the real life diary

My Twenties without Social Media*

I will be turning twenty soon, and I wanted to do something that could change my life for the better. Lately, I became disillusioned with social media: I felt like I was wasting time doomscrolling but I couldn't look away, and I couldn't really think of its positive effects on my life that outweighed the impact of my real life relationships. Social media became so ubiquitous in my life ever since I joined Google Plus as a kid, I forgot how to live without it. As I enter this new era in my life, I want to break free from my-- to be honest-- addiction to it.

*I still use some chat apps, image/video sharing sites, and other social sites like forums, but I've deleted all the addictive, algorithmic socials I once had. The Real Life Diary is inspired by the "[Blank] Days of Productivity" challenges I've seen, except I will be documenting my experiences living without social media after a very long period of dependence.

Art Goals [march 20 2025]

Yayy, I'm done with finals! I feel like I kind of bombed the bio exam, but that's all behind me now...

I've been able to think so much more without having my attention taken away by social media. Without the stress of finals, my imagination has been set free. I enjoy seeing dragons in the clouds, as we've been having beautiful spring skies as of late.

To be honest, I miss seeing Signalis art on Bluesky! Signalis has been such a huge artistic inspiration for me. I've been wanting to make a Signalis art music video for a while, but progress has been really slow! I hope to at least get the entirety of it sketched in the coming weeks. I would like to use my current favorite song, "사계" (Four Seasons) by 노래를 찾는 사람들 (People Seeking Songs). Something about the melody sticks in my head constantly, and its allusion to the labor movement around young women workers in modern Korea lodges in my heart. I stumbled upon a music video comprised of clips from the period, and it made me wonder about the background of Unit 512 in the game. I want to convey all my feelings around "사계" and Signalis into this AMV, so wish me luck!

I am also planning on participating in Art Fight this summer! I thought my art from last year was so delightfully colorful and experimental. I'll probably aim to do at least 10 pieces this year, since I need to balance it with my school work, too.

FOMO [march 10 2025]

It's been two weeks without Instagram and Bluesky, and there's been a lot of positives and negatives so far. I ended up redoing the layout of my phone since I don't often use most of the apps, and I used Shortcuts to change the icons of the apps that I use most often to less colorful matching objects. I think participating in Digital Cleanup Day could help me make my phone even more helpful. The amount of clutter in my room bothers me when I'm trying to study, and I think I need to apply my need for minimalism to my digital activities, too.

I'm trying to study as much as possible this week, but I think my reliance on Youtube and Spotify background noise and multi-tasking has decreased my productivity. I also decided to turn on my phone's grayscale filter since I was getting distracted by Pinterest and Youtube-- they replaced my morning/evening Instagram doomscrolling. A new goal I've set is to reduce multi-tasking as much as possible and be present in each task. When I feel the urge to doomscroll, I've been trying to get outside instead.

I don't miss Instagram too much, but I did feel major FOMO on Saturday at a furmeet. Some cool people from out of town stopped by to hang out; I had some great conversations with them, but I had no Instagram account to direct them to when they wanted to stay connected. It was tempting to want to revive my account (since it takes 30 days for it to be permanently deleted), but I dislike the idea of becoming hooked again. I hope this website will serve as a good point of contact for people I meet. I think emails are a fun way to communicate :)

[february 24 2025]

I will probably not be able to write too much this week because of midterms, but it's been a crucial time in my unplugging journey. I picked up Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now from the library, and I've been enjoying it so far. Books have been really helpful in replacing my social media dopamine cravings. Today I'm grateful for local libaries. I love the feel of a hardcover library book; the plastic covering on the covers, the smell of its pages, using a grocery reciept as a bookmark. I am grateful for libraries' purpose as community hubs, one of the last remaining third spaces where we can simply exist without needing to pay.

Living without social media has allowed me to be more intentional with my phone use, such as not looking at it while walking and only checking notifications at specific times. It allows me to be more present in nature. When you live in the city, the lights are dazzling, but you don't realize you're missing the stars. I felt so content during my day trip to the beach with my roommate this past weekend. I did not have to worry about petty drama that would wait for me on my phone, nor did I need to curate my life for an aesthetic Instagram post. I've started a journey to being free.