For anyone out there who uses social media, there is always a question waiting to be answered: How has it changed my life?

I decided to figure it out by deleting all of my social media, including Instagram and Snapchat

I did this for a lot of reasons. First of all, I was spending way too much time on my phone everyday, around two hours. I had started to realize I had a certain attachment to it, reaching for it when it wasn’t buzzing. On nights when I had nothing to do, I would send myself knee deep in posts and videos instead of doing something productive.

So the week before February break, I went on my phone and said goodbye to the two biggest parts of my social life – Snapchat and Instagram.

I took a deep breath, held down the button and the apps wavered. I tapped the X, and got the warning. Do you want to delete this app? After this, there was no turning back. I closed my eyes, and clicked “Yes.”
After that, my hand would always reach for my phone in search for something that wasn’t there. I felt compelled to know what was going on with my friends even when I wasn’t with them.

What ensued was nothing that I could have guessed. From the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep, I felt the need to see what I was missing out on. I would open up the phone constantly.
It also seemed that I had picked the absolute worst time to pursue this. February break was steadily approaching, and since my go-to activity during my free time is Snapchatting friends, I had no idea what I was going to do.

The first few days were hell. There is no way to sugarcoat it. I felt like I was missing out on the next trend, the next new piece of slang, some important piece of information from my friends. And sadly, I found out that I had missed out on a viral video: “Damn, Daniel!”

Here was this national inside joke, something that I was left out of. I WANTED to be in on it when someone screams “DAMN, DANIEL!” across the hallway. Instead, I was left out because I had gotten rid of the one thing that connected me to this.

And though I felt left out, I was noticing some positive effects.
I felt as if a weight had been lifted. These things that had been tying me to my phone for hours on end before, were now gone from my life, and it felt amazing.

As time progressed, I felt less of a need to be on my phone. Yes, I checked the occasional text, and of course every once in awhile I would long for the company of Snapchat, but that became less of a concern. I found myself making more plans to actually hang out with people. I socialized more in those two weeks than I had in the past two months. I made new friends, and had a great time doing it.

My phone usage went down. Not counting the time I was listening to music, I had cut myself down to an average of 20 minutes per day.

I was actually loving it, until I got to the bump in the road that I knew was going to be the hardest time yet –a three-day-long field hockey tournament in Pennsylvania. Without social media I knew it was going to be a long three days.

As I talked to my teammates, I desperately wanted to pull out my phone and match the name to the face, but that was no longer an option. And slowly I was discovering that this wasn’t going to work out.

“I’ve had enough,” I said to my friend on the way home. I felt like I was missing too much.
I re-downloaded Instagram and Snapchat. A feeling of safeness washed over me. And just like that, everything that I had worked towards felt insignificant; I was now officially back on the Internet.

Looking back, I have mixed feelings about it.

I now use my phone a lot less everyday, averaging around an hour, a staggering hour less than before. I feel less of a pull to unnecessary things.

But it wasn’t all sunshine and unicorns either.
I missed out on so much in other people’s lives. I was missing stupid memes and viral videos, but they were important to me.

I don’t need social media to keep me in the loop. A nod to a friend in the hallway was really all I needed. I now feel that I am more connected to my friends, and that’s probably the most important thing anyway.

So, thinking about taking the jump? I highly suggest it, in small portions. Maybe go four or five days without it, and then get it back taking note of the difference it makes. Maybe you’ll love not having it, maybe you won’t. The choice is in your hands now.