CRyder Design

I recently went through the process of a ‘data detox’ and for this process, I decided to give up Instagram for 5 days. Making this decision was very difficult for me. I bounced around ideas of different social media that I use, what I use them for, and how often I use them to help me choose. I landed on the idea of Instagram because I feel as though I fall victim to the mindless scrolling that the designers and programmers have developed. I will spend hours a day scrolling through Instagram hoping to see something that is somehow life-changing to me — spoiler alert, I still have yet to discover a life-changing post. All-in-all this was a social media platform that I felt didn’t really provide me with any benefits in my daily life. Most times I leave with the same mindset I started with and only started scrolling out of boredom! The truth is, I don’t need to see what everyone I’ve met in high school and college are doing on their weekends, or pictures of their animals (though I do enjoy them), and the new color they dyed their hair. I wanted to learn and understand what effects Instagram was having on me, and study those through a detox of its usage.

I set out to study a variety of factors in this process. Every time I was tempted to go on the app, I would make note of the date and time. I wanted to learn if there was a pattern of the times my brain was craving some Instagram use. I would also make note of why I wanted to use the app, to learn what my reasoning would be. At the end of my study, I wanted to be able to answer several questions I created at the beginning.

These are the answers to my questions.

As I began the study, I wasn’t sure what kind of emotions I would be feeling. I expected to feel a sense of relief that I could be more present in my day-to-day life, and wouldn’t have the mental obligation to see what my friends and family were up to on my Instagram. However, what I felt was quite the opposite. I found myself trying to go onto Instagram, and becoming frustrated when I could not. I felt as though I was missing out on all of the major events that were going on, and I was clueless about that information. In the article “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” author Jean Twenge addresses this occurrence. The article states, “What’s the connection between smartphones and the apparent psychological distress this generation is experiencing? For all their power to link kids day and night, social media also exacerbates the age-old teen concern about being left out.” I did experience the feeling of being left out when I was not able to see what my friends are up to. It was almost like I was excluded when I did not have the means to see what exciting things they were sharing.

Of the times I wanted to check Instagram, I kept track of why I wanted to use it. Boredom accounted for 85.96%, checking for information accounted for 7.02%, because I got a notification accounted for 3.51%, and because I saw someone else using it accounted for 3.51%.

After this 5 day detox, I realized that I resort to Instagram for most of the information that keeps me up to date. I don’t use Twitter and have no real reason to turn to other sisters and sources when all of the information I am looking for is located on one app, Instagram. The article, “The Web We Need To Save” discusses this concept. Author, Hossein Derakhshan states, “The Stream now dominates the way people receive information on the web. Fewer users are directly checking dedicated web pages, instead getting fed by a never-ending flow of information that’s picked for them by a complex — and secretive — algorithms. The Stream means you don’t need to open so many websites anymore… You open Twitter or Facebook on your smartphone and dive deep in.” Personally, Instagram is my form of The Stream that Derakhshan is talking about. I know I can’t necessarily find all the information there, but I can find what I need and that satisfies my desire for current content.

Following this study, I realized how much of a role social media, specifically Instagram, plays in my life. However, as a part of what Jean Twenge refers to as “iGen” the generation “born between 1995 and 2012” (“Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”) I’m not sure I’m entirely to blame for my addiction. I know no world without smartphones and social media. It was just a part of my life and experiences growing up for my generation and I. Jean Twenge states, “I realize that restricting technology might be an unrealistic demand to impose on a generation of kids so accustomed to being wired at all times… I have already witnessed firsthand just how ingrained new media are in their young lives.” Smartphones and social media are to my generation as Walkman’s and pagers were to the generations before us. It is only the media that defines us.