My Social Media Experiment During COVID - Tyler Begley

I needed to change something. I was tired of the fountain of negativity pouring through my phone. Every day I wake up and open Facebook. Then, between classes I open Instagram. Every post was either about the circus that the US presidential election had turned into, or people getting into screaming matches about their COVID-19 opinions; and I was already going stir crazy after several months of lockdown due to the virus. So, I decided to try an experiment, two weeks of no social media.

The idea of a "social media break" isn't new, and I had done them before. But I had never done it during the lockdown, when social media was my only window to the outside world. I set the following rules for myself:

1) No social media for two weeks

2) No phone games, internet games, or video games.

3) Follow the rules/restrictions regarding COVID and the lockdown

4) Direct messaging, such as groupme, or texts is still allowed (I have group assignments to do)

I had cut away most of my contact with the world. I was down to basic phone functions, online school, and my wife for all interaction with others. I was worried that further isolating myself during the time of COVID would drive me mad, I was already stir-crazy. I was also worried about driving my wife mad with my sudden increase in talking and wanting to go on walks (had I turned into a puppy?) but as it turns out, it was one of the best decisions I've made all year.

The first benefit I found was an increase in my productivity. Between the break, and the lockdown, my distractions were gone! I was getting through studies and assignments faster, while understanding the material better. I was paying better attention to my classes instead of playing games on my phone offscreen. I was doing better, while finishing my work more quickly!

The second benefit was an increase in my connections with others. If I wanted to know what was going on in a friend's life, I had to initiate the interaction by calling or texting them instead of just liking a picture they posted. As a result, I found myself holding real conversations with friends and family that went deeper than a surface level reaction to an Instagram story. Most notably, I had conversations with my brothers, my wife's family and one of my cousins whom I hadn't spoken to in months even with social media.

The third benefit was that I began to crave physical activity again. Throughout the lockdown, I had started waking up early, counting my macros, running four times a week, doing bodyweight workouts twice a week. It felt great! But then, about midway through October I completely stopped. I just felt emotionally drained and tried to make up for it by sleeping in. This caused a domino effect where I would wake up right before classes, eat late, not run, and not workout. But, without the extra negativity in my life that online political arguments bring, I had started to crave that physical activity again, and slowly started going on more walks with my wife and running again.

The final benefit was simply that I had less negativity pouring into my life. It almost makes me wonder; maybe ignorance really is bliss? But of course, no man is an island, and we need to be involved and informed about what is going on in the world. So, I started using my social media apps again after the two weeks. But I made some permanent changes.

From now on, no social media until after classes are over for the day, I use a variety of professional news sources instead of social media as my main source of current events, and I reach out to my loved ones via text and phone instead of online. Maybe the secret to thriving during COVID is to follow the guidelines and physically isolate, while emotionally and socially diving deeper than before with loved ones, even more so than before the lockdown.