I’m Stuck by Social Media
I really wish I could say goodbye to social media boldly…
Social media, as a product of the digital age, thrives on the fertile soil of the Internet. It occupies an increasingly important place in people’s life. According to the general social media statistics in March 2019, there were 3.48 billion people using social media, which means 45% of the total world population were using social networks. What an amazing statistic!
I think, most of us have a love-hate relationship with social media. It’s just like ‘every coin has its two sides’. Social media benefits us as well as hurts us. All of us know that we cannot indulge in it, but we cannot control ourselves.
Social media, to some extent, makes our life more colourful. People around the world upload their opinions, images, videos and so on to social media such as Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc. This kind of sharing allows audiences to learn about many new things, which can be amusing, fearsome, touching, or something else. People who upload their posts tend to be the people who intend to get attention of the public and then their sense of self-identity will be enhanced. Social media facilitates people’s life as well. People can contact others through a variety of social apps, not just by phone as in the past. Also, it’s easy to know how your friends are doing. For instance, there is a function in WeChat named ‘moments’. People can share their recent states, opinions, speech on moments. Friends of them can like it and leave a comment under the moment, which shortens the distance among friends. What’s more, people are available to know quickly what is happening around the world. That is to say, people who stay at home can also see the whole world. Isn’t it amazing?
I really spend too much time on social media. I checked the screen time of my phone. The data was staggering. I even cannot believe it. I nearly spend about six hours on social media every day. Every morning I get up, the first thing I do is look for my phone. And then check WeChat, Instagram, Weibo and other social apps. I’m afraid of missing any piece of news. I never turn off my phone unless it is low power. I always keep my 4G traffic and WiFi on in case I miss someone’s message.
There are so many interesting things on the social media that always attract me. TikTok in Chinese version called Douyin is a typical example. There are various brilliant videos on Douyin such as cook, make-up, dance, sing, pets, English learning skills, travelling, etc. Users can watch new videos just by swiping up. If audiences like a video, they can click the little heart on the right side, if they don’t like, then they can choose the selection ‘not interested’. They also can leave comments, add videos to Favorites, share videos, or use the original sound to make a video by themselves. The functions of Douyin/TikTok are too much, but it’s not complicated at all. Whenever I turn on Douyin, I can’t help but keep watching it as there will always be new things come into my sight. I’ve uninstalled it many times, however, I downloaded it again a few days later.
Don’t wanna admit, but social media indeed lowered my life quality… I’m used to checking my phone at night and tending to stay up late, which leads to the result that I can’t get up on time in the morning. If I have classes in the morning, I might skip breakfast to get to classes. A long time of staring at my phone makes my eyesight poor as well. However, it still cannot stop me spending so much time on social media. Not only me, but also my parents and friends spend a large amount of time on social media every day. At home, my mom always holds the phone in her hand while at eating time. She checks her WeChat all the time and browses through every chat record and moment from her friends. While meeting with friends, we tend to spend time on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram or other social apps instead of talking with each other. I remember when social media was still undeveloped, people who got together would talk about everyday matters and the ambience was always nice. Now, when people get together, what they do is looking down at their phones and fall into an awkward silence. No one wants to break the ice, as they all have things to do — check social media.
I gradually realized the seriousness of spending too much time on social media. I found I haven’t read books for a long time, except textbooks. I found my guitar covered in dust. I found I’m not as healthy as I used to be. It’s time to make some changes. I don’t want to paralyze myself any more. Yeah, the first step is to uninstall the TikTok.
