Last week, my younger sister informed me that she was going to be deleting her snapchat for one month. Inspired by her social media cleanse, I decided to delete all of my social media (Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and VSCO) for one week. According to Psycom.net, time on social media can result in heightened depression or anxiety, so in theory this social media free week should improve my mood. Let’s see how it goes.

Day 1 – Today is the third of our e-learning days. So far, not having social media hasn’t really affected my life. The only difference would be that while I was doing my school work, I was a lot more efficient without so many notifications.

Day 2 – So far I have gotten three texts telling me to look at my DM’s or check the Snapchat group chat. Despite social media being described by SmartSocial.com as more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol, I have resisted the urge to re-download these apps, even though my dad posted a picture of my grandma dressed up as a drug dealer. That photo is probably hilarious, but I won’t see it for another 6 days.

Day 3 – By now my feed is probably full of new and mildly interesting photos. My friends continue to posts pictures featuring me – yet I can’t look at them. I have no idea what treasures they are sharing with the world.

This morning when I was babysitting, one of the kids asked for my phone to take a snapchat picture. Every week we take a new picture of him and I as puppy dogs. He actually started crying when I said I didn’t have snapchat right now. Luckily, the crying stopped once someone else used their snapchat to take a picture with him.

Unluckily, I am no longer that kid’s favorite babysitter.

Day 4 – Today we are back at school. Usually once I finish my classwork, I get on my phone, respond to my texts, and then just mess around on social media. Today, I still checked my texts, but obviously I didn’t check Instagram. Instead I read.

I read fairly frequently anyways, but I’m more of a ten-pages-per-day reader most of the time. Today I read over 200 pages.

Day 5 – By now I’m just starting to get really bored. I mean, scrolling through my social media is boring, but at least it’s something to do. Today, I spent a lot of the day after school having nothing to do. I read a ton, but I didn’t always have a book on me. So sometimes I was just plain bored. I’ve been listening to a lot more music than normal, which is saying something because I play music almost all the time anyways.

Really, I feel about the same. I do, however, sort of feel like a burden has been lifted, just because I don’t constantly feel the need to check my phone. It makes me feel more in control but also sort of disconnected from my friends.

Day 6 – I was too busy through today to really think about social media, except for when my friends texted me a couple of links to different Instagram or Twitter posts. I have now read two books this week, which is two more than I normally read. I am adjusting to life as an outsider.

Day 7 – Today is the last day that I will be doing this. I’ve stopped even really thinking about social media. At first, I would phantom click on the app that sits where my Instagram used to, but now I don’t even do that anymore. I don’t feel any different, but I have been getting more sleep since I no longer have anything to do once I get in bed and turn out the lights.

Overall, this social media cleanse was pretty beneficial. I got to miss out on the  Walmart-yodeling-boy, I studied for AP tests more than I normally would, and I watched a movie all the way through without messing around on my phone at the slow parts. I would definitely suggest this seven day social media cleanse challenge to all teenagers.