Internet Blackout

By Molly Walsh  

Opinions Contributor

It’s the last thing we do before we sleep and it’s the first thing we do when we wake up– our thumbs gliding across the small glass screen. It has developed into a relationship that I have come to rely on. As long as I have my phone in my pocket, I will never be truly bored! The whole internet is at my fingertips! The possibilities are endless!

But as I sit there, scrolling through the same pictures I looked at five minutes ago, acknowledging all the things going on around me that I am avoiding, I realize how stuck I feel. Hours can go by when I accomplish very little other than reading articles my friends have shared about things that I don’t really care about, or watching viral videos that don’t actually make me laugh. When I look up from my phone, I realize how much time has gone by, and how much I still have to do. Life seems like such a rush, like such a distraction.

I mentioned this to my sister a couple months ago when the realization struck me abruptly. She related deeply, and together we decided to conduct an experiment: for the next week, we would remove ourselves from all forms of social media. This, we concluded, would encourage us to feel more fulfilled and productive, and would ultimately disrupt our reliance on our phones.

At first, it was not easy. I found myself reaching for my phone just to flip through the pages on my home screen, looking to see if there was any overlooked app that was not social media that could possibly entertain me for a short moment. And, after shamefully opening the Stocks app, I knew this purge was more necessary than I had originally known.

As the days went on, though, the perks became evident. When I came home from school, instead of lying on my bed and scrolling through Facebook, I would do my homework outside (much more quickly, without the distractions of notifications) and ultimately had the rest of the day to engage in activities that I had been planning to do for a while, but just never seemed to get to.

Throughout the week, I taught myself a couple songs on my guitar, finished a book I had started months ago, cleaned my room, and went to bed earlier than I had at any other point during the school year. I was less concerned about where my phone was, or who was texting me, or what people were talking about online.

When I returned to social media the next week, it was immediately clear how little I missed out on, and how little of what I was looking at genuinely intrigued me. Even with allowing myself to be back online, I noticed that I did not wish to change the productive lifestyle that I had accomplished the prior week. I was much more mindful of my everyday experiences and felt more connected to myself.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t feel that the internet is just a abyss of meaningless content. I am energized by beautiful photos on Instagram, and laugh at silly videos of my friends. I think that it’s important to allow yourself moments of effortless entertainment to give your mind a break from outside pressures. But what I’ve discovered is that it ultimately feels better to go into these moments with intention rather than impulse. Open these sites when you need to take a break or when you wish to see something specific. But if it’s 3 pm on a Sunday, and you’re refreshing a page with no new content for the fifth time, maybe it’s time to go outside.