My team has a private Facebook group where we discuss who will be available to play. Part of me is frustrated about having missed it, but I also realise that being unaware has no negative affect on my life. I catch up with some friends who are talking about a recent NBA video on Facebook and they ask if I’ve seen it – I haven’t, which is a strange feeling. I’ve become more aware of how often people feel the need to check their phone. On the upside, I get out of bed much faster to start my day.
I replace looking at social media with reading my emails and checking the news. I use my phone as an alarm, so as soon as I turn that off I instinctively go to have a look on social media and check what has happened overnight before I remember the challenge. When I go to bed I have an unsettling feeling because I always look at my accounts before going to sleep. I try to distract myself by shopping online. I know that I’m probably not missing anything important, but I still feel the need to get back on and see what I’ve missed. After a few hours I imagine there is something that I’m missing out on already and I feel stressed about it. I will miss Facebook the most because my friends organise social events and I won’t know what’s going on. But 30 minutes later I start to kick myself. Right after deleting the apps, I feel liberated – as if I will immediately become more productive. I tell my close friends that I won’t be contactable on social media – they’ll have to text or email. I use social to contact people and stay up-to-date with my friends and the world, so I think I will feel a bit lost. Normally I check my phone each time I get a notification, and outside of that I check Facebook every 30 minutes, Snapchat every hour, Instagram every two hours and Twitter every four hours, so I feel anxious at the idea of taking five days off. Peck, who is studying a Master of Commerce, with a major in eBusiness and social media strategies at Deakin University, shared his trials and revelations with us throughout the week.
Ben Peck, 23, accepted the challenge to go a working week without social media and see what the affects would be, checking his dependence and whether he could even survive it. Since the jury is out, we decided to investigate matters ourselves. Heavy social media use can have physical affects like strained vision or neck pain, but it also means we are retreating from the real world, which can have a psychological impact. Some experts argue there’s a real need to detox digitally, and others say there’s no serious reason for concern. Could you go five days without social media? If you did, would you experience serene bliss or develop a stress ulcer? The average Australian spends the equivalent of one day a week online and uses social media more than any other nationality.
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