MC: Social Media Cleanse | May 2022

Wow. I have done a lot of MC’s without making posts…I will try to catch up and work on this!

Why? 

I felt that I had lost a little control over my use of social media. I do carry a little pride in my lower than average screentime, however, I felt that I was still getting sucked into the void with certain apps. I decided to do this cleanse to put my relationship with social media to the test. I wanted to make sure that I controlled it, rather than the opposite. I believe that a hard separation from myself would allow me to come back to it, if I chose, with more intention and a better perspective.

Cal Newport was an influence in doing this challenge.

How?

I first went into all my social media apps, wrote down the username and password for each and stored it in Notes, then deleted them from all my devices. I made strict rules around what I could and could not do, and the consequences if I were to deviate. I did this cleanse with my roommate, for added accountability, and used $100 as “skin in the game.”

Rules of the game, incentives/consequences- clearly laid out. (except for the goals…which I did not fill out lol)

What were the results?

I didn’t do a great job journaling and tracking for this challenge. However, I think that is because I had a decent grasp on my social media habits prior to the cleanse. I really liked not being tied to my phone and not feeling the “need” to go into apps to check or monitor things.

I think that I learned (remembered) that I really don’t need it. Social media is not important and honestly, most of it is noise. I felt more focused on things that I felt mattered to me. The first couple of weeks, I did feel some FOMO, but honestly, there is so much more “real life” happening in “real life” that I got over it pretty quickly. My one craving I missed was sinking my teeth into some good Twitter threads. Most of the “productive” or “life lessons” variety - but I learned that even that can be a distraction. I think I might absorb more knowledge through distilled tweets, etc - but I better retain and learn knowledge from long-form articles, books, and taking notes.

Overall, I’d highly recommend this challenge to everybody. It feels tough, maybe impossible, but I promise the outcome feels like a breath of fresh air. It feels like an uncuffing of shackles.

 Fewer distractions. More focus and clarity on what matters.

I believe everyone should be aware of and understand their relationship with social media.

Do you control it? Or does it control you?

You must be brutally honest with yourself for progress to be made (in anything).

I’d rather live in a messy truth and work on it, rather than live in a half-lie…right?

Anyway, this is getting too deep for an MC post.

Rating: 9.7/10

Should’ve done it longer tbh. Alas, next time.