How My Social Media Detox Became a “Demitox”

 I used to be a heavy Instagram user. I liked checking what my friends were doing, replying to DMs, and casually scrolling whenever I had a few minutes. Over time, though, I started to feel that my attention span was getting shorter. As a PhD student, I often need long stretches of focused time, so Instagram began to feel less like a fun social space and more like a constant interruption.

Because of that, I have developed a repeated pattern of social media detox. At the beginning of a semester, I usually delete Instagram to reduce distraction. After a month or so, I sometimes reinstall it for one or two weeks. Then, when I need to write a major paper or focus on a big deadline, I delete it again. During the recent break, I used Instagram a lot while attending a conference in Bergen, Norway, and traveling with my family in Vienna. But as soon as I returned to Tallahassee, I deleted it again.

However, I realized that my detox is not really a complete detox. Maybe it is more of a “demitox.” I deleted Instagram, but I still use 'Setlog', a social media app that has recently become popular among some Korean people in their 20s and 30s. On Setlog, users post two-second clips of what they are seeing or doing each hour, and these posts are shared only with a small group of selected friends. I can create separate rooms for different friend groups, and people outside those rooms cannot access the posts.

This feels very different from Instagram. Instagram often makes me curious about many people’s lives, even people I am not that close to. Setlog, in contrast, lets me see small, ordinary moments from only my closest friends. It feels more private, more intimate, and less performative. At the same time, I still check it often because I enjoy seeing what my closest friends are doing in real time.

This experience makes me think that social media is not simply something to keep or quit. The more important question may be what kind of participation each platform encourages. Some platforms expand my network but also increase distraction. Others create smaller and more private spaces, but still shape my habits and attention. As I begin this Web 2.0 course, I want to think more carefully about how I participate in social media, not just whether I use it or not. My goal is not to become a more active user of every platform, but to become a more intentional participant.