So I recently re-downloaded Instagram for the first time in a long time.
Let me tell you, it has not been a pleasurable experience.
Butts, boobs, hydraulic presses crushing various household objects… more butts and boobs.
I don’t know what ya’ll have been doing on there, but the algorithm is truly messed up.
It’s been a wild ride over the past few years, and although I can’t pinpoint exactly how long I’ve been away from certain social media platforms (I’ve kept LinkedIn, but that doesn’t count), the time off has completely changed my view towards it.
Strangely enough, I now love social media more than ever.
Let me tell you why.
Why I Deleted Social Media
“We’re training and conditioning a whole new generation of people that when we are uncomfortable or lonely or uncertain or afraid, we have a digital pacifier for ourselves that is kind of atrophying our own ability to deal with that.”
Tristan Harris – Former design ethicist at Google
Somewhere along the way, social media has shifted from a place for interaction and creation, to a pit of incessant scrolling and mindless consumption.
It’s now a place one goes to numb one’s mind… and man does it work.
Doomscrolling is now a part of life, and it’s a vicious cycle to get caught up in.
That’s where I was, and that’s why I had to escape it.
I was scrolling, mouth-gaping, eyeballs fixed, completely void of recognition to anything that was happening around me.
Seriously, if you asked me what I was watching two minutes ago I couldn’t tell you.
That’s where 95% of social media users are.
Terrifying, isn’t it?
What’s even more terrifying is the feeling you get when you try to take that digital pacifier out.
When you don’t have that thing to numb those uncomfortable feelings or make mundane moments go faster.
That’s when social media’s true power reveals itself.
Detoxing from short-form video content really is the therapy I didn’t know I needed.
You don’t realise just how mentally stimulating and damaging those little videos are until you experience life without it.
Life is slower without them.
Life is more boring without them.
But over time, life becomes so much better without them.
Life Without Social Media
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Blaise Pascal
So what’s life without social media actually like?
Well, it’s pretty boring.
I saw this shot-form video (lol) on Instagram of a dude sitting on a balcony with the caption “pov: you protected your peace a little too much, and now you have no roster, no drama, no situationship, only work, hang with 3 people, and sleep.”
That was literally (and mostly still is) my life.
Without social media, there is no real reason to pick up your phone.
You’ll find yourself checking your emails 50 times a day and adding random cities to Apple Weather out of sheer boredom.
But you’ve got nothing to scroll on.
No boobs and/or butts to gawk at on the explore page.
Just you, those mundane moments, those uncomfortable thoughts, and a whole lot of time to sit with them.
Sounds crap, doesn’t it?
Yeah, it is.
But I think that’s the point.
Giving yourself the time and space to actually think about things that you don’t want to think about is something many of us are missing in our life.
Boredom is both the biggest benefit and biggest con of deleting social media.
Many of us have lost our ability to be bored, but I can assure you it’s the maker of a good life.
You will always naturally gravitate towards the most stimulating thing in the room.
If your room contains a pile of books or a phone with Instagram on it, which do you think you’ll choose?
Sometimes taking away the other option is the only choice.
Making Social Media Social Again
My time away from social media allowed me to recalibrate.
A shift from consumer to creator of sorts.
I love social media because I’m now using it for its intended purpose.
I am posting content, I am engaging with people, and I am actually making online friends (weird!!).
This all changed when I decided to download X (Twitter) to start posting my writing earlier this year.
Truthfully, I would never use Twitter as a consumer as it’s a pile of trash mostly.
But as a writer, it allows me to post a thought and receive feedback almost instantly (this is powerful).
I then turn those thoughts and interactions with people into the blog posts ya’ll read.
Naturally, I’ve found people on X who resonate with some of the things I say, and we’ve struck up a little friendship (how cute).
There are some incredible minds in this world.
Minds that, 20 years ago, you’d never have the chance to meet.
Social media is a great way to find these people, but the only way you can do that is by being yourself and actually posting things.
The True Power Of Social Media
This change from consumer to creator that I mentioned earlier has also allowed me to harness the power of social media in a different way.
It’s now working for me, rather than against me.
Now, you guys know I love to be open with you to prove a point… so I’m gonna do just that.
Since creating this blog in January, I’ve had 7,417 views on all pages on my website.
This is split between 1,722 unique visitors (so each visitor has viewed my pages roughly 4.3 times).
Not bad.
But let’s compare that to social media.
On X alone, since January, my tweets have been read 1.7 million times.
Yes, 1.7 million times.
But it doesn’t stop there.
I’ve had 16.5k profile views, 16k replies, 32.4k likes, 607 reposts, 947 bookmarks – stats stats stats.
When posting content on this website, I can’t really tell if you guys like it or not because I don’t receive the feedback, apart from the occasional email reply to my newsletters (which I love btw).
Whereas on X, everything is right there.
All the love, all the hate – instantly.
That’s powerful.
Should You Delete Your Social Media?
I included that previous section to prove a point.
Social media is incredible… if you use it correctly.
I haven’t really talked about the comparison trap, the loss of genuine connection, mental health impacts, echo chambers and misinformation, FOMO, decreased attention span and all the crap that comes along with social media use.
I didn’t talk about that because it’s 2024 and you already know all this (you’re probably experiencing it all right now).
So instead, the question should be – are you using social media to benefit your life?
If the answer is no, then yes, I think you should delete it.
Take time away, recalibrate, work out ways to harness its power in a way that works for you.
Stepping back from social media allowed me to see it for what it truly is.
An incredibly powerful machine that can change your life, for better or for worse.
But no matter how powerful it is, you still have the power to choose whether or not you download the app, open the app, and scroll on the app.
You still have the power to choose whether you let it enhance your life or destroy it.
So all I can say to you is… choose wisely, my friend.
