Social media is a parasite, it bleeds you to live

You don’t need to go cold turkey, but delete social media apps from your phone and see if your mental health improves.

Social media apps are designed using the same psychology as casino slot machines. Photo: Getty Images

By Anthony L. Fisher

You don’t need social media, it needs you.

It’s a parasite, its life force borne of your confessions, photos, memes, and soon-to-be-mortifying opinions. Perversely, it convinces you that feeding the social media beast is essential to your mental health and career by making you feel “connected.”

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and the rest, aren’t inherently evil websites. But they all operate as sociopaths would: always in their own interests, without conscience, at the expense of others.

They entice with promises of validation and reward. Your work is shared widely. Your cause is amplified. You get a dopamine fix from positive reactions, or even any reactions.

They’re the online cousins of casino slot machines. They’re even designed using the same psychology, where profits are maximized by actively enabling addiction.

And the only rule of casinos is that sooner or later, the house always wins.

If you don’t want to delete your account, at least delete the app