Personal Narrative: The Social Media Fast

The social media fast we just completed in LA was a very interesting experience for me. As someone who doesn’t have a Twitter account, or spend hours a day on Instagram, I didn’t think that it would have a huge effect on me. When we started the social media fast, I knew that it would be easy for me because I don’t regularly spend time on Instagram or Twitter, so I decided to limit myself even more so I could see a bigger difference. I decided that I wouldn’t use Instagram, GroupMe, or Pinterest, and I also decided to turn off notifications for Snapchat, so I wouldn’t spend all day checking and responding to snapchats. I was surprised at how much it affected me, especially because I was able to get through all 4 days. One big difference I realized was that I finished my homework earlier each night, and I had more time for hobbies and relaxing. The main reason for this is that I would spend an hour or more on Snapchat reading all of the different magazine and news stories, and that would push back the time I started on my homework. One pet peeve of mine is starting my homework when it is dark outside because it feels like I’m starting too late and won’t finish. When I was

Although I completed the social media fast because I wanted to see how it would effect me, I also did it because it was homework/assignment that we needed to do. It was surprising to me that so many people just decided right from the start not to even try for a day or two. This activity began to show how our generation is entwined with social media, but I don’t think it is bad like all of the “anti-social generation” videos. To my understanding, most of our class who used social media this week used it to stay connected and social, and those who didn’t use it were the ones who felt