How Quitting Social Media Changed Me

It’s been two years since I deleted Instagram and Reddit. During this time, I’ve seen a dramatic shift in my quality of life. 

While I was able to quit Instagram with relative ease, Reddit proved to be harder to cut from my life—you’re talking about a platform that has communities that cater to your specialized interests.

I deleted the app, but like a smoker, I found myself returning after a few days, over and over again.

It wasn’t enough to simply remove the icon from my smartphone; I had to commit. So I terminated the account I had owned for seven years and was finally free. But now what? 

After years of being chronically online, I realized how much time I wasted scrolling through nonsense that, in the long run, didn’t add anything to my life. I was empty, impatient and barely knew anything about myself and the world around me.

For the first time, I was present. I could think about my own thoughts, recognize behavior patterns, and change habits that I wasn’t fond of. 

With more time to kill, I discovered my love for storytelling through cinema and literature. I want to emphasize reading here. 

I often hear excuses about why people don’t read, the most common is, “I simply don’t have the attention span.” I, too, used this excuse. 

Throughout my life, I’ve made many attempts to read habitually but failed; I convinced myself that I was simply too stupid to sit down and read a complete book. However, with the extra time I acquired by deleting social media, something had changed. 

I started learning to navigate through my mind and be more productive. 

Your brain is like any other muscle—you have to build it up. That requires patience, something we don’t have because of the instant gratification being online offers us. 

Determined to build my literary muscles, I sat down and started reading. I was only able to get through two pages. Eventually, two pages became four, six, eight. Now, I can confidently read 20-30 pages in one sitting. 

That accomplishment led me to enroll in the film program at Miami Dade College in 2023. This spring, I started writing columns for The Reporter. 

The old me wouldn’t believe the things that I’m doing at 25 years old and it all started with a decision.

Growth demands mindfulness. If you spend all your time fixated on the past or future, or worse, inside the fabricated realms of social media, you lose the now, which is all we ever have.

If I can say goodbye to social media, you can too—one day at a time.