OPINION: USF, make a social media detox your 2025 resolution

My New Year’s resolution is to ditch social media once and for all. ORACLE GRAPHIC/ LILY FOX

It may sound contradictory, but logging off social media is a new online trend. 

The algorithms have been telling me the anti-social media movement is all the rage and I have recently hopped on the bandwagon myself.

Going offline is also a hot topic among Florida legislators with the “Online Protections for Minors” (H.B. 3) that has come into effect. This law bans users under the age of 14 from having accounts on all social media platforms. 

Related: Florida isn’t doing enough to ban social media for minors

I’m over 14 but I still deleted all my social media apps from my phone. Since, my productivity, focus, mood and overall presence have significantly improved. 

Wayne Garcia, a professor in the Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications, has done the two-day “social media cleanse” assignment with his Media and Society students for about four years. 

During the assignment, students keep a journal to observe and reflect on their thoughts and experiences over the course of the cleanse. Finally, they do a research assignment on social media addiction.

“I think it really gives them a chance to get a new level of understanding of the topic and how it is or is not impacting them personally,” Garcia said. “So, I think the idea was to really make it real.”

Challenging myself to a social media cleanse showed me the impact these apps have on me are more ‘real’ than I had ever realized.

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Freshman Luiza Medeiros De Campos did the social media cleanse last fall. Although she has since logged back in, the cleanse has taught her about her relationship with social media. 

“I realized how social media has us hooked and how being without it makes us very nervous and anxious,” De Campos said. “And then I realized I am addicted to it,”

I had never considered myself to be addicted to social media, however, I was experiencing significant withdrawals. I was feeling anxious that I was out of the loop and found myself not knowing what to do while waiting for short amounts of time. 

My thumb seemed to reach for Instagram and TikTok as though it were muscle memory. 

But it turned out that the boredom that arises from not having social media motivates me to pursue other hobbies.

During lunch, instead of doom scrolling, I would watch video essays on my favorite philosophers. And now instead of nightly screen time before bed, I’ll read a book.

At this point, I am pretty much the Sherlock Holmes of finding better things to do than scroll.

Realistically, logging off social media entirely may feel impossible in a modern society. Not only do some post on social media for a living, but keeping up with local events and remote friends is almost entirely done on Instagram now.

My advice – just keep it off your phone.

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Try accessing social media apps from a desktop. Scrolling is just so much less satisfying on a mousepad.

I still check Instagram every few days on my laptop, but have cut down screen time by at least one hour a day. Using the app on the desktop allows me to message friends, view stories and post.

“I think social media cleanses are very good for us”, said De Campos. “When I first read the assignment I was worried, but excited. After completing it, I was like, ‘Yeah, everyone should do this every once in a while.’”

If not indefinitely, try blocking social media apps for just two days and maybe keeping a journal, like in Garcia’s assignment.

If nothing else, hopefully you will learn something about yourself you did not know.