I Cut Back on Social Media during Lent: The Results Were Refreshing

Easter came and went this year without much fanfare. As the first major holiday to experience its second year of pandemic restrictions, it largely went by without much notice. Unlike last year, there was less frustration and angst, with ongoing COVID fatigue the norm more than a year into lingering lockdowns and social distancing.

Perhaps out of boredom, or just seeking a new challenge, I pushed myself to do something different for Lent this year. Though not devout, as a Catholic I have always used the Lenten season as a time of contemplation and self-reflection, a chance to renew the sometimes fraught New Year’s resolutions I always seem to abandon.

The start of 2021 struck me as different altogether too — with the lingering effects of the pandemic, the recession, political upheaval, etc. In short, a new year with a ton of continuing anxiety. On the eve of Ash Wednesday, I found myself scrolling through my phone, wondering how I could both adhere to my Catholic traditions while trying to improve my resilience . . .

You see where this is going: I decided to cut social media from my life.

I knew going cold turkey would be difficult. To set myself up for success, I laid some ground rules: I was OK with using social media sparingly for things like my work or to wish a loved one happy birthday, I would forgive myself for clicking on an app by mistake, and so on.

So I started forty days of my social media cleanse. And now, a week after Easter with some time to contemplate the aftermath, I lay bare the results:

1) I was less distracted

This one should have come as no surprise. And it didn’t — at first. I went about the first few days of Lent checking my phone on occasion, putting it down quickly, and then going about my day.

But after about a week, I really began to notice the difference. My focus cleared. My attention deepened. My thoughts — which have a tendency to jumble together — organized faster. These micro-benefits soon snowballed, which led me to notice another development . . .

2) I became less reactive

Social media has a tendency to elicit an immediate opinion. From short blurbs and comments, my response had typically been to form an opinion as quickly as possible. In a few short weeks, my reaction time to all information, not just the tidbits from my phone screen, slowed. I sat on the information. I mulled and chewed on the details. I discovered a newfound, rather pleasant aversion to coming to a conclusion in haste — an effect at once invigorating and satisfying.

And then, another benefit made itself known . . .

3) I leaned towards long-form content

I have always been an avid reader, so this came as a little bit of a surprise to me. While my enjoyment of books had never waned, my consumption of them had slowed. During Lent, my younger appetite for all types of long-term content — novels, magazine articles, journals — came roaring back, and I obliged. I finished one book, started and finished another, and read dozens more articles and periodicals over that time. What’s more, I found myself rereading older writing projects I had begun and shelved long ago.

4) I used the extra time for contemplation

Fewer interruptions meant more stretches of time. More reading and enhancements in productivity were satisfying, but as Lent has always evoked a spiritual responsibility within me, I couldn’t help but wonder what else I could be doing. Rather than try to do more, I delved into alternatives: prayer and meditation.

Those terms can open a Pandora’s Box of opinions for many, but I resisted my tendency to overthink the challenge, choosing instead to reduce my mental clutter, focus on singularity, and sit with each thought as they came, not judging or applying a value to any.

One would think the result would be less action and more thinking. At times, it was. And yet overall, I saw within myself a desire to move on, to tackle problems and issues in new ways, and become more decisive, less ambivalent.

This led me to another benefit, one which I really want to keep up beyond my forty-day fast . . .

5) I renewed long-standing goals

In my moments of contemplation and meditation, I took a hard look at my life. I didn’t always like what I saw. My addiction (really, what else can I call it?) to social media led to procrastination, hesitation, and doubt, characteristics I’ve fought against my entire life. Now to be truthful, cutting my social media didn’t eliminate these tendencies. But it did cast a finer light on the role such distractive mediums play on my personality.

Regardless of how much time would be taken back up by app-glancing, I ended my forty days and forty nights data dieting refreshed, wanting to make renewed commitments to projects and goals which had linger in 2020, stalled in the beginning of 2021, and would haunt me in 2022 if I didn’t resolve to engage them. The myriad of excuses — the virus, economy, depressing media coverage — would always be in my mind. Yet their dominance faded, receding into my consciousness, replaced with a determination not altogether present in the pre-Lenten season.

If my takeaways seem to cut and crisp, it’s because they are. I have no doubt I’ll backslide into some more time-wasting habits. Still, I love the idea I can jump back into some familiar, positive traits just as easily, and strike down my negativity with a blend of intention, forgiveness, and fortitude. It’s no coincidence that Lent coincides with a season aligned with rebirth and renewal. And with so much promise of the world on the horizon, it seems to have come at no better time. I, for one, hope to continue to make the most of it.