You may have heard of the so-called ‘Social Media epidemic’ that is consuming people’s lives and causing students to slack off at school. As a way to combat this issue and help students get back on track, NDB’s Director of Student Services, Denise Uhl, organized an “App Free Challenge” week.

The challenge involved deleting existing social media accounts and not starting new ones for a full week. A group of thirteen NDB freshmen that had a mixed level of commitment to social media chose to participate. In observing the feedback from girls participating in the challenge and two Catalyst writers’ attempt at the challenge, it seems that giving up social media is not as easy as it seems.

On the first day of this challenge, many of the girls noted that they did not feel very impacted by the absence of social media yet. Many of them explained how they had a lot more time in the morning to get ready and sometimes did not know what to do with all the extra time. A few of them barely used social media before the challenge, so this did not pose much of a challenge for them.

Many of the girls also have different goals about what they want to accomplish during this time period. Jorja Fox explained that she wanted to have more time for Irish dance. Sarah Massudi said that she would like to take this time to get work done faster with limited distractions.

The students were photographed and interviewed by the Notre Dame’s social media director George Retelas. At the end of the challenge, it seemed like many of the girls, although at times bored, felt refreshed and were able to be more productive with their time.

One of the girls who participated in this event, Madelyn Stone, said that this social media free challenge was not too difficult for her. She said, “I don’t generally have any social media accounts. Overall, it was a better experience because I had more time to think, and to try to spend a little less time on my phone texting people, and rather find peace in just being with myself. I was able to read books, and do that kind of stuff.” Like Madelyn, some of the other students who did this challenge said it was not so hard, because they do not use social media platforms on a regular day basis.

One other participant, Caroline Gans, said that the hardest part of this challenge, was, “probably (not being able to) talk to friends that do not live in California.” When Samantha Fisher was asked the same question, she said, “Probably everyone talking about what was going on. People would say, ‘Did you see this post?’ and I would say, ‘Oh no, I didn’t.’ I felt like I was kind of in the dark sometimes.”

One platform that was also involved in the App Free Challenge but that did not fall in the social media category is Netflix. The girls were to go by the honor code when it came to this part of the challenge. Mrs. Uhl said that the girls could watch movies and TV but added that, “The whole point was about connecting with others, so the honor code was that you can watch Netflix, but not in the same way that you might have before, where you’re binge-watching by yourself, because the whole point was about being with others, and connecting with one another.”

Social media can consume so much of people’s lives and time without them even being aware of it. The scary part is that many people are simply addicted, and can not even go an hour without checking Snapchat or Instagram. The challenge was to help students realize that even though social media can keep people in the loop, it is important to take a cleanse and keep in touch with reality.