My Humble Abode

I gave up Instagram last week for five whole days—a small experiment in reclaiming my attention. Spurred on by Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus, chapters 6 and 7 specifically, I wanted to see life without the endless scroll. Hari explains that our attention isn’t just being hijacked by algorithms—it’s being re-engineered. Social media platforms like Instagram are designed to hijack our minds, pulling us out of deep thought and into the shallows of distraction.

Setting the Experiment

To make this a real experiment, I tracked three significant things:

• Screen time data on my phone (pre- and post-detox).

• Mood and focus levels, according to a daily journal entry.

• Productivity, according to the number of tasks I was able to complete on my to-do list.

Before the detox, I was averaging 2 hours a day on Instagram. I was opening the app mindlessly, especially when I was working or going to bed. Hari describes how this kind of “switching cost” — the mental cost of switching between activities — diminishes our cognitive performance. I wanted to feel what it was like to be free of that cost, if only for a short time.

What Happened

The first thing I noticed was that the first two days were discomforting. I had ghostly urges to check my phone, especially during free time. But by day three, something shifted. I began to feel calmer, more in control of my mind. My journal entries were less frantic, and I noticed I could read and write for hours without getting distracted.

My phone usage went down by 40%, and my rate of task completion went up by 25%. Beyond that, I experienced something Hari talks about in chapter 7: the return of boredom. But instead of considering it a problem, I considered it a blessing—a space in which focus and creativity could emerge.

Final Thoughts

Giving up Instagram for five days will not end our attention crisis. But it opened my eyes to what is achievable. As Hari would say, “The truth is that your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen.” This experiment enabled me to take back a tiny piece of it.

Would I relinquish Instagram permanently? Probably not. But I’m definitely going to be more intentional about how and when I use it. My brain, I discovered, is worth protecting.