In this day and age, the average teenager’s life revolves around one thing, their phone. Many of us vow to “spend less time online” and sometimes we go as far as to say “I need to get rid of social media ”. Now these statements may sound like they are heading in the right direction, I mean at least us “screenagers” know there is an issue, but I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Our generation is addicted, trading in tobacco for tech. Each vow of lowering screen time turns into a digital binge, in which your phone is glued to your side for a solid 24 hours. We panic when they are lost and throw a fit when they die. I don’t need to go in depth about what we’ll do for our phones, everyone knows what I’m talking about.

When you look up “How to lower screen time” on Google over 6,500,000,000 results pop up. When sifting through advice, some options seem a little bizarre (buzzfeed do we really need to make bathrooms tech free zones?). I have gone through and picked some of the more promising tactics, and will be partaking in “tech rehab”. I will, hopefully, debunking some screen time myths and, in the process, hopefully learning some tricks that actually work.

Week One: Intuitive Screening

To start this journey off, we are treading lightly with intuitive screaming or, in other words, seeing how bad the problem is. This past week, I tried to be more mindful about how much time I spend on my phone. According to Carrie James, a sociologist at Harvard, the three steps to being more mindful about screen time (or conscious connectivity as she calls it) are reflecting on responsibilities, thinking through dilemmas, and envisioning action steps. If you look at the photo of my weekly screen time recap, you can see how well this worked for me – whoopsie.

OK, so I admit this wasn’t my best week. James’ three vague tips clearly did very little in terms of motivating myself to make more mindful decisions when it came to screen time. A new warning from the AHA warns that kids aged 8-18 should spend just two hours a day on their phone. My whopping average of about eight hours a day exceeds that by over five hours a day, or almost 56 hours in a week. This meant I spent 33.33% percent of my week on my phone.

When looking at where all of my precious time seems to be going, just over 25 hours a week were spent on social media, making it by far the most used category. It is then followed by 19 hours of entertainment (if you are watching Only Murders in the Building on Hulu, you understand why this number is so high). And then finally, my recipe hunting and online shopping addiction were exposed, taking the number three spot for this week’s screen time.

This week, I learned my personal willpower alone isn’t going to cut it. Next week, I’m going to take matters out of my own hands and let the professionals start to dictate my screen time. Wish me luck, and please don’t snap at me. I’m kind of on a detox.

Week Two

According to research published by the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, spending only 30 minutes a day on social media can result in “significant improvement and wellbeing” from reduced anxiety to feeling less lonely. When reading this, I immediately compared it to my screen time where I racked in a whopping four hours a day or 28 hours a week on social media alone.  I got a little concerned by this huge difference , but it turns out I’m not alone in my battle keeping my phone down. Common Sense Media found that teengagers spend one-third, or nine hours, of their day using some sort of media on their phone. 

There is no doubt we are hooked. On Sunday night, I set myself some limits: 30 minutes of social media Monday through Friday. Monday morning, my normal alarm went off and I picked up my phone. I scrolled for a little bit and then made my way out of bed. You can imagine my shock when I got to the first period and tried to go on Snapchat, only to realize I was completely out of all social media time for the day. It was eight in the morning. This frustrating awakening led me to ration out my seconds on my social media . No moment went wasted as I restricted my phone time in a bit of an overly obsessive manner all day Tuesday. This yoyo approach led to acceptance by Wednesday, when I didn’t run out of time until around five. I’m not going to lie, I was a little bored, but no major complaints. Thursday and Friday were perfect for getting me into the Halloween weekend considering I spent the entirety of my time at school stalking my friends to hear about every detail of our Halloween planning that I was missing in the groupchat. 

Losing unlimited access to social media was definitely a challenge, but the upsides to ditching my old ways were already apparent two weeks into this experiment. With no scrolling on TikTok until midnight, I really had nothing else to do besides school work. In my three years of highschool, I had never been more ahead than during this week. I was a week ahead in half of my classes, which for me, and my specialty in procrastination, is unheard of.  I won’t deny that by Saturday morning I was more than eager to lay in bed and take my time scrolling through my dearly missed social media, but the good week behind me definitely motivated me through the challenge of next week.

Week Three

The weekend after week two, one could say I binged on social media the following weekend. Technically, I didn’t break any rules considering my detox only lasted from Monday to Friday. But something about my excessive screen time the past weekend left me feeling kind of gross and out of it. Although four hours a day over the weekend was still much lower than my starting time of eight hours everyday, I could feel a negative difference in my day when I spent a majority of it on my phone. This realization made me, dare I say, excited for the week to come. lf you had told me a month before I would be excited to give up all social media for a week, I would have laughed in your face. 

On Sunday night, just before I went to bed, I deleted all of my social media apps off my phone. This means TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, even Youtube and Pinterest. Opening my phone on Monday morning to find absolutely nothing was a shock, even though I deleted the apps myself. I usually allot myself a minimum of 15 minutes in the morning to go on TikTok, maybe Instagram, and turn on a video to watch while I get ready for school. This was obviously not an option, and all I could do was get ready for school. After I got ready for school, a record thirty minutes earlier than usual, I had time to eat breakfast, make my bed, and even give my room a quick clean. This trend continued throughout the entire week, and honestly I have no complaints. The complete lack of stress that came with technology-free mornings was so much better than any video I could watch in the morning. 

My new abundance of time followed me when I got home from school. After I come home from the gym, I usually take a shower, lay in bed and scroll until I’m snapped out of my phone coma for dinner. Once again, this normal practice of mine was totally off the table. I ended up doing my homework, cleaning my room, writing out my week in my planner all before dinner, and I found myself so bored after dinner that I actually went onto Schoology and did my homework for the next day before going to bed at 9 p.m. That’s right I went to bed at 9 p.m., which is the first time I have gone to bed in the single digits since middle school. 

Walking into this week’s challenge, I was terrified that I would be absolutely miserable, but this week also turned out to be my absolute favorite week of all. It was definitely not all easy. There were times I just wanted to talk to my friends and found the complete lack of social media was a little isolating. But day-to-day life had never been better. I was sleeping better (and longer), my grades had literally never been better, and overall, I felt happier (as cliche as that may sound). I realized on Saturday, when I got social media back, how much more present I was with-out it. When you’re never thinking about your phone, you are forced to be totally immersed in what’s happening in front of you, which was my favorite takeaway from this final week.

What I learned

Walking into my digital detox, the best outcome I could think of was lowering my screen time and maybe being more productive. At the end of this, I learned that by separating my phone from my day-to-day schedule, the way I ran my life could take a completely positive shift. These past three weeks have been incredibly eye opening, and I would honestly recommend taking a look at your screen habits if you feel like you lack structure in your day-to-day life. My biggest/easiest tips that you can implement into your everyday life would be setting limits for yourself! It’s easy to pick up your phone to respond to a random text, only to find yourself getting bored on TikTok an hour and a half later. By setting limits for certain apps, you simply get a limit that is perfect for snapping you out of your phone coma. Turning off my notifications was also a huge help because once you remove them, your phone loses almost all of its temptation. There are no pesky little buzzers popping into your home screen, showing you everything you think you’re missing. You may hear my recommendations and think I sound like your mom telling you to get off your phone, but as a girl who loves her phone just as much as you do and knows what it’s like to have your whole life revolve around it, please, for the love of God, put your phone down. It made a huge difference in my life, and I plan on taking what I learned and implementing it into my everyday life even post-detox.