Breaking Our Social Media Addiction
How the rapid rise of social media changed us and what we can do about it
It’s safe to say that the start of 2023 has been pretty chaotic. Whether it’s the fallout of Elon’s takeover of Twitter, the rise in hate towards trans people and drag shows, or the rapid collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. All of these chaotic moments were driven or exacerbated by social media.
This got me thinking about how much social media dominates our society today, how we got to this place, and what implications it has for us as a society.
Social media, and the internet more generally, have radically reshaped our lives, our habits, our culture, and in some studies our actual brains¹. It’s embedded into our daily routines so much that we forget that social media has only been in our lives for a very short time.
The Nearly Instantaneous Adoption of Social Media
Over the course of history, we have had many life-changing technologies, but what makes social media different is the pace at which the public adopted it.
When electricity or television was invented, society had time to understand the technology and adjust to it over the course of decades before it was commonly used. These technologies certainly…
