Honestly, I didn’t know if I would succeed or not.
There were little moments when I did miss having those apps to turn to on my phone such as when we were out and Jonny would go to the loo, leaving me to twiddle my thumbs and people watch without my phone to hide in.
My morning’s have changed, I no longer waste the first hour of my day living through the updates of others. The social media ban has forced me to focus on my own life rather than comparing it to that of others.
Mental health wise I’ve noticed a definite improvement to my anxiety. I’m finding it easier to have a positive outlook on things without thinking that I need to constantly share what I’ve been up to.
I do think there are good qualities to social media, however. I’ve met some lovely people through social media, and the sewing community and the support/cheerleading therein are truly lovely by-products of it.
Instead I’ve found myself with a lot more spare time which has been amazing. There’s been more listening to music, more being creative – knitting, sewing, blogging, journalling and reading. Things that feed my soul rather than draining it. I’ve also managed to finally declutter our home and create a calm home environment.
Now I’m not going to cut social media out of my life completely. I am, however, going to manage it so that it can’t take over again. I’ll be using the iPhone screen time app to set time limits of 20 minutes per day for social media. I even got Jonny to create a pass code so that I can’t continue scrolling even if I wanted to. (I know that my terrible willpower would mean I’d just get sucked back into the scrolling without this!)
Once I’d downloaded the apps again I had a mass un-following/muting session so that I only get accounts that bring positivity into my life.
Do I feel happier? Honestly, I think I do. It’s empowering knowing that now I’m choosing when I want to access social media, rather than letting it become an all-consuming autopilot and that’s a really happy thought.
How do you manage how much time you spend on your phone? I’d love to pick up any helpful tips you’ve got!
halfway-home.co.uk 
Good Luck. I should set a timer with mine too. Saying that, like I told you, I don’t take my phone upstairs any more and I use an alarm clock instead of my phone alarm. That helps! X
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Thank you! I was going to get an alarm clock but now I’ve broken the habit of scrolling first thing I think I’ll be ok without ☺️ x
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I’m glad you’ve managed to break your habits and are happier for it.
I need to do the same now… not instagram in particular (or my phone) but just mindless hours at the computer (blogs, my 365 project + instagram on top, which I seem to be using more and more at the moment!). I very often go to the computer to do a particular task and then end up wasting four hours there and not even doing what I intended to do (then I can#t really recall what exactly I did do for those hours which is shocking!) so I really need to get back on top of things and sort myself out… it’s so easy to fall into bad habits and then not so easy to break them but less computer time is definitely my goal for the first half of this year to change my habits.
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Good luck! I totally agree that it’s so easy to slip into these habits, here’s hoping we both manage to stay on top of them in 2019 🙂
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Hi! Just found your blog 🙂
I’m dip in and out of social media, it’s definitely a double edged sword!
I always strive to find the positive in it though and search for people who inspire and share their positivity.
I try to keep my social media purely to my commute on the train time but it always ends up creeping into my evenings too – definitely something I need to cut back on!
Hope you’re still feeling happy 🙂
Rachel | Teacups & Tartan
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