The challenge started because I lost a bet. My friend Tunde said I could not go one week without checking Instagram. I said I could do 30 days. We bet N10,000.
Day one was physical. I kept picking up my phone and opening a blank space where Instagram used to be. My thumb had muscle memory for scrolling. I felt genuinely anxious.
Day three: I started noticing things. The colour of the evening sky. The sound of rain on my window. My neighbour had a hibiscus plant that had been blooming for weeks and I had walked past it every day without seeing it.
Day seven: I started finishing books. I read three in a week. Not self-help books. Actual novels. I had forgotten that reading felt like dreaming.
Day fourteen: My attention span came back. I could sit through a long conversation without the urge to check my phone. I started really listening to people.
Day twenty-one: I felt rested for the first time in years. I realised I had been absorbing hundreds of other people emotions every day through my screen. Their arguments, their highlights, their grief, all of it sitting in my nervous system.
Day thirty: I won the N10,000. But more than that, I understood something. Social media is not free. You pay with your attention. And attention is time. And time is your life.
I am back online now. But with rules. And boundaries. And a much healthier relationship with the scroll.
Day one was physical. I kept picking up my phone and opening a blank space where Instagram used to be. My thumb had muscle memory for scrolling. I felt genuinely anxious.
Day three: I started noticing things. The colour of the evening sky. The sound of rain on my window. My neighbour had a hibiscus plant that had been blooming for weeks and I had walked past it every day without seeing it.
Day seven: I started finishing books. I read three in a week. Not self-help books. Actual novels. I had forgotten that reading felt like dreaming.
Day fourteen: My attention span came back. I could sit through a long conversation without the urge to check my phone. I started really listening to people.
Day twenty-one: I felt rested for the first time in years. I realised I had been absorbing hundreds of other people emotions every day through my screen. Their arguments, their highlights, their grief, all of it sitting in my nervous system.
Day thirty: I won the N10,000. But more than that, I understood something. Social media is not free. You pay with your attention. And attention is time. And time is your life.
I am back online now. But with rules. And boundaries. And a much healthier relationship with the scroll.
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