“Screenager.”
This snide expression, coined to describe youths who spend excessive amounts of timeY on their devices, is used to label teenagers — shamefully, myself included.
As the family’s “doomscroller”, I couldn’t even walk downstairs without my parents scolding me.
Sauntering into the kitchen one morning while replying to a friend’s Instagram story, I looked up to find a looming figure.
“Wow, on your phone this early in the morning?” my mom grumbled.
I immediately got defensive: “I was going to start my school work soon!”
But my words made no difference, and as she left, I knew her words touched a sore spot.
The weekly summary didn’t lie, and my screen time was dangerously nearing double digits.
During homework sessions, I rewarded myself with a “quick” break on Instagram for each question. What began as quick swipes through reels would almost always snowball into over 30 minutes of scrolling.
With each scroll, it felt like I was stepping into quicksand. The allure of the flashing lights, the likes and the comments were impossible to ignore.
So, backed by my own determination, I said a heavy-hearted goodbye. I did what once seemed impossible — I deleted Instagram.
Shrugging off the confirmation prompts on my screen, the pink and yellow ombre square vanished.
Yet, while removing social media platforms left me feeling more productive and fulfilled, it wasn’t a long-term solution.
As drastic as this choice seemed, it wasn’t my first attempt at deleting a social media platform.
Back in 2023, I deleted TikTok with relative ease.
Having only used TikTok for a couple of months, I broke free from the app and never looked back.
So when I tried to overcome my Instagram addiction to start the second semester of my sophomore year, I was sure the task would be straightforward — and for a while it was.
While I occasionally found myself reaching for my phone, I became more conscious of my actions.
Without a dopamine-inducing platform to distract me, I became more concentrated on my schoolwork; my fingers flying, I didn’t even think about going on Instagram Reels until my Google Doc was filled with notes.
With less time spent scrolling, I also gained more time to relax and to sleep. Nights that were once consumed by “just five more minutes” of scrolling turned into rested mornings.
But it was a double-edged sword.
Important school and club announcements were posted exclusively on Instagram, and in weeks, I was out of the loop on school events.
Lazing on the couch one Friday night, I found myself inundated with a flurry of text messages from friends: “Where are you? Why aren’t you at the basketball game?”
Without being able to check the Sunny Hills athletics account, I had completely forgotten. School clubs are also reliant on social media for announcing events and meetings.
Especially as the publicist for Breast Cancer Awareness and STEMup4Youth at the time, logging onto Instagram on my laptop to make posts was a tedious process.
As refreshing as my month-long break from Instagram was, it wasn’t a long-term solution.
In reality, my communication depends on social media, and using these platforms is inevitable in modern society.
The key, I learned, is to indulge in moderation.
Setting one-hour limits for myself kept me in check, and after my month off, I became more conscious of my screen time — all of which helped me escape the allure of my phone.
After steering clear of Instagram, I can confidently say I’ve escaped the ‘screenager’ allegations, and occasionally, I can enjoy those reels too — guilt-free.
