John: take a year off Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter, starting when P4A 2018 ends (2018)
promise · status: changed · last event: progress update (2025-06-24) · owner: John
In November 2018 John said he would take a year off Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter, and he gave updates on it through 2019. When the year was over he said he was happier and more productive and would not go back, though by 2021 he was a little active on Twitter again.
Told alongside: John turns his phone into a 'dumb phone' and changes how he follows the news (2016)
About: Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, Twitter, smartphone
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-11-06 | promised | John will take a year off: he will block Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and Twitter from his browsers and truly dumb down his phone so he cannot access them. | Taking a Year Off 00:02:26 |
| 2019-01-01 | progress update | As discussed in a previous video, John aims to post zero times to Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and Facebook; easy in principle, but he is worried he can't do it. → refers to Taking a Year Off | How to Make Goals, Not Resolutions 00:02:17 |
| 2019-01-08 | progress update | Tomorrow John will be one month into his year without social media; he left the platforms because he couldn't regulate his time or experience there and checked his phone hundreds of times a day. | I Quit Social Media. Here's How It's Going 00:00:03 |
| 2019-01-29 | progress update | The description says John adapted recent vlogbrothers videos into a Washington Post op-ed about his experience quitting social media. | Do You Believe in Miracles? video description |
| 2019-02-19 | progress update | Off social media, John says he treated Instagram and Twitter like first love, as if an experience's realness depended on its sharedness; he enjoys looking at things outside the frame of shareability. | Battling Apathy and Searching for Meaning on Question Tuesday 00:00:29 |
| 2019-03-05 | progress update | John says the Life's Library news is something he would have tweeted, but he doesn't have Twitter. | Way, Way Down the Rabbit Hole 00:03:24 |
| 2019-04-23 | progress update | Still off Twitter, John says he wanted it only a few times in the last month, mostly to fret over football and to share Kaveh Akbar's new poem. | untitled 00:03:21 |
| 2019-11-07 | kept | John likes his life much more now: his average daily phone time has fallen by more than 80% and he is getting more work done. | I took a year off social media. Here's what happened. 00:01:27 |
| 2019-11-07 | changed | John is not going back to Twitter, Reddit, Instagram or Facebook, not because they are evil but because right now they don't work for him; he is happier and more productive without them. | I took a year off social media. Here's what happened. 00:02:15 |
| 2019-11-19 | progress update | John mentions he went on Reddit, where he saw the highly upvoted Kylie Jenner post. | Kylie Jenner Shows Me What's Wrong with Reddit 00:00:09 |
| 2019-12-10 | progress update | Quitting the social internet helped his loneliness, since he used those platforms unhealthily, in superficial connection that left him feeling deeply alone. | On Loneliness 00:03:09 |
| 2020-01-07 | progress update | John also wants to continue not losing large swaths of his life scrolling through Twitter as dread washes over him. · also in: Looking Back at My 2020 Goals | Endings · Beginnings 00:03:09 |
| 2020-01-14 | progress update | John asks Hank whether he should go back to his sports Twitter account, @sportswithjohn, rather than regular Twitter. | Foolish · Beautiful 00:03:11 |
| 2020-07-07 | progress update | Hank's first book, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, was the main reason John quit using the social internet in 2018. | You're a Rock Star 00:01:56 |
| 2021-06-04 | progress update | Hank notes John, not very active on Twitter, is a little more active than he used to be, and welcomes him back. (playful) | Is Twitter Redeemable? 00:00:00 |
| 2025-06-24 | progress update | John did quit for a couple of years, a very productive time in some ways, but he missed the connection and the high. | Am I Cigarettes? 00:03:40 |
What is said about it
2 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2018-11-06 · Taking a Year Off — announcement: John: The year off starts next month (December 2018) when the Project for Awesome ends; on YouTube things stay much the same, with a Vlogbrothers video every week. — 00:02:55
- 2019-01-08 · I Quit Social Media. Here's How It's Going — announcement: John will stay off social media for the rest of the year; he doesn't know that he recommends it generally, but it is necessary for him to discover what lies beyond boredom. — 00:03:30