I know everyone has Facebook on their phones. I did too, up until like 3 weeks ago. I didn’t think it would make a difference. But, it did. I am surprised by this. Do you use Facebook to avoid things in real life? I realized that I do!
I randomly decided to take the Facebook app off my phone. I was curious if I would even notice a difference. I assumed that nothing would change and that I wasn’t really wasting that much time scrolling on the app. I thought I was casually checking in and seeing what my friends and family were up to. According to Google the average user spends 38 minutes a day on the Facebook app. I can’t go back in my screen usage far enough to see my personal times. I’m going to honestly admit I feel like I used much more that 38 minutes a day on Facebook! That’s insane to me! I can’t believe I was wasting that much time during the day.
I’m an avid avoider when things give me anxiety. I know that I was often using Facebook to avoid things in my life that gave me anxiety. I was using it to be “busy” and not have to get around to tackling whatever was making me anxious. Or I was using it as an excuse to kill boredom. I have said for years that “I don’t have time to sit down and read a book” or “I’m so busy it takes me forever to get through a book.” Reading has always been my favorite hobby and I wasn’t doing it, even to the detriment of my mental health. But guess what I did have time for? That’s right! Facebook was always there for me! I used the excuse that “The only reason I keep Facebook on my phone, is to see peoples pets and kids.” and those things make me so happy. So I was using it to make myself feel better when I have the sads.
So I took the app off my phone. What happened? The world stopped turning. Society crumbled. It was literally the end of the world. Psych! None of that happened, I love to be a little dramatic sometimes! I have been more productive. I have an in home studio salon, an online ecommerce business, and I’m a wife and mother of two. I have had more time in the day to get things done. I realized that I was picking up my phone like a zillion times just to mindlessly scroll. I am still like 3 weeks later trying to break the habit. Every time I catch myself doing that, I’m doing my best to remember to lock my phone and put it down.
I have noticed that I am on Twitter more. I feel like I’m scrolling on there, but I don’t follow enough accounts to get an ever changing feed. I get bored quickly. I don’t have enough new things on my feed fast enough to keep my attention for too long. I don’t think it’s much of an issue, but I clearly see how it could turn into one in the future.
Another thing that I have been able to track in my screen usage, is my reading. I am currently reading a book on my Libby app. I can see that in the last week I spent 3 hours and 26 minutes reading. This may not seem like a lot but it’s a lot more than I have done in the past. This makes me feel less stressed and my mental space feels much better. I’m not spending time mindlessly scrolling and looking at “drama” and gripes; but I am using my time exercising my brain and enriching my life with something I feel is positive. This also greatly helps me reach my goal of reading at least one book per month so that I can do a review here on my blog. And using the Libby app I can track my reading time on my phone with out having to keeping tabs on it myself.
So what I’ve noticed is that I feel better since taking Facebook off my phone. I didn’t delete my account, and I do check it online every couple of days or so. I have also noticed that out of the many, many notifications I get, only a couple of them are actually for me specifically. Most like 99 percent of them are just notifications that someone posted in a group that I’m in, or a business posting a sale or items that are for sale. So it seems to me that I’m not really missing anything by not checking every 30 seconds. I recommend that you take the app of your phone and see how you feel mentally after a couple of weeks. I feel much better. I feel like I’m more productive when I’m not using it to avoid doing things. I’m sure you’ll feel the same. Let me know if you have the Facebook app on your phone, or if you don’t. Why did you make this choice?
Stay safe, stay rad, and wash your DANG hands!
Comentarios