By Anna Trevathan, Former Imaginary Gardens Managing Editor
During the beginning of Winter Break, like most fellow students, I spent an unreal amount of time doom-scrolling on my phone, scrolling through content on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook for hours at a time, especially at night. At a certain point, I started sleeping in until 1 p.m. and going to bed at 3 or 4 a.m. Things were not just unrealistic, but I felt myself settling back into bad habits that I had long been rid of.
That realization forced me to look at how I was using my phone as a whole. I am the type of person who checks my Instagram before I get out of bed each morning and before I go to sleep each night, and somehow I didn’t have the mental energy to reply to actual text messages from friends. I then, very dramatically, deleted every social media app off my phone. Admittedly, especially at first, I was pretty bored and I had no plan on what to do to fill that space social media would typically occupy.
What followed was a return to something slower, to a life with more intention than views.
Our Phone Was Never Meant for This
In deciding to do this, I did some research on whether my screen time was actually really that bad. Harmony Healthcare, a U.S. based data management firm, conducted a study and found that the average American spends five hours and 16 minutes on their phone each day. This time is a massive percentage of each day, and more worrying is what this time is actually being spent doing. According to a YouGov survey, more than half of Americans spend less than 15 minutes a day talking to their loved ones on the phone. If only 15 minutes out of the five hours is spent calling those you love, then there is a question about where the rest of the time is being spent.
During my digital detox, I started thinking about what my phone should actually be used for: calling friends and family and seeing how their day was. I was concerned that when I got off of my Instagram and stopped sending friends memes, reels, etc, that I would ruin personal relationships I had with them. Instead, I’m finding myself wanting to leave home more and making plans to see friends and family in person. Somewhere along the way, the device that was made to keep us able to connect from anywhere has also made us unbelievably disconnected.
My phone had been replacing more than just time with loved ones; it had also expedited things that I had no interest in losing out on. Mainly, in how I consume my music.
Music: Without a Skip Button
Spotify has made my music easily accessible, but they also let me create a tunnel and stay in it. If there is a day when I only want to listen to Sabrina Carpenter, Spotify lets me do so. Then, on other days, it will push me to listen to the same artist and songs on “shuffle” rather than exposing me to anything new. The way I consumed music when I was 10, with a portable CD player and oversized headphones, is long gone.
I started listening to music on CDs again for that same feeling, and they did not disappoint. A CD forces you to choose an album to listen to and commit to it entirely. You listen to the songs that would have gotten a skip on Spotify, and maybe they become the songs that you grow to love. There’s no shuffle button and no urge to listen to fifteen seconds and give up on a song that comes on.
At one point, long before this decision to move away from depending on my phone for everything, I had desperately wanted to start collecting and listening to vinyl. However, vinyl collection has become an expensive, and dare I say performative, hobby. Social media has fueled this performance, with individuals posting multi-hundred-dollar record players and listening setups. As an average human, it feels impossible to keep up. Not to mention the cost, at roughly $25 an album, I would be spending an insane amount to even cover four or five artists’ discographies.
CD’s, unlike vinyl, are being sold at roughly seven dollars and even cheaper at a used media store like McKays. CD’s reinforce a core belief for me, that music should not feel like a luxury. Instead of paying $11.99 a month to rent music, this gives me a way to build a personal music collection. Additionally, I learned how to burn music onto blank CDs, and now I have a curated “no skips” playlist free from Spotify’s grasp. It’s a slower process, and it’s the one I have come to love. This could be a cute idea for loved ones in your life, and if you’re still looking for a Valentine’s Day gift, I highly recommend making your own custom CD!
Guide: For Those Feeling Social Burnout
My intention for this article is to prompt people to check their screen time, and to ask themselves when the last time they called their friends/family was. However, if you have been reading this and you’re feeling like it’s time to go full stop, this is what I would have wanted to know prior.
One: You desperately need to find a hobby before doing this. For me, I have turned to reading to fill that void in time. (Still looking for that hobby? Our own writer Jackie Ayala has some advice for you.) Two: You need to be comfortable being uncomfortable around friends or family who are all on their phones scrolling in silence. Three: You do not have to be all or nothing.
For me, a massive part of the decision to quit social media was the hate online. I was not receiving this hate, but I was reading it and consuming it daily. With everything happening politically and socially within the United States, I could no longer handle it being the first thing that I saw in the morning and the last thing I saw before bed. Knowing this, I kept Pinterest as a scrolling app. My Pinterest is full of watercolor paintings, outfit inspo, and vintage-themed collages. The “all or nothing” mentality may be good for some, but I recommend finding your version of Pinterest: an app that does not exhaust you or burn you out.
Convenience: The Burden
Listening to CDs has reminded me that convenience is less of a gift than society thinks it is. When everything has to be instant, nothing can get us to stay. A whole album turns into one or two top hits. A phone turns into a social media getaway, and texts go unanswered.
I don’t think everyone needs to go fully analog, nor do I think that would honestly be possible in today’s world. Pellissippi State Community College students know that the Microsoft Authenticator app would kill the vibe if we even tried. However, I think it’s worth looking at what you’re trading for convenience on a personal level. Make a phone call, take a picture of you and friends in a park, and live your life the way it was meant to be lived.
