I remember the day I started my first social media account, ever. I was barely 14 and had just celebrated my eighth-grade graduation. A lot of my friends had had MySpace accounts for a few years at this point, but the latest thing was Facebook. My best friend and I decided that we should both make accounts. We were on our way to being high schoolers, and of course we needed some kind of social media presence. (Because at 14, it’s absolutely crucial that people know my every thought. [Massive eye roll.])
At that point, I had no idea what an impact these various platforms would have on my formative teenage years and beyond. Now, six years later, I still have that Facebook account, and a Twitter, and an Instagram, and a Snapchat.
Throughout the last five years, social media has grown to include almost everyone who has access to the internet. This means the demographic of people using social media has expanded enormously. For a while, Facebook was overrun with parents and people who were not in the original age group of users -- this made a lot of young people reject Facebook to spend more time on a variety of other social media outlets. Now, though, I have noticed a lot of young 20-somethings drifting back to Facebook and spending less time on all these niche social media sites.
In addition to this, it seems that many young people are starting to see all the negative effects social media can have on its users. People are starting to notice that if they don’t keep their use of social media in check, it can do more harm than good. This is not to say that all social media is bad and none of us should be using it. Without Facebook, most of you would not be reading this article today -- so thanks Mark Zuckerberg!
Social media has some amazing features that have transformed the way we connect with friends, family, and acquaintances. People are just learning how to find balance with their social media use.
A trend I have noticed among my friends is detoxing from social media. This could be as simple as just checking their apps once a day instead of 15 times. Others have chosen to delete the apps off their phones, still keeping their accounts active, but not having access to them. For some, they can barely make it through a few days, but others realize how toxic their use of social media is and choose to never re-download them.
Just this morning, I decided to delete my Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter apps off my phone in an effort to put my money where my mouth is. Since starting to write this article, I have checked my phone seven times looking for some distraction. This is pretty scary if you ask me. Without access to all of these distractions, I really just have to put my attention on my work. This makes me more efficient and extremely focused.
Keeping all my social media accounts computer-based rather than phone-based allows me to still use them, but limits my opportunities to check my accounts. If I don’t have my computer, I can’t check the sites. I really recommend trying this out for a day or a week or as long as you can do it. It forces you to exist in the present reality of your life rather than in the audience of someone else’s.
“Social media: it’s just the market’s answer to a generation that demanded it perform. So the market said, ‘here, perform everything to each other all the time for no reason.’” This is comedian Bo Burnham’s take on our current relationship with social media.
Burnham got his career started on YouTube and used social media to his advantage, but he also recognizes how it can negatively affect us as human beings interacting with one another, and can change everyday people into 24/7 performers. This is not healthy.
Some of us must actively make choices that limit our use of social media to prevent its toxicity in our lives. I suggest trying out a social media cleanse of some kind just to see what life is like outside the small screen of your cell phone. I promise, it won't be as hard as it sounds. And if it is, it was probably extremely necessary.
