"Logging Out; Logged Out Successfully!"

My alarm rang at 5 am. I snoozed it, looked at the time, and slept again. After 5 minutes the alarm rang again, I turned off the alarm and turned on my mobile data. It took a few seconds to load all the notifications; there are so many notifications that it feels great to swipe up and down on the notification bar. This isn't over yet; the main game starts here. The game is to open all the social media apps and check all the messages and notifications in less and less time. Isn’t the game thrilling? Opening all the social media apps, checking all the messages, and replying to them one by one. Reading notifications like "someone liked your photo", or "someone commented on your photo", feels like a great kick to start the day. Finally, it takes 10-15 minutes to shuffle between all the apps, let’s get up and start the day. Hey guys, what’s up? I hope you’re all fit and fine. Can you relate to the “REALITY” that you’ve just read above? If you can relate then it's good but if you can’t relate to it then it is great for you, let's start the blog!

                It was 2015 when I created my Facebook account. Let’s talk openly, it was class 7^th when our teacher gave us homework to create an email account and told us to send our first email. I was too noob at that time that I couldn't create a mail account but I created my Facebook account. "Too noob or more over smart!" Can you imagine a class 7^th kid using Facebook? I can remember, sending friend requests and messages to my brothers and friends who were on Facebook. I have seen the whole time when Facebook became popular and everyone was using it, I have seen the time when people used to do picture battles; when people used the poke feature, and a lot more. Now comes another banger; it was 2017 when I created my Instagram account but I didn't use it much and then stopped using it as its UI was difficult to understand and Facebook’s UI was simpler and cleaner. After a year, I started using Instagram and started following and uploading photos but with time I understood that a picture on Facebook gets more likes than a picture on Instagram. Since then, I joined many other apps like Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit, and many more. Every time I saw a new app; I just created an account on the app.

                I know that you all be thinking why am I sharing all this now? Well, there are levels in all the games, and every time you cross a level you get a reward. The same happened here, every day using these apps became my habit and with everyday habit social media got into my blood vessels and started flowing with the blood inside my body, it seems to be funny but in reality, it is a trap. Hijacking our body, our brain, our habits, our way of thinking, and whatnot! How do I get to know all this? Well, how can a notification titled "Someone liked your photo", "You've got 200 likes on your photo", "Someone and 76 others commented on your photo", or "Someone and 30 others liked your story" can make me happy? How can these affect my brain? Posting photos to get likes, posting stories so that one favorite person can watch them daily, and how can it affect my brain if that person didn't watch the story on that day? I was so dumb that I couldn't understand all this at that time but it was enough I had to come out from all of this but I didn’t know the route to come out and it was not easy either as I was so connected to the world, I knew all the latest trends and memes that were on the trending section, it felt an achievement when you were the first one in your circle to talk about the latest trend.

Finally, the thought of coming out of all this came into my mind and it was 2024 when I confronted my teacher, it was the last semester of my bachelor's, and we talked about this issue and he suggested only one solution which was to “delete all these and stay in reality”. This looks so easy to him but for me, it was like taking something very special from me. Every day, I used to think of this solution but it was limited to just thinking! After 5 months of thinking about all this, finally I deactivated most of the apps. I have not looked behind since then. It has been around 7 months which seems to be a short amount of time but for me, it is around 200 days which is 4800 hours which is 288000 minutes, and at last, it is 17280000 seconds and still counting. It seems to be a small thing but I’m telling you it isn’t that easy to stop doing a thing that is part of your habit. I have removed most of the apps and now it feels great to live in the moment, living in the present, making memories in the brain and not in the phone, it is a great feeling. I use Snapchat but I don't feel like it is addictive because there is nothing special in this app, maybe in the future I will delete this too but for now there is no such plan for joining again the apps that I have left for now. I watch people every day using their phones while traveling and almost everyone is busy on either Facebook or Instagram but now there is no urge for me to install it again and start using it beside this, a smile comes on my face while watching them, they’re happy, let them happy!

At last, I just want to conclude that it is your choice, it is your life, it is your decision. This was my experience and I wanted to share this with you all. One thing that I want to say to my teacher: "Hey Roy bhaiya, I have deleted almost all the apps and now I am here without using them for a long while, now I usually don't know what the latest trend is and what are the latest memes that are around the internet and if I tell you truly then I don't care about all this now, thanks for the suggestion, I should have done it before but as we know nothing is too late! Thanks for the advice!”

This was all for the blog; I would be happy to read your comments, your views, and your feedback on this. I also wanted to talk about the culture, negativity and toxicity that has equipped social media and then the brain that has equipped social media but let’s keep it for someday in the future. I have kept my distance from social media but I am not sure for how much more time; maybe I will again start using it tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or maybe not or maybe yes who knows! With this note, “signing off- for now. See you in the next one. Thanks for reading!”

#DigitalDetox #SocialMediaBreak #LifeOffline