Here’s a bit of an intro. The reason I uninstalled all my social media apps was the realization that I might be too addicted to using them on a daily basis. The problem with any kind of addiction is that you don’t realize you’re addicted. You’ll see examples of this everywhere. Ask a chain smoker if they can stop smoking, and the answer will typically be something like, “I can stop whenever I want; it’s just that I don’t want to stop yet!”
Not many people realize just how serious their problem is, but if you have even a little self-awareness, you might begin to understand that you’re too attached to something. Once that doubt creeps in, you can probe it further. You can test whether you’re truly addicted simply by stopping—in my case, by not using social media.
Why Change?#
This mindset shift happened when I read somewhere, “Don’t be a slave to pleasures.” I think it was a quote from Marcus Aurelius. Even though the original context wasn’t about social media, the words stuck with me.
The beauty of that quote is that it can be applied to anything in life. When you reflect on it, you’d never want to be a slave to anything. Why live a life where you’re addicted to things? Why knowingly surrender your freedom and settle for a mediocre existence at best?
You might argue, “Everything is fine in moderation!” You could be right—but to know for sure, you’d have to stop completely, observe the differences, and then decide if moderation works for you. For me, it didn’t. Here are the results of not using social media for six months.
A Bit About Habits and Addictions#
Here’s what I want to explain: there’s a clear difference between habits and addictions.
Having habits in life is essential. They allow you to get a lot done. Good habits make life easier by tying consistent action to minimal conscious effort.
For example, exercising every day. Even if you don’t feel like it in the moment, a strong habit will get you up and moving. In the long run, good habits have a positive impact. The only difference between good and bad habits is that good ones move you closer to your goals, while bad ones push you further away.
Addictions, on the other hand, often don’t feel good. With social media, for instance, you rarely feel “awesome” after mindlessly scrolling for hours—and that’s a key thing to understand. Addictions are automatic responses programmed into our brains; they don’t truly satisfy, they’re just broken software you can’t easily uninstall.
In extreme cases, addictions can become a frantic chase for novel experiences. One example is porn addiction: once hooked, normal content no longer provides the same dopamine hit, so the person seeks increasingly extreme material to recapture that intensity.
The same pattern applies to social media. When it stops being enough, you use it more and more—scrolling endlessly for something entertaining or spending hours chasing the perfect selfie.
Here’s What Changed#
I uninstalled all social media apps from my phone on 8th May 2022. The first few days were rough. I had developed a habit of randomly opening Instagram and scrolling—just checking what everyone and everything I followed was up to. It had become so mindless that I’d do it whenever I had a free moment.
After those initial days of feeling terrible, my brain finally started to adjust. It stopped subconsciously prompting me to check Instagram multiple times a day. Once I reached that point, I realized I might never go back; the allure had completely vanished. When the attraction dies, so does the addiction.
As for keeping up with people, I discovered it’s fairly easy to stay in touch with those you genuinely care about and want to remain close to.
With that came more time and mindfulness. Free from the constant need to distract myself, I could think more clearly. It’s hard to describe exactly, but you can truly think when you’re not always reaching for a distraction. I became happy to feel bored in my free time. (Though I was still using YouTube.)
All of this has boosted my creativity a little and improved my overall concentration. I’m glad to redirect that spare mental processing power and time toward learning new things and writing.
Leaving social media has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in recent years!
