Being a teenager in 2025 means that social media is a part of your everyday life, maybe even a part of who you are. GenZ teenagers were raised alongside social media, when we were born social media was emerging and slowly becoming popular.

I'm sure almost everyone will agree with me when I say that I probably could not survive a week without social media! Whether it be scrolling, texting, calling, connecting online with others, teenagers are online almost all the time.

So, to find out what logging off of social media for seven days could possible do to a teenager, I did a digital detox. This article will feature a day to day journal of a digital detox and what I learned by logging off of the online world.

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Day 1

The first day was definitely the hardest.

After all I had been an active user for a long time, so logging off for the first time felt difficult. All day I felt too many temptations, to scroll online, to look something up, to find out the new trends, catch up with friends online. However, I did not deter from the digital detox.

I had no idea what to do with my day. Crazy! I know right! but its true, I didn't know what to do with my free time.

So on the first day, I ended up picking up a book to read which had been on my "to be read" list for way too long. The book was definitely fun to read and honestly it felt nice to do something productive with my time rather than scrolling endlessly on my phone.

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Day 2

The second day was more productive, I felt more energized without social media, it felt like I was spending my time better.

I read more of the book throughout the day, I hung out with my brother, playing soccer with him, which he had been begging me to do for ages. I spent time with my mum, baking together, and I spent time with my dad talking about sports. It felt nice to connect and spend time with family and definitely made me realize that social media is not that important.

I discovered that there were so many things to do outside of social media. there was baking to do, catching up with people, have genuine conversations, do productive things.

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Day 3

Day three made me realize how much comparison and hate truly exists online.

Without social media, there was no particular thing that made me feel insecure, or feel like I wasn't good enough, or made me feel sad. I discovered that social media truly creates an online world where insecurities and comparison makes everyone feel bad. On my time online before the detox, there were a lot of insecurities, where I wouldn't feel pretty enough, where I would feel like I wasn't smart enough, where I would just feel bad about being myself in general.

The detox made me realize, that the filters are well and truly real. No one actually shows all parts of themselves and their personalities online. That sometimes it CAN be fake.

In real life, I still felt insecure, but I felt less insecure, like there was no reason to compare myself. Someone is beautiful like the moon, and someone is beautiful like the sun, but they're both beautiful in their own ways.

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Day 4

The fourth day made me feel excluded.

I was the only one on the social media detox, which meant that my friends and other teenagers were still online. They talk about new trends, new things happening online, and I would feel left out because I was not a part of social media at that moment and they were. That moment made me note that social media is also good, it provides things to talk about and connect with people, it makes everyone feel like they can add something to a conversation just because everyone has seen it online.

I guess that's the good bit about being online. You have something in common with everyone. So anytime there's an awkward pause, something that happened on social media can always be bought up.

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Day 5

I spent the fifth day trying out different hobbies.

I tried out crocheting, painting, sketching, baking, writing, and reading. Trying out different hobbies made me realize how everything is so fun and how there are so many things to when rather than just be online.

Crocheting made me have fun and get interested in learning how to make cute new things and experiment more with fashion, painting and sketching allowed me to be creative and express myself without words, baking led me to baking a lot of sweet treats for me and my family, writing made me discover a creative part of myself which I didn't know existed, and reading led me to another world which was way more fun than reality.

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Day 6

On day six, I went exploring around my neighborhood.

I walked around, discovered a cute cafe with great food, I saw an awesome sunset with different shades of orange, yellow, and red. I discovered that maybe where I live isn't all boring. There are fun things to do, such as observing nature, discovering new places, going for a run, and, people watching. These activities made me feel more connected with nature and how being fit is important.

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Day 7

On day 7, I ended up doing a mix of everything I did in the earlier days.

I spent time with family and friends, went out for a run, watched the sunset, did a bit of reading and crocheting. I also tried a bit of journaling, where writing out my feelings, future goals and other things, helped me feel more calm and collected, and allowed me to clearly see my plans and where I was in life.

With social media, I probably would have never gotten around to journaling or writing down my feelings, but I had the time and it was well spent.

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Throughout my experience with the digital detox, I felt as though with social media I could just be holed up in my room, comfortable and scrolling online in a totally different world with different things people, and different things to do.

However, without social media, you can truly see a whole new different world where there is less comparison, more beauty seen in nature, fitness becomes a priority, finding new hobbies and practicing them is fun, and spending more time with your family is full of genuine conversations and an awesome time.

Time without social media, had its ups and downs, I felt temptations to scroll and just go back online, I felt excluded sometimes because others were still on social media and talking about new things happening online whereas I had no idea about them. However, there were too many positives of the detox for me to say that logging off from social media is bad.