In my pursuit of deep work this week, I have chosen to do a unique detox. Usually, detoxes focus on cutting out foods that are bad for us, but my focus was different. Instead, I focused on things that feed my mind. I chose to cut out Instagram for five days and spent that time tracking my thoughts and any changes in behavior. There were five categories for which I gathered data:

1. How often I reached for my phone with the intent of opening Instagram
2. How often I navigated to the app (consciously or subconsciously) when I was using my phone for other purposes
3. Time spent worrying that I am missing out because I am not using the app
4. Times where I did not know what someone was talking about because I have not been using Instagram
5. The kinds of content I was craving when I wanted to use the app (social updates, memes, news, and current events, art)

I found the first day to be the most difficult. That day I picked up my phone intending to use Instagram 28 times. I found that I was most inclined to do so when I was in situations that I found boring, like waiting for the shuttle or waiting for friends to arrive. I also found that I navigated to the app nearly every time I used my phone for other purposes like texting. I realized that I missed using the app most when I wanted to take a break from schoolwork. When I did want to take a break, I replaced that behavior with reading my book (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson) or just listening to music. I read a lot, so this behavior isn’t new, but I often listen to music in the background and appreciated actively listening to it instead.

I found the second day of the detox to be the hardest. It felt somewhat how I imagine withdrawal feels. I was practically itching to get back on Instagram and scroll mindlessly for a while. On this day, I did not reach for my phone as frequently, but I thought about using Instagram more than the first day. I also subconsciously navigated to where the app used to be on my phone just as much on this day as I had the day before.

Days three through five were the easiest for me. After the initial withdrawal period, it became easier to move through my day without thinking about Instagram. I also noticed that changing the way I interacted with Instagram altered how I used my phone as a whole. I knew that by cutting out one social media platform, I would be tempted to use the others (such as Snapchat or Pinterest) more frequently, so I refrained from using those as well. I only used Snapchat when I had a message from someone and only used Pinterest to do visual research for class rather than scrolling aimlessly. These changes brought down my screen time and made me feel better after using the platforms.

One of my main concerns going into this was that I would miss out on important pop culture news, so I measured the effect in two ways. I measured the frequency with which I felt concerned that I was missing out and the number of interactions I had where I had not known something because it was spread via Instagram. For the first half of that metric, I found that out of sight, out of mind is a powerful thing. Even when I thought about using Instagram, I wasn’t thinking about obtaining information- I was thinking about getting mindless entertainment to distract me. I was surprised, however, by the number of incidents where I did not know what someone was talking about because I had stopped using social media. There were only two times that someone referenced posts on Instagram that I had not seen. I’ve experienced this before because I do not use TikTok, but many of my friends do and often reference it, so I thought I would have the same experience when I stopped using Instagram, but I did not. While there were only two references to Instagram in the five days that I did not use it, there were four references to TikTok.

The last metric that I used to measure my experience was to note the kind of content I was craving. As I said earlier, there were times where I just wanted to mindlessly scroll as a way of relaxing. However, during the third through the fifth day, I noticed that I was missing the art content that usually fills my feed. I follow many artists, graphic designers, and graphic design accounts that I find very informative and inspirational, and I noticed that I missed seeing these works the most of all the content I typically encounter.

Overall, this was a very positive experience and will change how I use social media in the future. I hope to continue limiting the amount of time I use such apps and potentially do another detox soon.