anything goes with emma chamberlain - two weeks with no tiktok

Episode Date: June 24, 2021

After using it every day for over a year, Emma finally deleted TikTok off her phone. While it may not seem like a big deal, it’s made a massive impact on her life. This episode she’s talking about all the ways eliminating distractions in our life can make it so much better. How removing things like a social media app that we waste our time on, or relationships that drain our energy, can give us the physical and mental space to do the things we really enjoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi everybody welcome back to anything goes I'm Emma Chamberlain your host. I hope you're having a beautiful gorgeous day Let me tell you something crazy. I Have not opened the TikTok app in two weeks now to those of you who don't Participate in TikTok you don't have the, or you just don't use it, you don't care for it. For those of you, this may sound like nothing, right? But to those of you who were like me

and who are addicted to TikTok and who use TikTok daily, whether that is to post or to watch videos, whatever it may be, then this is actually crazy. I went on TikTok every single day for like over a year, maybe two years. I went on TikTok every single day. Every time I was bored, every time I had a free moment, anytime I was on the treadmill, anytime I was in a waiting room at the doctor's office, like anytime I was bored and had access to the TikTok app, I was scrolling through it. Specifically, I was scrolling through my free-you page, which for those of you who don't

know what TikTok is, I mean, I don't know how you don't know what TikTok is, but the free U page is basically the explore page on TikTok. TikTok just feeds you random videos and you can watch and scroll for hours. It never ends. And that's the free you page. It's what TikTok thinks you want to watch. It's for you. It's the free you page, OK? Whatever.

I used to scroll through the free you page on TikTok for probably three hours a day without even realizing I was doing it. Because it had become a habit for me, you know, like any moment of boredom I had I was scrolling on the for you page. It was an automatic response to boredom for me. I didn't even think anything of it. It never even really seemed like a problem to me. Like I knew that TikTok was probably a bad thing

and I knew that I probably shouldn't be going on it that much, but I don't think I actually realized how bad the problem was until I cut TikTok out of my life, Cold Turkey. In today's episode, I'm going to be talking to you about what I've learned from quitting TikTok Cold Turkey. Because as dumb as it may sound, this has been a genuinely life-changing experience. Like it sounds so fucking dumb.

Like it sounds so dumb, but it's crazy how much I've realized. Because you guys know, okay, you guys know how I feel about social media if you listen to my podcast, I have a very love-hate relationship with social media. And as much as I love certain parts of it, I am not afraid to talk about the parts of it that I absolutely despise. And I think it's important to talk about, because I think a lot of people overlook it, and I think that there's been moments when I've overlooked it, and I've been kind of naive

to the effects that it was having on me, you know? But I think it's important to talk about, okay? And before you turn this podcast off and say, TikTok's not ruining my life. I'm a shut up. I just go on it a little bit throughout the day. Like it's not ruining my life. Stop.

Just listen to this episode and I feel like I might change your perspective. Give me a chance, babe. Give me a chance. So, the first few days after I deleted the app, I struggled a little bit. For example, when I'm at the gym, I like to walk on the treadmill. And normally when I'm walking on the treadmill, I go on TikTok because it makes the time go by extremely quickly and I forget I'm even on the treadmill, right? I actually don't mind being on the treadmill. It's not a terrible experience. I don't hate it. It feels good to get a little sweat in,

but at the same time, if I can go on TikTok and make it go by quicker, I will. You know what I'm saying? So the first real thing I noticed was how bored I was on the treadmill. I was like, this is so boring. Okay, then I started to realize how bored I was when I was in the treadmill. I was like, this is so boring. Okay, then I started to realize how bored I was when I was in my bed.

Because I spend a lot of time in bed. Like, let's not get it twisted here. I spend a lot of time in bed. Spending time in bed is extremely boring without TikTok. I can only scroll through Instagram. I can only go on YouTube. I can only read for so long before I get really bored. Like I don't think my attention span is good enough to be on any of those platforms or to read a book for that long.

So I could really only lay in my bed for an hour or two before I'd start getting bored, which blew my mind because I used to be able to lay in bed for like six hours straight going on TikTok. Then maybe reading a little bit of my book, then going back on TikTok. It seemed that TikTok kept me entertained while in bed to a point where I just could stay in bed for so much longer. Within the first few days of deleting TikTok, I stopped laying in bed as much because I would get so bored in my bed.

And it forced me to like get up and I felt like I was doing more chores than normal. Like normally I'm not so good at doing chores, but I started doing my chores more and stuff like that because I was bored in my bed and I was like, well, I don't wanna leave the house. What am I gonna do? I started doing my chores in a more timely manner

if I had dishes to do, if I had packages to open. I felt more inspired to do that because I couldn't just lay in bed for six hours like I used to. When I'd be waiting in lines at the grocery store, I would open Instagram, scroll a few times, get bored, turn it off, text my mom, some random shit, get bored of that, turn it off. And then I would end up standing in said line and just stare at the wall instead of staring at my phone because my phone was boring.

Without TikTok, my phone became boring to me. And for the first few days, like this was genuinely a struggle. I was like really uncomfortable by this because I almost had like a missing part of my day, which sounds fucking crazy because I didn't even think I was going on TikTok that much. Yet by removing it cold turkey from my life,

I felt like I had all this extra free time, which sounds extreme, but it genuinely felt like that. I felt like I had more hours in the day. I went from feeling like there weren't enough hours in the day to complete everything that I wanted to complete to, I wish I had more shit to do. Because

just cutting TikTok out of my life, freed up on average, probably two to four hours a day. Of time for me to think and actually use my brain. So like for example, when I used to go on the treadmill and go on TikTok, I was in a sense being productive because I was getting in my daily exercise, right? But I was also going on TikTok, so like my brain was turned off, okay? Yes, I was exercising, but my brain was turned off. What about today? Today, when I go on the treadmill at the gym, I just listen to music. That's it.

I don't watch YouTube videos. I obviously don't watch TikTok videos. I'll sometimes respond to emails, sometimes scroll through Instagram a little bit. But mainly I just listen to music and stare at the wall. And I use my time on the treadmill to think. I come up with ideas for my podcast. I come up with ideas for creative endeavors that I'm working on. I use this time to think about my friendships and relationships in my life and how I feel about them and just reflect on myself, my life, my relationships, my work, whatever it may

be. Like, I've been using this time on the treadmill to reflect and to think. Which is crazy to me because literally two weeks ago that would have been impossible. Like I would get so bored on the treadmill without TikTok that I couldn't go on the treadmill without it. Now I use my treadmill time wisely.

I'm actually using it to like think and do you know some self-reflection and do that work on myself. And I'm able to multitask in such a more efficient way now, right? Or another example would be, today I got my nails done. And normally when I get my nails done, I turn my phone on silent And normally when I get my nails done, I turn my phone on silent and watch TikToks silently, which is crazy that I used to do that because

I couldn't even hear the TikToks, but yet going on TikTok during my nail appointment made the nail appointment feel like it was two minutes long because I was so sucked into my phone the whole time that I didn't even notice what was going on in the next thing. And I was like, dang, my nails are done. Great. Okay, well, today I got my nails done. And I didn't even want to go on my phone at all.

I was like, you know what, I'm just going to sit here and enjoy this. And I got my toes done and I got my fingers done. And I just enjoyed when the lady was massaging my feet and it felt good. And I kind of zoned out and was just like thinking about random stuff. I think that quitting TikTok has forced my brain to learn how to entertain itself.

Because for over a year, anytime I was bored, I was going on TikTok. Now, I don't even want to distract myself. Like, I look forward to these moments when I'm kind of bored in a sense to just think. It sounds so simple and it sounds stupid, but like I actually looked forward to those moments. Like when I was getting my nails done today, I wasn't even bored because my brain was entertaining itself. Or now when I go to the gym and I go on the treadmill and I'm staring at the wall, my brain is entertaining itself.

I don't need that distraction anymore. And don't get me wrong. I still go on Instagram. I still watch YouTube videos and stuff here and there. Don't get me wrong. I still do that stuff, you know. Um, but those things don't stimulate me as much as TikTok used to. Like I enjoy watching a YouTube video, but I watch two or three YouTube videos and I'm like, eh, I'm good. Or I scroll on Instagram for like maybe 10 minutes, max, max. And I'm like, eh, I'm bored.

Because it's not as fast paced. You know what I'm saying? Like TikTok is fast paced and never ending. You can just scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll and you get new shit every 15 seconds. Every like 15 to 60 seconds, you get new content, right? Whereas on YouTube or Instagram, it's a slower stream of content.

So I don't find that I have a problem with wasting time on those platforms as much, which is great. But TikTok, man, I couldn't believe how much of a difference it made to delete it. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. There's no instruction manual when it comes to being an adult. Sometimes I lay away at night rehashing something I said earlier that day, or I lay in bed at night thinking about what the future holds. I know I'm not the only one going through a lot of what ifs. Like, what

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I haven't talked about the mental health element of it all because I actually deleted TikTok for mental health reasons because it was just destroying me mentally. I talked about that, not in my last episode, but in the episode before it. The episode is titled, How Am I Really Doing? Please feel free to go listen to that.

I talk more about TikTok and how it led me to a mental breakdown. But anyway, check that out if you want. But I deleted the app because it kind of made me freak out. A little bit, have a little mental breakdown. That was initially why I got rid of that but Deleting the app has benefited my mental health in many other ways

In addition to just Helping with that one mental breakdown. It's helped my general mental health For example On TikTok you see a lot of different types of people doing a lot of different types of things, which can be inspiring, can be educational, whatever, but it can also make you feel like you're a loser. And the reason for that is that when you see somebody on TikTok waking up at five in the morning every morning to go run six marathons and then rescue 700 puppies from a waterfall or some shit.

Like yeah, you're going to feel kind of like shit about yourself, right? I felt like that's how TikTok was. It was like whether I liked it or not, I was consuming content of people doing more extravagant things than me. And subconsciously, I felt self-conscious about that. I was constantly comparing myself to the people I was seeing on TikTok. And simply removing that from my TikTok and simply removing that

for my life, simply removed that comparison. And I've felt a lot more focused on me and focused on what I'm doing rather than what everybody else is doing or what I could be doing. Because I think that's the thing about TikTok. I was seeing all these people doing all these things that I could be doing.

Whereas now I do things because I wanna do them, not because I'm like, I need to like better my life because I'm seeing somebody in TikTok doing this to better their lives. I should probably do that too. Like, oh, they're waking up super early or oh, they're going to bed super early

or they're learning how to knit. Like, I don't know, it's just all these people doing all these things that's productive, you know, or inspiring, that can be great, but then it can also sometimes just make you feel like shit. I realized by cutting out TikTok that TikTok was the worst app for me personally when it came to comparing myself to others.

I definitely compare myself to others on Instagram, subconsciously for sure, but for some reason, TikTok was worse. I don't know why that is, but I was constantly comparing myself to people on TikTok. I did not realize it in the moment, but I totally was. Every day, I was consuming this content that was making me feel bad about myself,

and making me feel like I wasn't doing enough with my life, you know? And I mean, I feel like I've found a balance with Instagram, like I've found a way to not compare myself to others on Instagram as much anymore. I don't know why that is. I feel like I've been able to establish a really healthy balance with Instagram. At this point in my life, who knows? I might go down a bad path with Instagram again, but I don't know, I just,

I muted a bunch of people on Instagram. Like I literally barely go on it anymore, and I just don't really follow people that make me feel insecure on Instagram. So I feel pretty good about my relationship with Instagram right now. Like it doesn't bug me right now, which is great. But TikTok, I was comparing myself to people

and it was making me feel like shitty. Like shit, not like shitty, but whatever. I think the big moral of this story is less like, hey, you should delete TikTok off your phone. And it's more that we don't realize how much of an impact little habits have on the bigger picture of our lives. Okay.

I didn't realize that my seemingly harmless habit of going on TikTok every day was fucking up my attention span, fucking up my self-esteem, and wasting a shit ton of my time. I Didn't realize how severe the problem was was I aware of the problem yes to a certain extent But I kind of turned a blind eye to it. I was like well Take talks bad for your mental health, but as long as I don't go on it too much. I'm fine. I

Like didn't want to quit going on it. I deep down, deep down knew that it was bad. I did, but I thought that I could find a balance. I thought that I could find the happy medium. I really did. I didn't realize how something that seems so inconsequential as a social media app could be having that many negative effects on my life without me fully being able to grasp it in the moment.

Like, I think in my head before I deleted TikTok, I always told myself, if this was really, really a problem, I would know it, You know what I mean? It must not be that bad of a problem because I don't really feel like it is. You know, I would know if this was a really bad problem. I think I have it under control. It sometimes gets a little bit out of control, but then I pull the reins back a little bit and I'm like, all right, And then I get it under control again. I didn't realize that the mere fact that I had TikTok on my phone was making my life

10 times worse, like genuinely. And this extends beyond social media apps. You know what I'm saying? This could be anything in your life. For example, waking up too late in the day or having a bad sleep schedule. Okay, I used to have a terrible sleep schedule. I would go to bed at like three in the morning

and wake up at noon every day. And I was very depressed. And it made me depressed. It made me feel bad about myself because I felt lazy. It made me miss out on the morning time, which is one of my favorite times of the day. I genuinely love mornings. Like I honestly think I'm becoming more of a morning person than a night person. I love the morning time. That might be something that came with age, but I've always really enjoyed early mornings. But because my sleep schedule has always been so bad,

I just always missed out on them. And my work schedule was really fucked up. I was not as productive because I would push everything until midnight, and then I'd start working at midnight, and then I'd stop at four in the morning, and that was so stressful and uncomfortable, and rushed and chaotic, that it like fucked up my work efficiency in a sense.

And it just overall made me less productive and a less happy person. In the moment, I didn't realize how bad of a problem my sleep schedule was. You know? Until I fixed it, which now it's like fully fixed, I go to bed at like 10, 30, wake up at like between 6.30 and 8 in the morning. Like my life has improved so much from just fixing my sleep schedule. And in the moment when my sleep schedule was bad,

I knew it was bad, but I didn't realize how much better my life would become from just changing my sleep schedule. My work life has improved, my social life even has improved because now I go and do more things during the daylight hours of the day and I see more people in a sense. Now that I wake up early in the morning,

I'm more likely to go to a coffee shop early in the morning and talk to the barista, stuff like that. It's those tiny things. I don't think we realize how these tiny things affect everything. Another thing that could be fucking up your life more than you realize is like a shitty relationship. You could have a toxic Fucking up your life more than you realize is like a shitty relationship

You know you could have a toxic friend in your life that makes you anxious and makes you feel Underappreciated on a daily basis and you're just putting up with it because you're like well, it's not that bad You know what I mean? But in reality, it's making that bad, you know what I mean? But in reality, it's making your day to day life more stressful and more uncomfortable than it needs to be.

I think that we as humans tend to kind of go on autopilot in a sense when things aren't that bad, when things aren't that bad, we just go on autopilot, right? When a problem's not that bad, we're like, okay, well, we can deal with this. We'll just keep going because you don't realize how bad it really is. It takes a wake-up call before you realize, oh, I need to delete that app off my phone. Or I need to start going to bed earlier because this is actually causing me severe mental upset now. Or I really need to cut this person out of my life

because now it's getting really bad. But it's like, why do we let it get to rock bottom before we make change? Like that's what happened to me with TikTok, okay? I did not delete the app off my phone until I had a full, depressive episode for like multiple days

over the fucking stupid app. It took me getting to that point to delete the app. It took me literally getting four hours of sleep per night and being almost sick with how little sleep I was getting because my sleep schedule was so bad before I realized I needed to fix it. You know what I'm saying? We get to rock bottom before we're like, okay, it's now, now we need to change this. The shit needs to change. But it doesn't need to be that way.

You know what I mean? I think that it's so important for us to, every once in a while, sit back, maybe right in a journal, all of the habits that we have in our lives. And we can analyze which of our habits are serving us and making our lives better and which habits are making our lives worse. And even if the habits are making our lives a little bit worse, work on removing those habits. This episode is brought to you by Liquid IV. Liquid IV believes everybody needs hydration every day. It's not just for athletes or that one time you try to hot yoga class, staying

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to learn more. Like I'll give an example of something that I want to work on that I don't really feel like I need to change, but I know my life would be better if I did. One bad habit I have is not drinking enough water. Now I know that that sounds like stupid and tiny, like a tiny problem, and it doesn't seem like it's the epic of a deal, right? Like I'm not so dehydrated that I'm in the hospital, you know, it's not like some severe, severe problem, but I definitely don't drink enough water.

And it is negatively affecting my life because I get headaches sometimes. I have trouble going to the bathroom sometimes because of it. And I already have stomach issues and not drinking enough water makes it hard to poop. Okay, it does, it makes it harder. And I already struggle with that.

Okay, so the last thing I need is any more problems in that area. Okay, trust me. Um, if I just started drinking more water and stopped being a whiny fucking baby about it, my life would improve in multiple areas. You see what I'm saying? It's like, it's these little things, but we get into habits, we get into routines, and we get comfortable and complacent in a sense, and just accept our mediocre habits, you know what I mean?

I'm not saying we all need to be perfect, okay? I'm not saying that we all need to delete TikTok, drink 10 gallons of water a day. I think that might actually kill you, so definitely don't do that. And wake up every day at the crack of dawn. Like I'm not saying that, because everybody's different. And everybody's slightly harmful habits are different.

So it's about stepping back from your autopilot of everyday life and reflecting on these little things, these little habits, not the obvious ones, the less obvious ones, and nipping them in the head before they get bad. You know what I'm saying? Fixing them before you hit rock bottom in a sense. Like how I did with TikTok and my terrible sleep schedule. Like, I don't want to end up passing out one day,

one at the beach because I didn't drink enough water. So I'm going to start trying to drink more water now so that I don't hit rock bottom and learn the hard way. I guess that's kind of the moral of this. I know that I drink just enough water to be alive. Like literally I'm not kidding. Like that's how bad my habit is. Okay, but I'm but I'm fine. So I don't feel the need to change it yet. don't feel the need to change it yet. We only feel the need to change something

once it's too late. That is the moral. I think I'm kind of working through this as I'm talking about it, so that's why I'm kind of all over the place, and a little sporadic is because I'm trying to figure this out for myself too. Like what's the best way to approach this? You know, I think it's crazy how the world that we live in now doesn't really force us

to be fully present because it's so easy to indulge in social media, movies, TV shows, podcasts, online shopping, video games, all these different things, right? Allow us to go on autopilot and not be present. And it's kind of the norm now. to go on autopilot and not be present. And it's kind of the norm now. Like, I feel like I am becoming more and more present as I'm slowly but surely cutting down my social media consumption and my media consumption in general.

As I'm cutting down on it, I'm slowly but surely becoming more present and I'm starting starting to realize how truly wired we are, you know, to the internet. And I know that this is such a stale topic. It's like, we know the internet is addicting. It's bad for you. We know we've seen the social dilemma on Netflix. We've seen articles on the internet about it. We know. But like, I don't care. Because I'm having the realization myself. And I'm actually experiencing it. And I'm experiencing coming back into the present moment. As we speak. And it's just too powerful for me not to talk about because

I just didn't realize how Absorbed I was in the matrix of the internet like it's literally like the matrix. It's like We're living on a completely different plane, almost, because we spend so much time on the internet and not present in real life that it almost feels like we're in the Matrix, which I've said that before, but it's just, it's so crazy how true it is.

And I think that everybody who's addicted to the internet is in denial. I was so in denial. I had no idea how bad the problem was. I had no idea how not present I was. I can't remember the last time I sat at a nail appointment and just enjoyed the experience in silence and just stared at the wall and just enjoyed it

and just entertained myself by my own thoughts. Couldn't not tell you the last time I did that before today when I got my nails done today. I can't tell you, you know, how hard it was to get used to walking on the treadmill without fast-paced distractions. It's not easy to like get to this point, but it's so freeing. It's so freeing because number one, I have so much more time in the day to do things that I didn't even realize I wanted to do, something even as small as organizing my closet or cleaning out my car.

You know what I mean? It's like all of a sudden I like, I'm inspired to do things that I like would have never done before. But I will shed some light on the more difficult side of kind of logging off of the internet in a sense and becoming more present and distracting yourself less. I will be honest. It actually can be also kind of emotional because we use these apps, these video games, these online activities as distractions, right? And when you take away distractions, you're left with reality. And if your reality kind of sucks at the moment, it can be really upsetting

kind of sucks at the moment, it can be really upsetting when you become more present because now you have to deal with your shit, right? You can't just go on TikTok for two hours and forget about your problems if you're on this journey to becoming present, right? You can't anymore. You have to work through shit. You actually have to work through your problems. You can't run away and start online shopping to numb your pain. You can't.

You have to face that shit head on. A good example would be, when I was on the treadmill and I was going on TikTok, my mind was on autopilot. I would think about nothing but the TikToks I was watching. Now when I'm on the treadmill, I would think about nothing but the TikToks I was watching. Now, when I'm on the treadmill, I stare at the wall and I think about shit, random shit, whatever comes to my head. It's almost meditative in a sense.

I'm just thinking about stuff, like as they come and go. Well, when you're just walking on the treadmill and thinking something upsetting might come to your head. Like, for example the other day I was on the treadmill and I was just thinking to myself and I started to ruminate about all the people in my life and

I started to get anxious and I started to get this feeling like, what if everybody is using me? Like what if everybody's using me? Like what if nobody cares about me truly? What if everybody has an ulterior motive? This is like a fear that I have a lot, whatever. It's just something that I get anxious about frequently because I don't know,

my anxiety likes to fixate on random things and like that's one of them. Like I get anxious about that frequently, right? Just all of a sudden feeling frightened that like everybody around me is not genuine, which is nothing personal to the people in my life at all, but it's like literally just an anxious thought. It's completely irrational and stupid with absolutely no legitimacy behind it at all, but it's one of those things where it's just like something that my anxiety, it's just something that my brain likes to fixate on when it's anxious, okay, whatever. So that thought came into my head while I'm on the treadmill.

Now, normally, when I would get an anxious thought, I would go on my phone and go on TikTok and forget about my anxious thought. I didn't even realize I was doing that, okay? I had no idea I was even doing that. But now that I don't have TikTok anymore, I'm on the treadmill, I'm walking. I start to have this anxious thought

and I didn't have anything to distract myself with. So I had to sit there with this thought and I had to work through it by myself and just get through it. And the interesting thing is, I was able to get through it. And I was able to pass it because I didn't immediately jump up, go on my phone, go on TikTok,

and just push the problem back. Because I think what we don't realize is, is that when we don't work through things, they don't go away., they don't go away. Things don't just go away. That's just not how it works. If you didn't pay off your credit card bill, that will come back to buy you. One way or another that will come back to buy you, it does not go away.

Okay. If you have an anxious thought about something, you can distract yourself for a little bit, but it'll come back. It does not go away. Until you face it head on and you be present, problems don't go away. Okay, Fourth of July is coming up. You know what that means?

It's time to fire up the barbecue. I have recently gotten into barbecuing over the last few months. As it started to get a little warmer out, I've been using the grill and it's been kind of fun. Although I'm new to using a grill, so I had to figure out what types of things I needed, like metal spatulas and stuff like that. So I had to figure out what types of things I needed,

like metal spatulas and stuff like that. Like I had no idea what I was doing, so that was kind of terrifying, but I feel like now I'm in the swing of things. I definitely plan on having a barbecue this July 4th because I'm kind of becoming a barbecue girl. Like I'm kind of into it, like I kind of love it. I kind of get why everybody's dad is obsessed

with barbecuing. It's kind of amazing, like I kind of get it. I can't name one thing about it I don't like. I actually got a bunch of grilling tools from Macy's.com. Thank God for Macy's, okay. Speaking of Macy's, Macy's 45th annual July 4th fireworks is back. And this year it's set to be bigger than ever. It'll illuminate the New York City

Skyline with an electrifying show filled with colored light and sensational music. I will not be in New York unfortunately, but I will be watching a video of it from home. This year, Macy's is honoring America's everyday heroes from communities across the country with the salute the hero within theme, highlighting American bravery and optimism. This will feature more than 65,000 fireworks in an array of special effects over 25 minutes. The biggest show Macy's has ever put on for the event. Plus, they'll have an all-star lineup of fun hosts and major celebrities ready to make it

the blockbuster event of the summer. Performance is by Coldplay, one republic, the Black Puma's, and more. Recently, I've been listening to so much Coldplay that this is very exciting. Like, I cannot stop listening to Coldplay. I just rediscovered it like within this past week and I've been absolutely bawling my eyes out to it like every day. Their first few albums are incredible.

I mean, their new stuff is great too, but like their old albums, wow, you won't want to miss this year's event. Catch the show live from New York City on NBC Sunday, July 4th, from 8 to 10 p.m. EST. And for more information about it all, check out macy's.com slash fireworks. I'm feeling more inspired than ever to regain my presence in everyday life and to not rely on distractions anymore and to face my thoughts and feelings head on instead of covering them up and to face my thoughts and feelings head on instead of covering them up with distractions. Like, I thought I was good at it before, but I didn't realize that I had worked to do.

And the first step to that was deleting TikTok. Don't underestimate how these little habits can make such a big difference. I'm honestly really excited about this. Like I'm excited about this realization, and I'm excited about what I've learned from it so far. And I just wanted to share this experience because I just didn't expect deleting TikTok off of my phone

to be this insightful for me. Like, I just did not expect that. Like, I thought that I would delete it off my phone and it would help me a little bit, but I didn't think that it was going to make this big of a difference in my life. And so I just felt like I had to share and I hope that you gained something from this.

I hope that this may be shifted your perspective on some of your habits or behaviors and maybe it can inspire you to try to be more present and to stop using these distractions. I think that life is constantly battling distraction, right? Drugs, alcohol, internet, relationships, friendships, shopping, like whatever it may be, there are so many distractions around us at all times. It's very hard to be present.

It is very, very hard. I'm trying to remove all negative distractions from my life so that I can be as truly present as I possibly can be. And we're surrounded by potential negative distractions, the internet, video games, unhealthy friendships, unhealthy relationships, shopping. Shopping can be also not toxic, but like, everything can be not toxic. That's why it's so hard. You know what, that's why it's so fucking hard. not toxic, but like everything can be not toxic.

That's why it's so hard. You know what, that's why it's so fucking hard. That's why this whole process is so difficult, because it's like, where's the line? You know, everything is fine in moderation. Even going on the internet is fine and moderation. And it can even enhance your life in some ways, right? But it can also be the most toxic thing for you ever.

That's why it's so fucking complicated because it's so different for everybody. So that's why we all have to look inward and figure out what needs to go, what needs to be removed from our lives, what are we doing to a point where it's negative? Like for me, TikTok needed to go, it needed to be deleted. For you, TikTok might not be your problem, it might be Instagram.

That's why it's so fucking complicated because it's like There's no set rulebook For how to eliminate negative distractions because it's so different for every individual person The goal is to do enough self-reflection To figure out what it is for you so that you can be as present and happy as possible so that you can live life to the fullest and just Live it the fuck up, baby

My god this topic is like getting me freaked out because it's like It's so it's it's the whole concept is a gray area You know what I'm saying? The whole concept is a gray area. You know what I'm saying? The whole concept is a gray area. I'm done. All right, I'm done. That's it. Rant over. I am totally done. But I really enjoyed talking to you guys today and I hope you enjoyed hanging out with me and I hope that enjoyed hanging out with me and I hope that that wasn't too all over the place. Like I hope I was able to get one coherent thought out. I love you guys. I appreciate you guys.

Thank you for listening to me every single week if you do. This is your first time listening. Thank you for listening today. If you wanna subscribe to anything goes, you can do that on any platform that you listen to podcasts. If you wanna follow anything goes on Twitter, the Twitter is at AG podcast. If you wanna review anything goes on Apple podcasts,

feel free to do that. I really, really appreciate it and I love reading your guys' reviews. And I think that's all I got you guys. Thank you for hanging out. I'll see you next week. Bye!