Reclaiming My Time With A Social Media Detox

In a world of constant connectivity, I'm reclaiming my time with a social media detox, unveiling a more intentional and fulfilling life.

It's that time of year again. The time when we look back on all that we have done and achieved in the past year. 2023 has been an eventful year for me, with the absolute low point being the death of my father, my best friend.

But there have also been great things, especially on the creative front. I had a great exhibition during the Art Route and sold some works. Also, Darkrooms has grown a lot (thank you, new subscribers!), especially after I launched the first issue of Darkrooms Magazine in October.

Writing newsletters for Darkrooms takes up a lot of my time, not to mention the time I put into the magazine. But it is all worth it. I really enjoy choosing topics for the newsletters and I get a lot of energy from all the responses from the Substack community. It feels pretty good.

What I have been struggling with more and more lately, though, is the monstrosity of social media. When I looked at the weekly report on my phone a few months ago, I was shocked at how much time I spent on Instagram. I knew it was a reasonable amount of time, of course, but more than two hours a day was really a lot more than I would have expected. Although... when I consider that I'm often scrolling on my phone when I'm watching a TV show, that might be true. Shocking!

I immediately set a limit of half an hour a day on Instagram. I hardly use other social media, if at all. I deleted Facebook years ago, Twitter only takes up space on my phone these days, and that's about it.

From now on, the limit goes down even further, I will only be able to use Instagram for 15 minutes a day. I still really enjoy looking around on Instagram, but this 15 minute limit means I have to be very conscious with my time. Not mindlessly watching all kinds of Stories one after the other and going down a rabbit hole, but paying attention to what I really want to see. New posts from the people I follow, marking my favorite accounts so I see them first.

And what will I do with the time I have freed up?

Things that give me energy. Things I haven't had time to do, or didn't spend enough time on. Reading my ever-growing pile of books. Flip through my library of photography books for inspiration. Watching that TV series or football match together with my wife. And by together, I mean both of us actually watching, rather than half listening, half watching and scrolling like a zombie. Sitting at the table with a cup of coffee. Going for a walk, not listening to a podcast in my earbuds, but listening to the sounds of nature.

You can only spend time once, so how foolish is it to let it slip away unconsciously?

We need to be aware on how we use social media. Thoughtful and with full attention instead of mindlessly wasting time.

By the way, I don’t consider Substack to be Social Media (yet! Don't go crazy pushing subscriptions and instead focus on quality content and content creation, dear Substack), and I like to take my time and read (& watch) the newsletters I’m subscribed to with intention and attention.

I wonder how you guys deal with this whole Social Media thing. Please leave a comment on how handle this.

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“‘Character, like a photograph, develops in darkness.”

— Yousuf Karsh

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That’s it for this week.

Till next time,

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