you don't have to spend $60 to stay off of social media
As I’ve been insufferably reminding you, I gave up social media for lent. Haven’t opened TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or Threads since February 17th. The morning of February 18th my fingers absentmindedly wandered towards my apps and, before I realized what I was even doing, they’d clicked TikTok to begin my morning scroll but TikTok didn’t open. I had a feeling this would happen to me so I set a time limit on the app (along with the others) to 0m per day. A free feature that my phone already had. After about a day, my fingers stopped wandering to the apps they were so used to opening.
It really was that simple. Sure, you could argue that I shouldn’t have even needed to set a parameter like that on my phone, I should have just been disciplined enough to stay off of those apps and hey, you’ve got a point! I can totally own how pathetic it is for my fingers to continually wander towards something I said I wouldn’t open.
I’m not against supporting businesses that help kick the social media habit if that’s what you want to do but I don’t want you to think that’s what you have to do. That you’re somehow stuck in a rut of scrolling because you can’t afford to climb out. I’m a firm believer that, no matter how much money you spend, you’re either gonna do the thing or you’re not. Spending a little bit of money up front may give you the motivation to start (oh well I already spent $60 so I better get my money’s worth) but it will not give you the discipline to keep going, that has to come from you. This is basically the same as buying new workout clothes, you can workout in your old t-shirts and leggings or you can spend $70 on a new pair of leggings hoping they’ll make you workout. You’ll either workout and achieve the same results in either outfit or you won’t workout at all and one will leave you with $70 less (and this is coming from the girl who needed a new something for everything she did).
Discipline, self-control, will power, are all muscles that have to be worked. There’s power in doing the thing you wanted to do without buying a crutch to help you get there. It’s an extra rep each time you walk past the junk food and don’t buy a healthy snack, when you choose not to open social media without being bricked, when you decide to move your body daily without the reminder from a ring or a watch.
Honestly, I just think we all need to own our shit. We need to take a little personal responsibility for our lives and the choices we make.
