In an attempt to experience journalism firsthand, a few of Patriot Press’ staff members have undertaken a social media cleanse to learn what is impacted by these addictive apps. 

General Process:

Maggie– I took a week off of the apps Tiktok, Instagram, and Snapchat for my social media cleanse. I utilized an app called “Focus” to block me from even opening the apps, leaving me with a grey screen. Since the social media cleanse ended I have continued using the app to help block TikTok since I found many positives from the experience. 

Natalie– Similarly to Maggie, I used the app “Focus”, which I credit my success to. Opening apps like Instagram and TikTok was a reflex to me for the longest time, so eliminating the option to open them at all was the wisest choice. Since then I have used the app feature to limit my app usage to only an hour a day, and I hope to bring that number down. 

Leah– I attempted to take a month off my social media apps. I chose not to use an app to assist me through my cleanse and instead left the apps on my phone in their original spot. I now wish I used an app to limit my usage because leaving my apps on my phone and in the same spot made my cleanse extremely inconsistent. 

Michelle– I didn’t use any apps, no limits, the app was just sitting on my phone. The most I did was remove the apps from my home screen but it was still on my phone. I did go on instagram once in the beginning, but after that I just used other apps a little more than I usually do like youtube and netflix and managed to not go on social media until the end of my term. Many people could say I had “good self control,” but I would also say I never go on social media that much in the first place so it wasn’t as challenging for me than for others.

Positives:

Maggie– By blocking out these apps from my daily routine, I discovered how much time I wasted on these apps. Especially when doing homework, getting ready in the morning, and going to bed I was spending multitudes of time just scrolling. With my newfound time, I found that I could wake up much later in the morning to get ready for school, get homework done much earlier, and have more time to spend doing things I enjoy. My days felt much more productive compared to the previous weeks; I was able to spend time with friends, go to the gym, go to school, and work a shift all in the same day. Something else that I found improved tremendously was the amount of time I was sleeping a night. I felt much more well-rested and less groggy when waking up in the morning. With a first-period English class, it felt much easier to jump into discussions and ask questions to my teacher. I also found myself leaning towards brain-growing tasks such as reading and puzzling. 

Natalie– Taking out the mindless scroll of my day was not something I thought would affect me as much as it did. I felt that my morning became a bit brighter, my time was spent doing more productive things, and I strengthened my relationships with friends and family. It was helpful to keep me productive in my homework, after-school activities, and even at work. You don’t realize how much social media takes over your life until you don’t have it. I spent my time consuming more long forms of media, like movies and books. I spent time making new playlists and catching up on my favorite TV shows with my mom. Before the cleanse, most nights I would go to my room early and go on TikTok until I found that I had wasted 2 hours of my night doing essentially nothing.

Leah- By minimizing my social media usage I also in return decreased my screen time significantly. From this I found myself not only being more proactive with my school work but also improving my bad sleep habits by going to sleep at a more reasonable time. To pass my time I started to become more active, walking my dog and going to the gym on a more consistent basis. From this experience I’ve learned that although I was never on my phone an unhealthy amount, limiting screen time further can still make a difference in multiple different aspects of my life.

Michelle– Even though I didn’t fully delete or remove the apps from my phone, there was not much difference in my life from the time I did use social media because I didn’t use social media a lot in the first place. The positives I will say though is I enjoyed being fully free, setting a good night routine and getting good sleep by not going on my phone right before bed. I discovered more shows and movies I enjoyed watching too that I would never have found if I just kept scrolling through social media that only gives you pictures and short reels or clips instead of a relaxing long watch of something you enjoy.

Negatives:

Maggie– There are a few drawbacks to the social media cleanse that I found, the main one being a lack of communication through Instagram. Connecting with people from other schools and prospective colleges can be hard without the tools that Instagram provides. I think that meaningless scrolling is useful to cut out but the connecting tools of Instagram are hard to go without especially as a journalist. 

Natalie– When social media is so ingrained in our generation and society, it is hard to feel out of the loop. My friends would tell me about a tiktok they saw or someone’s story on Instagram, but to help with the cleanse I wouldn’t even look at the social media from their phones. Had the cleanse been longer, I fear that I could have missed things like my favorite artist dropping new music, some big announcements, or even major news headlines, as despite watching the nightly news most major developing stories start on social media.

Ava- While getting off social media may make people more productive and less lethargic, I have to say the loss of connection is not worth it. While off social media, I felt a lot of stress about missing important information. As a senior in high school any important deadlines are communicated with seniors via the 2025 class page. So while off social media, I felt like I was going to miss important information about upcoming dates. 

Also being a student in journalism, it was hard to reach out to people for quotes and comments as we mostly use social media to find and communicate with our fellow classmates. And with deadlines for articles hanging over my head, I found it more stressful to be off social media than on it.

While people state that being off social media makes them more productive with their time I found the opposite occurred. Without being on social media while I had downtime, I instead was playing video games on my phone. So I wasn’t decreasing my screen time at all nor was I more productive with my time. 

Leah– although there were many positives that came with my social media cleanse it was extremely difficult for me to stay consistent throughout the whole month. I continuously found myself clicking on my social media specifically instagram because of reflexes. WhichI believe was the leading cause of my disappointing social media cleanse as everytime I would go on social media on acident and relize I would decide I already messed up and continue on the app for the day. Now I relize that what not the mindset for this cleanse and is what ultimately set me up for failure. 

Michelle: Personally, I didn’t see many negatives compared to positives that could be attached to this experience. The only negative thing I thought of was when my friends would tell me to check the videos or posts they send me for fun but I couldn’t. I also didn’t mind not seeing what everyone was up to or posting as well. Overall, I had a very positive experience rather than negative.