Member-only story
I Said Goodbye to X to Protect My Mental Health
I was sick of the negativity, artificially triggered dopamine hits, and being used.
I deleted X from my phone after a family celebration.
We had just returned home from a wonderful time together, and everyone was breaking off to do their own thing to recharge.
Out of habit, I picked up my phone to scroll. There wasn’t much happening on Facebook and Instagram, so I opened X — my go-to for a hit of conspiracy and entertainment.
But when I opened it, the feed was filled with vile filth — images that I didn’t want in my head filled the space that was usually held for political double speak.
Seeing the images filled me with fear and made me feel gross.
Of course, it wasn’t the first time. X’s suggestions have been getting worse. I’ve noticed with X that if you hover over a post for more than a split second, the platform will start recommending similar posts. Even when you hit ‘not interested in this post,’ you still have little control over what shows up in your feed.
Still, I justified using the platform to read posts from my favourite content creators — all the while wondering if it was time to get rid of it.