I Deleted Reels. This is What Happened.

Just seven more minutes, I think. I hit the cancel button on my Instagram time limit. I had changed the settings from my previous ten minute timer in hopes it would help me get off. Then I started to disable the blocking for an hour. I even had the Apple screentime alerts. Fifteen more minutes. Okay. Now it's 2:55. I think I should scroll for five more minutes to make the time a nice, even number. 

This had gotten out of hand. Last week I bypassed my seven minute timers thirty six times. I’d scroll an hour in the morning, a half hour before bed, and somehow three more hours between 1:00pm and 12am. And when my screen time hit nine hours for the first time ever, I knew I had to take a drastic step towards emancipating my mind. Curse the evil billionaires who designed my algorithm!

My friend and pseudo-philosopher Abby said I was a “slave”. She was so right. Abby had deleted social media apps a couple months ago and told me how free she felt. So I decided to follow in her footsteps and delete Instagram off my phone. I even deleted Youtube after a day, just because I was so inclined to watch slop shorts. Here’s my day by day documented 

Friday March 20th: 

Today I deleted Instagram. I changed my passwords so I wouldn’t be tempted to log in on my browser (It auto saved my password). Almost two hours on Youtube? Where did that time go? It’s okay though, I think, I was watching videos about the German economy. 

Screen Time: 6h 22min

Saturday March 21st:

I have six papers due the first week of April. I spent 44 minutes procrastinating on Youtube Shorts. What have I become? My mind is mush. I deleted Youtube, put my phone down, and announced to my family the situation I found myself in. I am an addict. I heard that’s the first step to recover: verbalizing the problem. 

Screen Time: 2h 34m

Sunday March 22:

It’s been two days away from Instagram, I’m itching for a scroll at this point. Just one, I think. But scrolling on the browser doesn’t give me the same dopamine spike. I finish my essay. I think I’ve broken the cycle by the end of the day. I read my textbook before bed (this increased my screentime). 

Screen time: 4h 37min

Monday March 23:

I have class today and intramural flag football tonight. I’ve decided I have finally dopamine detoxed. I breathe in the air. Sigh. Life is good. 

Screen time: 2h 16min (the lowest its been in years)

Tuesday March 24th and Wednesday March 25th:

These are my busiest days of the week. On Wednesday I read up on hammerhead sharks before bed. Apparently they can sense electric waves through their pores. 

Screen time: 2h 27min; 3h 11min

Thursday March 26th:

I have a big paper due next week that I do not want to do. Around 8:00 I decide to check my DMs just in case something important is happening. I have no messages. I am bored so I decide to scroll on the explore page. I click a video and decide to have a small scroll, I’ve recovered from my addiction so it probably won’t affect me. Oh no. I realize I feel the same buzz in my head, the same “just one more video” urge I thought I had quashed. My finger flicks onto the next video. I disobey my mind. Just one more then I’ll do my paper. 

Screen time: 2h 56min

Friday March 27th: 

I relapsed last night. I woke up today with the urge to scroll for the first time in a week. All my progress, destroyed. And for what! I can’t even recall a single video I watched last night. I feel sluggish, unproductive, and my screen time is almost three hours. It’s only two o’clock. The need to watch a ten second video is overwhelming me. I am typing so I am not tempted to pick up my phone and log on through my browser. I might have to change my password again, and this time I cannot autosave it. I am an Instagram reels addict. Free me from this prison

Screen time: 2h 41min as of 2:20PM