I love this, Meagan! I’ve been off IG for three months and I wish I could say that my screen time was way down during this time. While I’ve reaped other benefits from it, I need to be intentional in other ways too. 🙃
That's a good question! (Insert grimace face emoji.) I made the mistake of leaving the Facebook app on my phone over the summer (I actually just deleted it this morning). The story I told myself was that Facebook was "healthier" for me. I don't experience the same feelings of imposter syndrome/comparison with writing on Facebook like I sometimes do on IG. So in that way, yes, it is better for me. But then, I'm just scrolling and consuming, consuming, consuming, but not producing anything. I also use the Substack app to read posts (like yours!) and I comment back to readers on my own posts. But maybe I should delete this app too and only use Substack on my computer. TBD on that one. Honestly, I sometimes think it comes down to me just picking up my phone, telling myself, "I'm just going to check for a minute." Then I check my messages, email, Substack, and those "just a minute" checks throughout the day add up.
I really have to do what you did this weekend—completely shut my phone off and leave it somewhere. Which I also did this weekend! On Saturday, I shut it off and left it a drawer for most of the day. And then on Sunday, we went to town to church and I left my phone at home. So I was 40 miles away from it for good chunk of the day. My oldest turns 9 this week and I just keep thinking about how I want to model my phone use/social media use with him, because he will have his own phone at some point. But it's a struggle finding that balance for myself, so I'm not sure I'm hitting the mark in what I'm modeling for him. (Sorry, that was a long ramble.)
Anyway, that was a long way of saying—I really resonated with this post. Although, I was intentional with cutting out IG this summer, I wasn't intentional with how I chose to fill that time away.
I'm glad it resonated, Stacy, and I hear you. Whenever I start feeling like I'm spending too much time on a screen, the common denominator is almost always my PHONE. I just think in general, it is not good for us when our internet lives are so mobile. Before smartphones, I did not struggle NEARLY as much with managing my content consumption and I think I was actually a lot more creative/productive. Podcast/music listening is the only thing I can think of where there's a real benefit to being able to do it on the go, and even then, there are diminishing returns after a while (like, couldn't I just go for a walk with my own thoughts once in a while?) With things like blog posts, email, and social, being able to have them along for the ride literally everywhere I go seems convenient in the moment, but over time it's a net loss.
I downloaded the Substack app thinking it would be a better-quality alternative to IG but I actually found that it just became more distraction, with notification numbers adding up and pulling me to the app, when what I really want when I am on Substack is to sit down in front of my computer and take my time lingering over an article, NOT to feel like I have to rush through it to get to the next unread post in the queue.
As a content creator, as you know, there are serious limitations to what we can easily do with Instagram on a desktop. But then, do I really need to be doing those things anyway!? I don't know. I genuinely have fun creating and sharing Reels and I genuinely have fun with mindless scrolling sometimes, but it can get to the point where it is way too much and squeezes everything else out. It's like it tricks my brain into thinking I'm "doing something" when actually I'm just thinking about OTHER people doing things. There's some element of that in every kind of inspirational media, of course, but with IG it's like drinking from a fire hose.
I've actually been watching more YouTube again lately, on my computer, which I hadn't done in a long time. But it's nice to just put on a long-form show and let it play in the background when I'm in the kitchen cooking or cleaning up, or, like, DOING STUFF. Kinda like I used to treat Food Network or HGTV...back when I had cable. :) It just fits into life so much better than being stuck swiping, swiping, swiping.
Yes to all of this! I've also had the same thoughts about listening to podcasts while driving. For the most part, it's been great entertainment for my many miles on the road. But sometimes I ask myself, "can you not drive with your own thoughts sometimes?"
IG on the desktop leads to WAY less scrolling for sure! But yes, it does feel limiting on what you can do!
Something this conversation has made me think of is the big differences in our early years of motherhood. You're only 5 or 6 years older than me, yet because you started having babies at a younger age (I was 30 when I had my first), your first years as a mom were social media free. I think Facebook came out in 2005 or 2006, and I was either a junior or senior in college, so all of my adolescent years and most of college were social media free. But, by the time I had my first baby in 2014, I was well immersed in social media. I've never experienced motherhood without social media, where you started motherhood unplugged. Just interesting the difference—even though we aren't that far apart in age!
I love this, Meagan! I’ve been off IG for three months and I wish I could say that my screen time was way down during this time. While I’ve reaped other benefits from it, I need to be intentional in other ways too. 🙃
Stacy, i'm so curious what you find you spend too much online time doing, if not IG?
I am basically ignoring Facebook these days, but find that I spend way too much unnecessary time in my email.
That's a good question! (Insert grimace face emoji.) I made the mistake of leaving the Facebook app on my phone over the summer (I actually just deleted it this morning). The story I told myself was that Facebook was "healthier" for me. I don't experience the same feelings of imposter syndrome/comparison with writing on Facebook like I sometimes do on IG. So in that way, yes, it is better for me. But then, I'm just scrolling and consuming, consuming, consuming, but not producing anything. I also use the Substack app to read posts (like yours!) and I comment back to readers on my own posts. But maybe I should delete this app too and only use Substack on my computer. TBD on that one. Honestly, I sometimes think it comes down to me just picking up my phone, telling myself, "I'm just going to check for a minute." Then I check my messages, email, Substack, and those "just a minute" checks throughout the day add up.
I really have to do what you did this weekend—completely shut my phone off and leave it somewhere. Which I also did this weekend! On Saturday, I shut it off and left it a drawer for most of the day. And then on Sunday, we went to town to church and I left my phone at home. So I was 40 miles away from it for good chunk of the day. My oldest turns 9 this week and I just keep thinking about how I want to model my phone use/social media use with him, because he will have his own phone at some point. But it's a struggle finding that balance for myself, so I'm not sure I'm hitting the mark in what I'm modeling for him. (Sorry, that was a long ramble.)
Anyway, that was a long way of saying—I really resonated with this post. Although, I was intentional with cutting out IG this summer, I wasn't intentional with how I chose to fill that time away.
I'm glad it resonated, Stacy, and I hear you. Whenever I start feeling like I'm spending too much time on a screen, the common denominator is almost always my PHONE. I just think in general, it is not good for us when our internet lives are so mobile. Before smartphones, I did not struggle NEARLY as much with managing my content consumption and I think I was actually a lot more creative/productive. Podcast/music listening is the only thing I can think of where there's a real benefit to being able to do it on the go, and even then, there are diminishing returns after a while (like, couldn't I just go for a walk with my own thoughts once in a while?) With things like blog posts, email, and social, being able to have them along for the ride literally everywhere I go seems convenient in the moment, but over time it's a net loss.
I downloaded the Substack app thinking it would be a better-quality alternative to IG but I actually found that it just became more distraction, with notification numbers adding up and pulling me to the app, when what I really want when I am on Substack is to sit down in front of my computer and take my time lingering over an article, NOT to feel like I have to rush through it to get to the next unread post in the queue.
As a content creator, as you know, there are serious limitations to what we can easily do with Instagram on a desktop. But then, do I really need to be doing those things anyway!? I don't know. I genuinely have fun creating and sharing Reels and I genuinely have fun with mindless scrolling sometimes, but it can get to the point where it is way too much and squeezes everything else out. It's like it tricks my brain into thinking I'm "doing something" when actually I'm just thinking about OTHER people doing things. There's some element of that in every kind of inspirational media, of course, but with IG it's like drinking from a fire hose.
I've actually been watching more YouTube again lately, on my computer, which I hadn't done in a long time. But it's nice to just put on a long-form show and let it play in the background when I'm in the kitchen cooking or cleaning up, or, like, DOING STUFF. Kinda like I used to treat Food Network or HGTV...back when I had cable. :) It just fits into life so much better than being stuck swiping, swiping, swiping.
Yes to all of this! I've also had the same thoughts about listening to podcasts while driving. For the most part, it's been great entertainment for my many miles on the road. But sometimes I ask myself, "can you not drive with your own thoughts sometimes?"
IG on the desktop leads to WAY less scrolling for sure! But yes, it does feel limiting on what you can do!
Something this conversation has made me think of is the big differences in our early years of motherhood. You're only 5 or 6 years older than me, yet because you started having babies at a younger age (I was 30 when I had my first), your first years as a mom were social media free. I think Facebook came out in 2005 or 2006, and I was either a junior or senior in college, so all of my adolescent years and most of college were social media free. But, by the time I had my first baby in 2014, I was well immersed in social media. I've never experienced motherhood without social media, where you started motherhood unplugged. Just interesting the difference—even though we aren't that far apart in age!