The Truth About Why I Took A Social Media Break

social media, I recall a time when we weren't all glued to our phones or computers screens. The benefits of technology are apparent, and cellphones are without a doubt the most important invention of the twenty-first century, but they do feel strange to some extent. In contrast to technologies like cars, which are objects we use very occasionally, cellphones are objects we use every day, often for hours at a time. It would not be an exaggeration to say that they will be categorized as an addiction in the future, because the new generation, who has never known life without technology, can easily become addicted from a young age.

I decided to take a month off from all social media and only accept phone calls the old-fashioned manner to see what would happen to me. I was scared for my health after spending 6 hours on TikTok, since if I could simply spend 6 hours on a spot looking at a phone screen without doing anything useful, then it was a significant warning signal. I'm not sure what the future holds, but I don't believe human eyes are now equipped to spend so much time staring at the white light.

The first thing I observed was that few people seemed to notice or care that I had left. There was simply too much content out there for them to realize that one individual was missing from the seemingly endless flow. I didn't get a message for at least half of the time I was gone, and the few interactions I did have didn't acknowledge my absence. Nobody noticed I was gone; they merely talked to me as if everything was fine. In real life, noticing a person was missing for even a few hours would trigger a red alert and a search for that individual, but you don't get to see where people are going online.

It wasn't simple at all, having to discipline myself not to open certain programs while also having to uninstall others. I kept my phone a few feet away from me and turned it off at night, but the temptation was genuine, and I was thinking about going back every second. It was similar to quitting narcotics; for the first few days, I couldn't go an hour without thinking about my phone, and food was irrelevant. This is unsurprising because social media feeds trigger our brains to release dopamine, which makes us happy; hence, quitting this rush feels similar to quitting drugs. The difference between social media and genuine drugs is the amount of information available.

We all have to admit that we used to be a lot more bored; we simply didn't have anything to do with our free time. We used to just stare at the sky or view old movies a few times more, but now we have access to a constant stream of new content. There are more movies on Netflix than we can watch in a lifetime, more tweets on Twitter than we can read in a lifetime, and way more photos on Instagram than we can see in a lifetime. While we always feel like we're part of something online, whether it's back and forth in the comment section or the forums, the emotion that comes out of such an encounter is loneliness, not boredom.

I'm afraid there will come a moment when artificial reality will supplant reality since it offers so many more benefits. While we have to work hard to eat and are constantly surrounded by issues in real life, we may do whatever we want in this manufactured reality with very few consequences. We must start defining what we should consider human norms and how far we can go to change evolution's course.  

It is obvious that when we are online, our productivity increases exponentially; we can do tasks faster, access far more information, and so accomplish more; we do pick up a few ideas here and there on YouTube and TikTok, but we must not mix distraction with utility. We might pick up a beneficial idea here and there, but only after spending endless hours watching meaningless information. You should be deliberate in everything you do online; when you go online, you should have a goal in mind, either to distract or enjoy yourself; never wonder for no reason. You will notice that you spend more time enjoying yourself than doing anything else if you do so.

Because society may progress based on its people's productivity, and we have everything we have now thanks to our forefathers' hard work, I believe social media reduces productivity and should be regulated. You wouldn't let your kids play video games all night, so you should do the same with their internet profile.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!