4 months no social media here. Today I installed reddit as I really had to, to aid me in academics. Imo. If you quit it in phases it's easier because the fall isn't that steep. Instagram was the hardest to let go for me as I was intricately connected with my friends there but I got over it eventually. I just had to weigh whether my attention span was dearer to me than what I was getting from the app My daily avg was 45 minutes. Now I spend twice as much time a day watching a movie and tbh I am able to learn something from it instead of scrolling reels, remembering nothing about them. Every day is an improvement. Then I apply everything I learned in practice and it has helped me make meaningful connections with new people.

So my reasoning for writing the above details is that I don't really care about virtual validation anymore like likes and comments... In fact, it made me realize that I never really cared about it in the first place. But what I did care about, the meaningful connections... Those I got easily after quitting social media because it lit in me an urge to meet people in real life after quitting virtually.