Smartphone's and in turn social media plays a very important role in our life, without which we would be stranded. Right? To a certain extent it is the truth. We use social media because we want to be connected. But we forget the toll it takes on our life through its continuous usage. In this post, I go through my journey from a social media addict to being a social media ghost.
How it all started
With the invention of internet and its ease of availability, the youth were excited. We could explore various online platforms. It all started with Orkut. Then we learned about free blogging platforms like blogger. While social media was in rising, to think of it now, I realize that the craze was more towards the acceptance. What do I mean by acceptance? Every time we logged in to our internet (Yes, the dial-up days) and visited our profiles, we wanted to know how many scraps (Orkut) we got and who commented on our blog posts. Creating content was fun back then. We would feel connected and accepted to someone unknown.
The Smart Phone era
To be able to use internet, we would need a computer. Cybercafé was in the rising. Internet hubs around the corner were occupied throughout. As long as we were in the Internet cafe, we were online, which was usually 1hr per day. This meant we still had an offline life per se. Even though we were always curious to know what happened online, we had to wait until the next day. Smart phones changed it all. Mobile phones which were always used for messaging and calling when turned into smart phones, things changed. We could be connected online 24/7, which in turn changed our mindset. From being accepted online to wanting to be accepted, our perspective changed.
With smartphones and cheap internet, we clicked Refresh every second. Every notification was important. I for one, installed Facebook, twitter, Orkut etc. I tried every application available on the play store. Somehow it made me feel important. With the demand of smartphone market rising, there was a huge competition in the social media applications which in turn lead for them to evolve.
One thing that impressed me about twitter or Facebook was their evolution. The decision makers at these companies were surely great thought leaders. They knew where the trend was. The implementation of infinite scroll in twitter/Facebook and also how they put in thoughts to improve the user experience of the application, impressed me. What they did? They ensured that despite of limited focus/attention of the user, they would glue the user for a longer time on their application.
My Addiction
I wanted to be the part of the conversation. Be it twitter or Facebook. Every comment was important. Every like was cherished. I waited for #followfriday's. (A twitter trend where users would recommend to their followers, other users who they can follow). It may sound crazy, but all this was so important to me, as if my life dependent on it. Back then, I even wrote articles on why twitter was the best social media application.
Later during the guilt trips, I would console myself thinking that I am learning about various topics, improving my general knowledge. Difficult to digest, but that was the truth.
Happy Realization
Smart phones are boon, no doubt. But unless controlled by massive will power, they can be as good as a nuke. The realization struck me when my life turned havoc. I was not planning things ahead of time, always procrastinating. My priorities were unthought of. Most important, I had sleepless nights and tiring mornings. Things had to change. I had to bring in change to my own life and be able to control my actions.
The minimalist phone
First thing first. Delete all the social media accounts. It is very difficult to delete a Facebook account, literally. The delete feature is hidden somewhere below the layers of Facebook, they would ask several questions and wait for couple of weeks before the account is deleted. Meanwhile if you login to some other application via Facebook, your Facebook account is activated back. Smart move Facebook. Whatsoever, I was able to delete my account. I then deleted the Facebook application. similar with twitter, Instagram and other trendy online social media applications. The idea was to clean my smartphone.
Not just social media, I found that the news apps were useless too and contributed to the clutter. The idea was to have minimum screen time. These days smartphones come with such applications by default, so we need to go one step above to deactivate them from the system's settings.
The best option is to deactivate push notifications from each of the apps. No matter what, we don't want any notifications, or alerts etc on our mobile phone. Period.
What about other applications?
Yes, there are many applications that you may think are very important to you. Since I was on the path of achieving minimalist phone, my approach was to delete all the third party applications no matter what. Just clean the phone. Don't think about whether you will need it in future. Delete those social media applications, the news apps, the games, online shopping applications like amazon etc. Done? Yes, Done.
But what about when we really need those applications?
Think about it, you never need any application. There is always an alternative. Want to read news? Open your laptop and go read news. Want to do online shopping? Again, go to your desktop. Play games? Ok. But not on your mobile. Watch videos? YouTube on your desktop.
What about if I really had to use any of the application? Who has stopped you from downloading it? Considering that we are connected 24/7 to internet, the application is just few minutes away from the download. Use it as per your need. Uninstall it again. Repeat in case of emergency.
Why a minimalist phone?
A minimalist phone keeps you focused, attentive and forces you to speak and communicate with your colleagues and family. We often observe that in a meeting, most of the attendees are deeply immersed in their phone just hitting that refresh button, doing nothing. We take the speaker for granted. Imagine, how would you feel when you are speaking and everyone else is just physically present. You would feel rejected.
Your smart phone is not the only way to stay connected. It is preferred way of staying connected because it involves minimum efforts. However, you miss the heart to heart connection which according to me is an important aspect for building strong relationships.
I have been an advocate of not using social media for a long time now. I use very few applications on my smartphone.
- Google photos - To keep all my photos synced.
- YouTube - Because I follow technical tutorials.
- Google podcast - To listen to podcasts on the move.
- Google pay - To make digital transactions.
I don't have my email configured on the phone. I like to check emails only when I want to.
What am I loosing with this minimalism?
I don't know what most of my batchmates are doing. I don't know their birthday's and how many kids they have. Does it matter to me? Not really. Without any news application, I have nearly zero general knowledge. I don't mind. As long as I am involved in something that solves a problem, I am happy to stay away from the paid journalism.
What are the advantages?
- I feel less distracted
- The time that was wasted in browsing online content, I now invest it into creating content. Creating content helps me think. I don't write for others, I write for myself.
- I invest time in prototyping my own Ideas. Working on actual ideas help me rate my capability and improve my thinking.
- The online drama would mean a lot of negativity. Right now, I wish to stay focused and filter unwanted opinions.
I will not speak for or against social media. It has its own advantages. The question is, are we strong enough to understand its need in our lives? Can we justify its presence?