Hiya there! It’s Jackie back with another blog post. For the past two weeks, I completely stopped using TikTok. You might be thinking “that can’t be that hard” or even “OMG girl I could never.” For me, TikTok just became addictive. Seriously. I would go on the app constantly. I found myself on it even when I didn’t really want to be. It was like an escape from the real world, you could get lost in the mountains of content without having to really sit with your thoughts. Hours flew by like minutes.

One afternoon while driving home, I was listening to an episode of Anything Goes, which is a podcast by Emma Chamberlin. The episode was titled “two weeks with no tiktok” where – you guessed it – she deleted TikTok for two weeks. Emma was talking about how TikTok was basically taking over her life, so she just quit it cold turkey and it made so many positive impacts. So I did the same.

I can tell you right now – it was so worth it! I started doing things I used to love in my free time again, like playing the guitar or just driving around listening to podcasts. My attention span actually increased. I went to bed earlier. My mental health has even improved. I didn’t necessarily miss the app, I missed the escape. The app allowed me to just turn my brain off for hours, which wasn’t really good for me to be honest. It might not seem like a big deal, it’s just an app right? You have to agree, social media has changed our lives drastically, so sometimes it’s nice to step away from it and enjoy the real world.

Well, the two weeks is up. Now what? I’ll probably use the app every now and then, just because I like trying trends for TikTok Tuesday. I don’t think I’ll use it like I used to though, because, well, I just don’t miss it.

If you need a break for social media, take this as your sign to do it.