During any 24-hour period, refrain from using at least one type of media you use frequently during a day (social media, phone, etc.).
- Most people that I talked to about this fast said that they were giving up some sort of social media since that takes up most of their day. Since I am a social marketer for my job, giving up the basic social media platforms wasn’t an option for me and I don’t use my personal accounts enough to feel the pain of the fast. I decided to write down my top apps that I use on my phone to decide what I would give up. I discovered that I spend most of my time using Snapchat and Tumblr, so I decided to give them both up during my 24-hour fast.
During that 24-hours I didn’t realize how much I depended on these apps in my everyday life to make it more exciting and escapable. I knew it was going to be hard to get rid of since it was almost instinct to enter into the app when I found myself with some free time. To succeed, I decided to move the apps into a different location on my phone. Due to muscle memory, I realized I knew how to enter the apps without even thinking about it, but if the app was in a different location I was able to rethink my decision to ignore the urges.
- I knew that I would substitute these apps for other applications, so I tried to make it a goal to not enter any other apps that I would consider a waste of time or an escape. I decided to substitute my time with anything I could think of that didn’t involve my phone. I learned a couple new songs on my guitar, I reorganized my room, and I even got to know my roommates more by engaging in actual real life conversation without the distraction of my phone.
One thing I did quickly to make better use of my time is having a cheese party. I looked up the ingredients for the perfect cheese plate, invited some friends over to create a quick social gathering and it was extremely successful. By the end of the day, I felt like I had actually accomplished something and it just felt really good overall. I was hoping someone would ask me how my day had gone so that I could provide them with an answer instead of saying “oh, the usual.”
- During a typical workweek I work full time as a social media writer, but the company I work for rewards those that complete their weekly quota a work from home Wednesday where I work from my laptop, in my bed, in my pajamas, and also spend the most amount of time on unnecessary apps like Snapchat and Tumblr. I decided that this would be the perfect day to partake of my fast since my use of time was judged by myself instead of my work.
When I wake up in the morning, I usually go through my Snapchat to read any of the “stories” that my friends have shared, or even add to my own. Instead of following my typical routine, I actually got out of bed when my alarm went off and had about 15 minutes extra to eat breakfast and prepare for the day, instead of rushing out quickly to make it to work on time.
Once I started working, my phone was no longer a distraction to me like it usually is. I was able to get my work done quickly and efficiently and even had enough time to relax. Without wasting my time on my phone, I had more time to focus on my work.
Even though I was saving a lot of time by ignoring these apps, it was hard to stay focused during the workday. Without the break that I was used to, I craved the entertainment I would receive from both of the applications and I caught myself staring at the clock more and more as the day went on. I noticed that my reaction was a lot like a typical addiction. Even though there are some clear benefits to not wasting my time on apps like Snapchat and Tumblr, I still had that craving of entertainment that I felt was making the day go by much slower.
Between the two applications, my biggest struggle was Snapchat. I was so used to documenting my life with my phone’s camera, that I was honestly worried that people would judge me for not posting about anything. It was a problem that I had created into my mind that really wasn’t a problem at all. After the 24 hours, I asked if any of my friends noticed my missing from the app and they didn’t even notice I had cut myself loose from the leash.
- I learned that I’m much more addicted to my phone than I thought. Ever since I got my first phone when I was 18, my family would always tell me to stop looking down at my phone and experience the real world. It wasn’t until now that I realized what they really meant. I was able to do things that I swore I never had enough time to do, like clean my house or play my guitar. These are things I prefer to do with my day and I always blamed it on time and never my use of that time. In the future, whenever I find myself sitting on my couch on my phone, I hope I remember this experience and make better use of my time.
- If marketers wanted to appeal to me specifically it would be smart of them to use these applications to get my attention. Both Snapchat and Tumblr have advertisers in their applications and I have purchased merchandise I’ve seen on both applications in the past.