5 Reasons to Delete Social Media

And why it’s time to let go…

Photo by Camilo Jimenes (@coolmilo)

It’s the first thing we check when we wake up, and the last thing we do before going to sleep. We all use social media in one way or another. And the new feature on most phones gives us the (horrifying) exact amount of time we spend on the various different platforms every week — and raises the question, is all that time really worth it? What would happen if we were to be without it?

1. More free time
   The most obvious incentive for deleting your beloved social media apps is all that extra time you could have to be doing something productive.
   We’re all guilty of spending endless hours scrolling the Explore page on Instagram, and though watching hundreds of videos of a dog dressed as a lion may be really cute, is it really worthwhile?
   These apps have made it so easy to waste time by getting sucked into a black hole of posts from people you have never met, and when you finally come back to reality you realise four hours have passed. People are often complaining that there isn’t enough time in the day anymore, yet still find a couple of free hours to keep up-to-date with their friend’s-cousin’s-sister’s Facebook posts on a daily basis.
2. Being present
   One of my personal pet peeves is having a conversation with someone, who is having a conversation with somebody else, on their phone. It is so rare to spend time with people without the interference of the social media world. People are so consumed by what their favourite reality TV star had for breakfast that they no longer pay attention to what is happening around them. Relationships have all become internet-based.
   Catching up with friends is never the same when you know their every move and everything they have done because you saw it on their Snapchat story. Meeting new people is incredibly easy. Look them up on Facebook and you can figure out half of their life story in a matter of minutes. Living through a phone screen takes the fun out of real social situations.
3. Who cares about likes?
   The likes of Instagram and Facebook have created an obsession with numbers: how many followers did I gain today? How many likes did the post about my new plant get? Who really cares?! This crazy phenomenon has become the pinnacle of people’s lives, the exhilarating feeling of getting over 100 likes gives an adrenaline rush — and people just keep posting.
   Likes and followers have become the breaking point for relationships. It causes more hostility than a political debate. It is a contest of popularity. Their photo of a dog got more likes than my selfie… everyone hates me. My best friend didn’t like my latest picture of my new boyfriend… she doesn’t approve. These precious numbers are the basis for our entire lives, and everything we see has become a photo opportunity for a great post on Instagram.
   But in reality, what do these likes really prove? It’s a futile attempt at self-gratification that we need to let go of.
4. Self-esteem
   The largest age group of Instagram users is also the most impressionable, which leads to a very toxic relationship.
   Over the last few years, Instagram has bred a new species of perfectly tanned, tiny-waisted, flawless girls. The Instagram models. Amongst the kittens and the brochure-worthy beach pictures, these girls have crept their way into Explore pages across the globe. They have also become the breeding ground for a huge amount of self-comparison. People have begun valuing their own lives by how they compare against the Instagram posts of others. (More about Social Comparison Theory here)
   It is really important to remember that Instagram represents about 1% of a person’s life, and even then the pictures are chosen according to what they want the world to see. Most of what you see on social media is not real.
5. A new view of the world
   Social media is a public diary, a place to vent your opinions, talk about what you ate for lunch, even who you will vote for in the next election. Without even realising, a lot of what we know and believe has come from what we have seen on social media.
   ‘I saw it on Facebook’ has become understood to be accepted as total truth. It must be true if you saw it on Facebook!
   Yet, there is nothing objective about a social media post, making us receptacles to hundreds of other people’s opinions, and not taking the time to form our own. Twitter has become the home of political debate and it is often hard to find helpful material that provides solely information, without being tainted by opinion. Without social media, it becomes so much easier to gain knowledge of the world around you and understand it in the way you want to, being able to form your own judgements on things without having the voices of 17 of your old classmates’ opinions forced upon you.

So… are you ready to disconnect?
If you’re not convinced to go cold turkey and delete everything at once, try a day at a time. See how much more you can do without refreshing your Facebook feed five times an hour. Pledge to not check your Instagram until you have got everything done that you needed to do. Dedicate 20 minutes a day to browsing and limit yourself to that. Start a real-life conversation with somebody instead of sending a Snapchat with your face in a crazy filter. It’ll show you just how much better your life can be without it.