Social Media // Project Morning Person

Having grown up with technology and social media, it’s almost always been there and been a part of my life. But as I’ve gotten older I’ve been noticing the effects that social media especially can have on my life. It’s interesting, because I feel like if I was in a world where I never had any social media accounts I would have felt left behind for a long time, because I would have never experienced how it has changed me and how I think. But now that I have been on social media I can see how I’m pretty much addicted to it, and I’m noticing more and more how much other people are.

Sometimes I look back on how I was as a kid. I’m not trying to wish that I was still a kid, but I want to allow myself to have moments where I can be silly, be creative, and just have fun without the pressure of having to post about it, or without the distraction of my phone. I would have so many ideas, and I was so content with how my life was.

I got to a point recently where I had spent over eight hours on Instagram alone nearly every single day. It was really bad. And I just felt tired. My head hurt, I was overstimulated, and yet, all my brain wanted to do was sit on my phone. It was a habit that I had made, to scroll on social media any time I was bored. Right after that I took a break for a whole week without social media. I asked my family to join me, and it went really well. I felt better, more free, and although I was bored at times, I started to get more comfortable in the silence. But I still had the urges to be on social media.

After the week was over, I reinstalled all the apps. And I started to fall back into those habits to some extent. I did set stricter limits on how much time I spent on them, but I was still having trouble with it. I would be bored and all I wanted to do was be on my phone. Even if the most addictive apps were blocked I would still sit there on my phone and look for anything to do and any excuse to stay on my phone.

It’s difficult when a part of my brain wants to be on my phone and be mindless, but I also don’t like how I feel, and I don’t want to waste my life staring at a little glowing box for hours. Imagine how much even just two hours on social media a day can build up over the years? There are so many more important things you could be doing!

Just today, I walked out of my bedroom to every single person in my house being on a screen. I was trying really hard not to be on my own device and give myself some time off of a screen, but I was bored and wanted to do something with someone instead of staring at a screen or at my bedroom ceiling. I did eventually have an idea and convinced my little sisters to join me in making a postal system for the rooms in our house. It was such a fun and creative little activity that I would have missed out on if I was sitting on my phone.

I’ve noticed something similar when hanging out with friends. So many people my age are so addicted to their phones or just uncomfortable being bored, having silence, or being out of the loop. And as I’ve become more aware of my own use of social media I’ve become so much more aware of other’s. And I don’t mean to put people down, just to bring awareness to the issue. There are times where I genuinely just crave quality time and attention, and having a phone between me and the person I care about and want to spend time with, in a way makes me feel less important to that person. I know that they still care about me, but it’s easy to think that they don’t sometimes, you know?

I don’t really know where I want to go with this, but I’m craving a world where more people are more aware, and more present. I’ve had an urge to completely delete social media for a longer period of time. But I worry that I might be judged for leaving. But I feel like the cons of leaving would end up being less than the pros. Having experienced being away from social media I know just how much it could really benefit me to be away from it for longer. And maybe I wouldn’t leave completely. I don’t think I would ever delete my accounts, but I think having the apps off of my phone would be so helpful.

I’ve been reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, and one thing that he brings up is that to break a bad habit you need to make that habit unattractive or difficult to do. So I think if I was to delete the apps off of my phone that would make it harder to go onto social media. I would still have the ability to get onto my computer and make an important milestone post or something, but it would be so much harder to sit there and consume content.

Project Morning Person is about becoming the kind of person that I want to be, and getting rid of things that I feel like are holding me back. The end goal isn’t just to wake up early. I’ve called it this, because in my head, a morning person is the kind of person who is cheerful, productive, creative, motivated, and organized. All of these are qualities that I really want to have and the kind of person that I want to be.

I’m planning to make a series of videos that will show my journey of becoming a “morning person” and I hope that you will join me. I will still be posting art content as well, but in my opinion, life is art. There is art in everything we do, and life itself is beautiful. And so improving my life is just like improving my art work. I feel like these life improvements will improve my artwork anyways, just because I will be able to be more creative.

So, if you want to come along on this journey, and even start your own “Project Morning Person” I hope you will check out my videos on YouTube, and that I can inspire you.