Twenty Days Into My Digital Detox And I’m Reluctant To Return To Social Media

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At the end of August, I was feeling frazzled and decided Too Much iPhone was eroding my mental health. I decided to go on a “digital detox” during the month of September.

My original ambitious plan was:

  • No TikTok
  • No Instagram
  • No Facebook
  • No checking email on my iPhone – I could check email once a day, on my laptop
  • No scrolling Pinterest on my iPhone, but I could do targeted searches on my laptop
  • I would only check text messages every few hours.
  • I did not set any rules about YouTube because I don’t have a YouTube problem. I only use the app when I want something specific.

Over the past twenty days, here is what has happened:

  • I have not checked TikTok once and I don’t miss it at all. In fact, my stomach just flopped at the thought of checking it again in October. I might never log in again.
  • I have not checked Instagram once, but I do miss posting. When the detox is over, the first thing I’m going to do on Instagram is delete most of the accounts I follow and pare the list down to the accounts that really inspire me. Then I’ll decide on a schedule for posting and looking at my feed – maybe once or twice a week?
  • I have not checked Facebook, and I don’t miss it, but it is a convenient way to share photos of my kids with far-flung relatives. I will log back on in October and seriously edit my Friends. I have a lot of “friends” who are not actually friends. Then I will bookmark the groups that are helpful (mainly ones pertaining to Girl Scouts) and check Facebook at most, once a week.
  • No checking email on my phone: this has worked 50%. I deleted my gmail app and no longer check PTA emails on my phone, which is AMAZING. PTA is volunteer work. Why should I be wasting mental energy checking that email account several times a day? But as for my main personal email account- it turns out that as a matter of convenience, I need to check email on my phone. So I have not been strict on this piece of my digital detox, and that’s okay. I think most of the mental frenzy was being whipped up by TikTok, IG and FB.
  • No scrolling Pinterest on my phone: I broke this rule within 24 hours but every day, I feel myself less and less interested in Pinterest. With TikTok and IG out of my life, I’ve been reading and crafting more. Now when I reach for my phone for Pinterest, I get bored very quickly and realize I would rather read a novel.
  • Text messages: I check more frequently than I originally planned, but like Pinterest, this doesn’t feel like a problem. I also feel more and more comfortable with leaving text messages unanswered.
  • YouTube continues to be a non-issue for me.

Interested in a digital detox? I highly recommend Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life In A Noisy World by Cal Newport. I listened to the audiobook during the first week of my digital detox and it filled me up with inspiration and validated my instinct to breakup with TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.