1 year after minimizing social media.

1 year after

it has been over a year now since the day i deleted my instagram account and so far, so good. i don’t miss being on instagram. i don’t miss being more active on social media. i don’t want to go back there and here’s why.

more aware

i reduced my social media time to a bare minimum and a few months after deleting instagram, i felt like i was back in 2012, the days before i started to consume content and post things on social media. it’s hard to describe it but i feel more awake?

i feel like thing’s have slowed down. i have more time. i am more aware of my thoughts and my surroundings. i’m no longer stuck in a social media feed. i’m no longer reaching for my phone 24/7. i’m no longer consuming endless content.

how do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible? we exploited a vulnerability in human psychology. we give you a little dopamine hit. - sean parker

i reclaimed my precious time.

i’ve been thinking about it. perhaps it’s much more harder for an artist to create in this day and age? i feel like there are too many distractions now. before social media, it was so much easier to pick up any instrument.

the main problem i experienced when i used social media was that i always felt like i didn’t have enough time to make music. the more i used my phone, the less motivated i got. i didn’t have enough energy to create. now, i have so much time on my hands and i create more than ever. i have more time to get to know my own thoughts.

to be a creator, i think it's important to find a healthy balance between consuming and creating, and that can be by reducing the screen time and social media usage.

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disclaimer: something to someone is something else to someone else. if you get inspired by my words and want to apply anything to your own life then that’s wonderful. if you don’t agree with me then that’s okay too. no hard feelings. i’m not trying to convince anyone of anything, i just want to write about interesting topics because it’s just a pure simple pleasure of mine. thank you for reading. :)

yoga, meditating, digital clutter.

we're enjoying even more snowfall this month which is great, it’s brighter outside when the snow is reflecting the light. even though I look forward to spring I really like snowy landscapes.

i hope everyone enjoyed their new year. this month will begin with a 30 day yoga challenge (move @ yoga with adriene on youtube). it’s great if you like to start building muscles in a calmer and steady way. no need to go to the gym.

along with the yoga practice i meditate everyday. right now i'm focusing on zen meditation and gratitude practices. gratitude practices can be in forms like guided meditations or journaling where you reflect on what you're grateful for. i use insight timer for meditation and dayone for journaling.

i am surprised at this but i've managed to take control of my digital clutter this week. i had many profile account but i'm in the process of deleting the accounts i don't use or haven't used for many years. if you know that you have all these accounts with old passwords, my advice is to permanetly and completely delete old accounts - and safely store active accounts and passwords in an app like dashlane.

「High value activities - being off social media (or minimizing).」

This autumn I decided to quit social media. I deleted the majority of my social media accounts, the only account I have right now is my Facebook account and I use it only for the Messenger app on my desktop. So I’m not active on Facebook, I don’t post stuff and I don’t read posts from other people. I don’t comment and like. I don’t engage in groups. And in this very moment, I don’t decide to go back. I’m perfectly happy.

Here is one of the reasons why. I’m more deliberate with my digital usage and these days I experience a greater amount of free time that I’ve never experienced before.

”To make use of time in a productive way is the antithesis to boredom.”

I spend time on high value activities like making music, exercising, meditating, staying in nature, reading books, journaling, and so on. I like taking walks. I like doing archery. I like playing and cuddling with my cats. There are so many great things that I get a lot of value from. For me, these activities are much more vital than social media scrolling.

Some other low value activities I’ve cut down on, apart from social media, are video games, watching series and spending too much time on the sofa. So spending a lot of time in front of a screen consuming entertainment is definitely a low value activity for me. I don't like being passive and just consume a lot of information, instead of being active and doing things. So I try to limit the low value activies.

I use to compare high value activities with healthy food that nourish your body and low value actives that are like junk food. High value activities is healthy and makes you feel good in the long run and low value activites is unhealthy and makes you feel good in the moment but bad in the long run. It’s good to identify and reduce the "junk food" in your life - not necessarily going cold turkey - but to identify and fill your life with more "healthy food".