The Tranquil Vintessa

I started to feel like I was spending too much time online. I have hobbies, and I used to do them regularly, but life got a little more complicated. A lot of my social circle broke apart, with friends moving away and relationships ending. I felt like I was just kind of out here on my own.

At the end of the day, I wanted to turn my brain off and watch something light. Instead of finding something interesting, I turned to my phone and scrolled for hours. I found myself saying, “I’ll stop after a few minutes,” but the hours blurred together. When I really wanted an early night, I was going to bed later and later.

I’m not against phone use, but I realized I was trying to find something to do on my phone instead of trying to find something to do in real life, especially when I already had things I wanted to do.

This epiphany happened one day while I was lying on my couch, scrolling as usual. I was craving interaction, and instead of leaving the house, talking to neighbors, or reaching out to a friend, I went online and started commenting on random posts. That was my interaction for the day.

I decided right then that enough was enough.

I’m honestly tired of switching between apps, hoping one of them has a notification waiting for me. I’m tired of convincing myself that I’m finding my people online when there’s a whole life happening around me. I can find community in the real world, or at the very least, I can pick back up the hobbies I’ve neglected.

I want to be busy in a relaxing way. I want to go to the movies, spend an afternoon at a café, meet people at a book club, and maybe even meet my next lover at a jazz bar.

So how do I do that?

Well, on day one, I deleted the extra apps. I didn’t just remove them from my phone, I deleted the accounts entirely. I didn’t want emails showing up in my inbox encouraging me to come back. My goal isn’t to swear off technology forever; it’s to stop reaching for my phone every time I have a spare moment.

I’m not going to lie,I was a little bored.

But I’ve heard boredom can be a good thing. Instead of hopping back on my phone, I watched a movie I hadn’t seen in years and curled up with a bowl of popcorn. Afterward, I completed my nightly routine and went to bed on time. I even fell asleep shortly after my head hit the pillow.

It was a calm feeling I haven’t experienced in a while, and I realized how much I needed it.

This is only the beginning, but I’m excited to see where the rest of this journey takes me.

If you’d like to follow my digital minimalism journey or intentional living in general, you can still find me on social media. (Yes, I see the irony.) You can also join my email list if you’d rather hear from me occasionally instead of fighting an algorithm to do it.