So I had taken a couple of weeks off my phone in general but especially Instagram, just because I was finding that it was starting to consume too much of my time and everything I was seeing had started to affect me slightly more then I had realized. When I say I took a break that means I just was putting in a conscious effort to not go on my phone and my screen time reduced a lot. I did this majorly by having strict rules with myself about when and where I could use it. For example, when I would be sitting with my family I wouldn’t take my phone out with me or if I was at my desk I wouldn’t have my phone at my desk. Slowly I got into the habit of not wanting to be on my phone and it was a nice break just to get away from the screens when I was doing online school since during school days I spend my whole day in front of my laptop it started to really affect me how much time I was spending infringing of the screen. I would love to say that during this time I started to read again or something like that but sadly no, I was doing this during school which meant that I was still spending my whole time working during lessons or trying to get any extra revision done. But I did realize how much more efficient I was able to get; things that I would usually procrastinate to do, such as go to the gym, I started to do quicker and that started to free up my day. I tend to do small phone detox’s often but I would normally do it for a day or two during school because if I do longer then that my family get worried why I haven’t been responding which is understandable; but since I am living with my parents again I thought it would be the best time to do proper detox from my phone. I defiantly know ways to improve for when I do it next time as this was not a very strict detox and I would still go on my phone but even though it wasn’t that strict I did defiantly see the benefits. I started to first get a lot fewer headaches which I knew was always related to my screen time but to me, it used to seem like something I never really looked as being achievable and I am quite proud that I was able to do it. As well as that and getting more free time it just felt nice not having to carry it around everywhere, I used to have this subconscious thing that if I don’t take my phone everywhere it would be a bad thing but what good does it actually make to me whether I have my phone when I am sitting with my family or not because either way, I am not going on it. I found that this small break made me realize that there isn’t some extremely important reason to constantly have my phone on me but in fact, it was better if I didn’t because that made it that much harder for me to actually go on my phone. I used to think that people who go on their phones a lot must have a lot of friends so they must be popular but I noticed that why should I care about that, my friends won’t stop messaging me if I leave my phone in my room for a few hours and if they do then again why should it bother me, I need to stop acting in ways that please other people and starts doing things for me. I did exactly that and it felt good to do so. I never had a proper problem with my screen time, for me, it has always had an average between 3-5 hours which I think to be pretty average, it isn’t insanely bad but I could have it lower. During this period I managed to drop it down to an average of 2 hours. I also changed what I used my phone for, so for a few years I have not had any games on my phone because one I never played it and second I would never get of my phone if I did have them on; I also deleted Netflix and YouTube off my phone a couple years ago because again when I had them on my phone I would never get off my phone. Doing this changed my screen-time so much and this when I first started to see the difference what the lower screen time did to me. So how did I change how I used my phone, well if I were doing something on my phone that I could do on my laptop (given my laptop was with me) then I would. This is something that has taken quite a few years for me to get into the habit when I first got a phone I would spend relatively quite a lot of time on it and it got worse as I started to grow up and get older but my parents always were against spending a lot of time on phones which started to correct my habit very quickly. I did this break to stop me going back into the habit and I defiantly highly recommend taking a break from your phone, even if you do just one day you will see such a massive change.

I did a similar thing for Instagram during this week. I did not delete the app but I did restrict myself from going onto the app when I was on my phone during the day. I would only allow myself about 10 - 15 mins every week or so just to check any messages from family on there which I monitored with the app limits that get set in the settings for iPhones. I find this to be a very effective way to monitor my screen time and when I have it on I try to follow it as best as possible, I tend to not have it on for apps such as Snapchat since that is my main way of communication with friends and family so I can not limit a lot how much time I spend on there but I do make sure I only go on there to message people and not ‘waste’ time on there looking at the suggested stories. I put wasted in apostrophes because I say my time is wasted but then sometimes it comes off differently, it becomes a way of me just letting steam off and I don’t want it to sound like if you do that you are wasting time that is just what I believe for me. I wanted to do this Instagram detox mainly for the reason of my self-confidence. It is safe to say that Instagram does lower my self-confidence a considerable amount and with me being active on both Instagram and TikTok it did start to take a massive toll on my self-confidence and mental health and it became natural for me to look at people and start comparing the littlest things about myself without me even noticing. When I went off Instagram I had fewer people I could do that with and it did make a big difference for me. My next goal is to do this with TikTok but do it for a month.

It was interesting to me to see how much of my thoughts get affected by social media, whether it is for the good or the bad and it is definitely something that I can now have in the back of my head reminding me that I am perfect just being myself and shouldn’t feel the need to compare myself to someone else (cringe, yes I know). Even if I do fall back into his again at least now I am more comfortable being off Instagram as well. And if anyone of you lovelies is going through this as well just know it is okay to take time away from your phone even if it feels impossible or hard to do, it is very much do-able.

Till my next post my lovelies x