WHY I DELETED MY SOCIAL MEDIA
About 2 Years ago after I graduated highschool I decided to delete my facebook/twitter… that still left my instagram and snapchat. For some odd reason I felt the need to keep my instagram. I had “Friends” from highschool, celebrities that I didn’t personally know but still felt the need to keep up with their lives, and last but not least…pictures/memories I didn’t want to let go of.
Lets fast forward to the year 2018 where I am free of social media. In August of this year I decided to let go of my Instagram(and snapchat)… but I made a new one because I felt the need to have a fresh start. Once I made a new instagram I had a little under 70 followers, but I still had people from my past popping up on my newsfeed/suggestions. For some reason I couldn’t really get into my Instagram this second time around.
But lets get into the real reason you clicked on this article, the title. WHY I DELETED MY SOCIAL MEDIA…
Every single day I found myself on social media first thing in the morning after scrolling for about 45min-1hr, I would place my phone down, get semi ready for my day then pickup my phone and start scrolling again. Throughout my day I would scroll through instagram even after seeing the same posts previously I still felt the need to be scrolling on something.
I noticed for a while that after getting on social media I would either feel sad or just sluggish. Finally I realized I needed to let it go. Instagram is nothing but a app filled with people posting a life that isn’t theirs in real life or a place where you go and constantly compare your life to others, look at what they have, compare that to what you don’t have and feel like your life is incomplete or that you aren’t where you should be. Something I had to realize is that social media hasn’t always been around and I needed to find something that would occupy my time more productively than scroll through the internet all day long wasting time.
After deleting my Instagram/Snapchat my mind feels, free in a sense. When I’m out and about I’m not looking down at my phone scrolling to see who posted what/ letting time pass by while my eyes are glued to a screen. Honestly I don’t even look down at my phone that much unless I’m looking at a text message, returning a phone call, and/or checking my email. I remember getting on twitter all the time and seeing people post about wanting to delete their social media but having the fear of boredom without them. To this day that statement still strikes me and borderline scares me. Why has it gotten to the point where we have the fear of boredom without social media? What happened to going out and just walking around town? Or reading books? Or even talking face to face? There are so many more things to do out there in the world that are far more better than sitting in front of a phone screen all day.
