Happy & Healthy

I'M TAKING ON THE CHALLENGE: A WEEKEND WITHOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

I could act really badass and say that this is a piece of cake for me, but if a little flap in my head could open right now, you'd probably find this: “48 hours without social? Here. Comes. The. Robot voice. Error. Spastic. Help.”

Now you might be wondering: why this challenge? Well, let me tell you. I check my phone ridiculously often. Like, really bizár much. And preferably on Instagram. Suddenly, I get the question whether I might be a little addicted. And I think about how much more time I would have in a day if social media no longer existed. How much more peace in my head.

To be honest: I'm a bit fed up with that phone lately. The social pressure, the restlessness in my body when I haven't posted anything ‘fun’ for a few days, that Snapchat feature suddenly added that makes people want to share everything randomly on screen. I don't know where to look anymore. And secretly, I'm really curious about what it's like to spend a weekend with my love without that digital nuisance glued to my hands like duct tape every ten minutes.

First, it was time to check how serious my social media addiction. is. Are you also a bit of a nutcase when it comes to your phone? Do the checklist here and count the number of times you answer ‘yes’:

– Do you have more virtual than ‘real’ friends?

– Do you spend more time on social media than on personal contacts?

– Do your contacts mainly go through social media like Facebook, Insta, and Twitter?

– Do you immediately check when you hear/see that you have a new message?

– Do you get nervous and irritated when you have no reception or a computer malfunction and can't communicate via social media?

– Do others (your love, parents, or friends) ever say that you should use social media less?

– Do you check your social media right when you get up in the morning and before you go to sleep at night?

– Do you check at night when you wake up if you have messages?

– Do you regularly lack sleep due to the use of social media?

– Do you often use social media when you feel depressed or bored?

– Do you sometimes feel that you spend too much time on social media?

– Do you panic when your phone is lost, even if you don't expect an important call?

Yes. Yes. YES. YES. YES. 11 times ‘yes’ against 1 time ‘no’. When you answer two or three of these questions with ‘yes’, experts say there may already be a dependency. “Social media plays too big a role in your life and it affects you, even when you're not sitting behind the computer or mobile phone,” I read. “Other things are probably suffering because of it, which are just as important. You can start by trying to take breaks more often and occasionally taking a day off from social media.”

Okay fuck it, here I go. It's Friday morning and I'm not going to post anything this whole weekend, nor peek into the lives of others. Offline is the new online, everyone knows that, right? Of course, I'll provide a detailed report on Monday. 3, 2, 1, GO!