My Month-and-a-Half of Rest and Relaxation. And Hell.

Brookings Institution

By Patrycja Pogorzelska ‘26

“Deleted it.” What? I was in shock. “Yup. First the snapchat, then the TikTok and now the Instagram. All of it. Finally gone.” I stare at Ms. Mumford. “Could’ve never done it in college though.”

That last little sentence ran laps around my head. She was right, of course. Social media: today’s equivalent of the nightclubs of the 2000s, the malls of the ‘80s, and the playground of my childhood. Without this nectar to feed me every day, how would I know who Becky liked or that Jane and Jack went to the Cape together? And, oh my God, how could I go on without knowing that Jill hates James now? And how empty would I feel if I didn’t post that silly picture of Judy on my spam?

I mean, aside from all the people I knew, how could I go on without all the people I didn’t know? What about all those concert videos I watched of Charli XCX between Bio and Math? I don’t know what I would do if I went a day without being recommended the next wavy hair product that won’t work. What about the outfit videos? What about all the “she wants to go to X College” videos that romanticize colleges without recognizing any of the recent protests?

God. I can’t do it. Until I can. On my “For You” Page, ironically, a TedTalk appeared: the battle for time. An eighteen-year-old, with an assumed life expectancy of ninety, is set to spend 318 months, out of their remaining 334 months of free time, on their phone, or twenty-six-and-a-half years. Once we hit eighteen, we can expect to spend over twenty-six years on our phones.

That shocking statistic makes me wonder. Who would I be if I didn’t have my phone? Would I be a person who’s really into painting and crafts and spends all her time in the Hobby Lobby? How many books would I have read? Would I have taken up journaling? Would I go to the gym more? What hobbies do I have that I haven’t even discovered yet “because of that damn phone”?

In a surge of motivation I knew wouldn’t return, I deleted TikTok. Instagram. Snapchat. All that remained was Pinterest, my guilty pleasure. So, was it worth it–especially if I got it all back a month and a half later?

My screen time halved. Halved. So much time suddenly appeared. It was so hard; I was picking up my phone all the time looking for the apps and putting it away for maybe a minute before doing it all again.

But, within a day or two, I picked up a book. I read. A lot. I didn’t journal, despite my previous romanticization of the act. I watched long video essays on topics I was weirdly interested in. I spent a lot more time with my friends and got them off their phones for the time being as well. Believe it or not, I went on walks. I spent so long exploring new songs and curating my playlists to be just right. So yes, I was fighting my battle for time and winning it. However, I had not known that while I had social media I was fighting a whole other battle altogether: a battle for happiness.

Within a week of deleting social media, I felt so much happier. I genuinely can’t explain it, but everything around me felt much more enjoyable. I was paying so much more attention to everything around me that I got happy when I noticed someone else smiling or laughing. I got lost in my thoughts and found so much joy in that too. My screen time wasn’t the only thing that halved; my anxiety did too.

Within a month, I didn’t care to post silly pictures of my friends for other people to see how close we were. We knew. If Jill hated James, she told me and I grieved with her, and if she didn’t, well I guess we were never that close anyway! Deleting social media was an act of self-care. By doing everything for myself and doing it with the people that actually made me happy, I was living life for me, not for other people.

I’m not a saint, though. The title of this article, if you haven’t noticed, does only say “one-and-a-half months.” I caved. Spring break hit. And I can’t lie, there’s nothing compared to the dopamine guaranteed by rotting in bed on my phone. And, when I redownloaded my social media at the beginning of Spring Break, oh boy did it hit. I’ve had social media ever since. It’s just so easy and relaxing to collapse on my bed after a long day and see those bright colors, the videos that make me laugh out loud and sob at night. Nevertheless, guess what popped up on my “For You” page a couple of days ago? Yup. The battle for time. I thought back to my social media detox. How much less anxious I was, how many books I read, the time I spent with my friends, how happy I was. I’m deleting it all again tonight, andppy I was.

I’m deleting it all again tonight, and hopefully this time it’s for good. I implore you to do the same, even if it’s just one day per week. Phone-Free-Friday! Who are you when the first thing you reach for in the morning isn’t social media? Who are you without that tiny little black box? I urge you: go find out.