I was essentially brought up by the Interest as a result of growing up in the 2000s and social medias were a big part of that. I used to use EVERY social media out there, you name it, and I’ve probably used it at some point. Starting from Facebook (which was actually the reason why I even made a mail ID, funnily enough) which I used religiously for a solid 3 years or so, after which I started to move to Instagram, back then no one used Instagram, it still had its old brown logo, and it kinda became my safe place to post whatever I wanted and no one cared, I was great until the inevitable happened. It got popular.

The Issue

Let’s take a step back when I started using FB, In those days it was actually great, no one knew shit and was just messing around, it wasn’t something you had to do, but it was something you could do carefree. FB was my go to for a solid few years, but then it started, THE NECESSITY to show everything you did and craving for likes, I won’t lie, it had me in its grasp for a few years as well, but then I moved to Instagram to get away from that. And it was going fine until Instagram got popular and the same issues I had with FB started creeping here. Then while I was in high school, I decided to make a move and get off everything, and It was great. Like, not thinking of what your friends-friend are doing or how much likes my last post got. I know It sounds obvious, but when you’re in that circle, you don’t understand the mental stress you’re putting your mind to. It just creeps into your everyday routine.

Then after almost 3 years or so, when I started streaming (which I will make a future post about) I decided to make an alt Instagram and Twitter to promote my gaming content. And oh boy, I get why it’s so hard for people to see the mental state they’re putting themselves in, because it took me a whole year. And FYI the experience with social media of trying to become a content creator on the internet is 10x worse on all aspects than a regular user. So I decided to quit again, because it re-confirmed all the assumptions I already had, when I quit I was considerably more stress-free and had an f-ton of more free time.

But the biggest culprit was YouTube. And yes, I’ve started seeing YouTube as a social media. For the longest time, I said to myself “ok I’ll quit everything except YouTube, YouTube isn’t a social media so why should I?”, but this year I wanted to stop YT and see how much time it takes from me, and Oh boy it’s a lot. From the first week, I got 250+ notifications from channels I’ve subbed to, and it’s not considering the amount of rabbit holes I fall into randomly. I thought YT was my best friends (and it still is because it has taught me so much over the years) but it was also consuming me without my knowledge. I still use YT, but I know where to draw the line now, I mostly use it now for utility/educational purpose and not for any content creators.

Social media Vs Anxiety

I overthink everything, I worry too much about the stupidest thing and I hate it, and I’m continually working to change that about me. And while using social media, I just seem to waste a lot of time thinking about the most trivial things. Quitting it has given me one less thing to worry about.

Also, even if we don’t accept it, we as humans subconscious get jealousy over everything we don’t have, and social media is the peak of “damn his/her life seems so cooler than mine” which is not true of course, it’s just this never ending loop of trying to one up the other and show your living the “best life”. I’ve become to hate this aspect of social media. It went from “hey, this is a cool place to share stupid stuff with my friends and family” to “I HAVE TO show everyone, that I’m living my best life”

What do you loose?

 “You can’t gain something without loosing something”

Essentially, you become “that guy” that doesn’t know “what’s up”, but to be honest you get pretty used to it quick. I don’t even notice it these days. So what you don’t have any interesting input in some conversation and don’t have a clue what they’re talking about, it is a small loss for a big gain.

Another big one I hear often is you don’t know what your peers are up to. To this, I say, “do you really need to know?”. Because I keep in touch with my family and best friends via direct message quite regularly, or I see them whenever I can. I have come to understand that you can’t care about everything, it just drains you. You have a limited amount of fucks to give, so pick and choose the stuff you want to give a fuck about (I got this from the book “The subtle art of not giving a fuck“)

What I gained?

Time

“You don’t have a lot of it, so use it wisely”

The most obvious and most important one is Time. You never know you spent this much time using/thinking about stuff in social medias until you quit and realize the amount of free time you have on your hands. Time is something which didn’t really bother me that much in my school days as I had a lot of it, but now in college, I feel like those few hours a day can make all the difference. People often say, “Nah, I don’t have anything else to do”, but they’ll be surprised by the amount of things they can do. It varies widely from person to person, but a common few include learning a new skill, discovering what you like (more about that below), taking the next step in whatever you’ve put on the “To-Do Later” list in life etc.

Self Discovery

“I didn’t know most of the things that I liked wasn’t actually mine” 

The human brain has this weird thing where, when we see or hear people talking passionately about things they love, we assume we love it too. And sometimes it’s true, and we find a passion we once might not have stumbled on. But other times it’s temporary. When I quit, and I had this abundant of free time, at first it was overwhelming and boring essentially. But after a few days (for me at least) you start reflecting on yourself, your hobbies, your ambitions, who truly are close to you etc. And along the way, you discover the things that you held close to you weren’t that important to you in the first place. It’s hard at first, realizing you were wrong, but then you start realizing what truly matters.

Peace Of Mind

“I don’t want to know your daily life, I got one to live myself”

I would describe everything around social media as NOISE, just this constant feed of endless noise. Many of us can’t go through the day without pulling down for a refresh, and it’s sad. I’d like to believe I got out, but It isn’t a win, rather a constant battle in my opinion, there’s always the new social media or new friends to peer pressure you, but for the most part, I’m content with where social media is in my life, OUT. Fewer things to worry about, more time to spent on things that matter, and no noise.

Final Thoughts

Everything I say is subjective, and you might not view social media in the same light. If you have a good relationship with social media with good boundaries, good for you. I just can’t seem to find that line, so It was better for me to end it. I hope this was at least interesting to read how someone like me views social media, and for others, I hope I’ve given some insight on how quitting social media might just be the best decision you make, because it was for me.