One day I read an article from Noah Lekas in Medium about how his life getting more productive without a smartphone for one year. And I take a look if I do that too, but I can’t because I need a phone for my work. So, I decided to try just quit social media for a week-even I never quit when I did my thesis-and it’s pretty wham I guess. Quitting the big five, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and also Medium. I only using WhatsApp and Line.
I have instant access to literature, music, information, and film ever created. How did I end up it? I replace the literature for a week with a book, consume music from the radio and sent a song request like a past, access information only from a newspaper, and watch a movie by television, you know Trans TV Cinema every 9 at night-if only I want to. But I mostly do read a book while hearing songs on the radio. 24 hours is a limit of time, and we don’t realize that we spent it for all those notifications, refresh swipes and habitual phone checks add up, we let the pleasure-seeking behavior take over our lives that we have a problem. The average person’s used cell phone 2 hours, spent their time using apps and entertainment. If we read 2 hours a day we’d burn through approximately 200 books a year. And if we spent 2 hours a day doing anything we will passionate about.
Life without social media certainly requires sacrifice. Sometimes I miss an event, find out about trend and fact, miss out on funny photos or videos, and some witty quotes. But it also has a lot of benefits-deeper focus, has a great time management, general attentiveness, and increased creativity. It forces me to pay attention during all those in-between moments and interact more in person. Disconnecting improved my connection to the real world. And that has real results. Most of the time I forget that I have a phone at all. Consumption and creation are opposite activities, and most people aren’t effective multitaskers, especially when being pulled in opposite directions. In the end, we have a choice, we can mindlessly spend our time consuming what we are given, or invest our time creating what we want.
I love my smartphone as much as anybody, but I realize that it’s become toxic for my limit time of life. I used my phone not only for social media but for business and writing too, and I have to restrict my time for using it, especially for social media. Perhaps, I will sustainable with my decision to not overuse social media and create my own time. I believe it will make our life more meaningful if you do it too. You’re in a king and queen for your own time, make it valuable.
