I felt disconnected from the world and from my friends. Only a few of the people I talked to on a daily basis had my phone number so no one really had any way to contact me and I wasn’t able to keep up with any of the authors or musicians that I usually do on social media. This disconnect affected me more than anything else and as quickly as everything improved in the beginning, it went right back down the longer I didn’t have social media.

That being said, I think taking some time away from social media could benefit someone who is struggling as it can be a big relief, but being disconnected from the world for too long can put a strain on anyone.