Social media was destroying my ability to be present.
Three weeks ago, I completed a five day digital detox from TikTok. I haven’t returned to the platform since. Here’s what I’ve learned, and why I haven’t gone back.
In the pursuit of understanding and redefining my relationship with social media, I experimented with removing my ultimate attention weakness: TikTok. What began as a five-day experiment has turned into a complete lifestyle change. I used to waste 1 hour and 37 minutes on TikTok everyday, now I spend 0 minutes every week, and I feel great.
What I’ve Learned
Social media is addictive. That’s a fact. Not just a feeling.
Social media platforms are designed to keep you scrolling. Every click, comment, or interaction keeps you engaged, and caught in an endless cycle.
But It wasn’t always this way. I can recall being a kid, first introduced to Musical.ly, and falling in love with the concept of creating. Social media used to spark my creativity; I’d make dance challenges with friends, lip syncing duets, or short film productions. Now, all it does is leave me saving creative inspiration to my saves folder, collecting dust next to the other 652 videos saved, and to never return to them.
There’s a reason scrolling keeps you hooked: every scroll is unpredictable. When your brain sees an interesting video, it’s reward system is triggered to release dopamine, which is involved with learning and anticipating rewards. Since scrolling is unpredictable, you keep scrolling to see what’s coming next, enforcing this habitual behavior.
According to the Addiction Center, a 2022 study found that TikTok is the most highly addictive of all social media platforms. TikTok steady flow of content distorts user’s sense of time keeping them “caught in an entertainment spiral.”
And don’t even get me started on algorithms.
Removing TikTok didn’t necessarily solve this addiction problem. Instead of scrolling on TikTok, I scrolled on Instagram, and started using Snapchat again, an app I never use. I still felt that itch to pick up the phone and scroll, now I had a different medium.
I can confidently say, I spend less time scrolling and more time noticing the world around me. My attention has improved and I no longer feel the urge to pick up my phone anytime I’m bored, uncomfortable, or avoiding a task.
Why I Haven’t Gone Back
Before the detox, I would spend 24.5 days of every year scrolling on just TikTok. I didn’t even want to think about how much time altogether I spent scrolling on social media. But I did, and I calculated it.
My average screen time is 4 hours and 53 minutes everyday.
When I factored in my age and the average expected lifetime I concluded that I’d spend 12.3 years of my remaining lifetime on my phone. Wow. That’s 1.4 days every week, 6 days every month, and 75 days every year. That was a wake up call, and I couldn’t ignore it not matter how hard I tried.
Test it yourself: calculate your screen time here and see how many months of your life you actually have left to truly live.
And that is exactly why I haven’t gone back to TikTok. I want to fully experience my life, being present, and not just caught in an entertainment spiral.
If I can make one positive change, removing TikTok, then I can keep making positive changes. I hope one day I can proudly say I spend 1 hour a week on social media, and it starts with one small change.
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