Undergoing a social media cleanse
So just under two weeks ago, I decided to delete Instagram off my phone. The choice was a spur of the moment decision, but after a day I decided that I very much preferred it this way and refrained from re-installing it. I was tired of preeing the lives of people that I had little to no interest in, and I wanted to concentrate on myself, as well as maximise the efficiency of my time use (being in third year and all that). After a week of not using Instagram I did not miss it at all, if anything it became a source of anxiety for me. A couple times I did reach to re-download it, and after about a minute (literally), I felt myself slipping back into a world of toxicity simply from seeing the first post on my news feed and thus swiftly deleted again (not today Satan). It was a refreshing but also a worrying realisation to know 1) just how much of my time this app had taken up on meaningless shit but 2) how I was now anxious to use the app, which I had before been so eager to reach for.
I was apprehensive to re-enter the world of life-by-pictures.
About a week after deleting the app, I decided to delete Facebook off my phone as well and Facebook messenger. While Facebook is not a favourite of mine, I do seem to find myself automatically (almost absent-mindedly) scrolling through the feed for some quality memes or entertainment every time I pick up my phone when i'm bored. Facebook messenger was a tricky one to delete, I admit, and perhaps the only one i really miss, as it kept me connected with my uni friends and also my dear friends from home. So I guess I could be re-downloading this (but again, my mind is conflicted). It just seems like every social media app to me becomes a huge distraction because it excuses and allows procrastination.
In terms of my mental health, I actually (surprisingly maybe), haven't seen too much difference. I am still stressed about uni work, still crying over the radiator not turning on etc. However, one thing I will note is that I do feel slightly more isolated, which perhaps isn't a good thing? Although I tend to side with the approach that 'social media is bad,grrr!', for once, I do actually appreciate the connectivity in a virtual world that it enables is perhaps better than no connectivity at all. Without it, I find it hard to stay up to date with my friends (after all, who texts anymore? that was so y2k). I guess my (kind of mini experiment, sort of?), concludes that, yes! social media can be a good thing, but at the same time, it can be some sort of futile addiction which on the good side (at least for me) can be easily broken. I think the paradoxical nature of social media is that it is designed to be useful and entertaining, but at the same time it is in itself addictive and riddled with algorithms that perpetuate bad mental health which hook us further into the loop of commodity fetishism which is almost always a fruitless conquest. Anyway, i'll leave this problem up to Sillicon Valley to create a safe way of using social media which doesn't simultaneously bring out the best and the worst traits of human nature (good luck).
I was apprehensive to re-enter the world of life-by-pictures.
About a week after deleting the app, I decided to delete Facebook off my phone as well and Facebook messenger. While Facebook is not a favourite of mine, I do seem to find myself automatically (almost absent-mindedly) scrolling through the feed for some quality memes or entertainment every time I pick up my phone when i'm bored. Facebook messenger was a tricky one to delete, I admit, and perhaps the only one i really miss, as it kept me connected with my uni friends and also my dear friends from home. So I guess I could be re-downloading this (but again, my mind is conflicted). It just seems like every social media app to me becomes a huge distraction because it excuses and allows procrastination.
In terms of my mental health, I actually (surprisingly maybe), haven't seen too much difference. I am still stressed about uni work, still crying over the radiator not turning on etc. However, one thing I will note is that I do feel slightly more isolated, which perhaps isn't a good thing? Although I tend to side with the approach that 'social media is bad,grrr!', for once, I do actually appreciate the connectivity in a virtual world that it enables is perhaps better than no connectivity at all. Without it, I find it hard to stay up to date with my friends (after all, who texts anymore? that was so y2k). I guess my (kind of mini experiment, sort of?), concludes that, yes! social media can be a good thing, but at the same time, it can be some sort of futile addiction which on the good side (at least for me) can be easily broken. I think the paradoxical nature of social media is that it is designed to be useful and entertaining, but at the same time it is in itself addictive and riddled with algorithms that perpetuate bad mental health which hook us further into the loop of commodity fetishism which is almost always a fruitless conquest. Anyway, i'll leave this problem up to Sillicon Valley to create a safe way of using social media which doesn't simultaneously bring out the best and the worst traits of human nature (good luck).
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