As a 22-year-old obsessed with all things technology, I am well aware of how social media works and would describe myself as a moderate user erring on the side of avid. All my social media profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and other networks are carefully tailored to be the best representation of me as possible.
However, I recognize that there is a caveat to the extended use of these sites that stands to cause more harm than good. In times of boredom or dissatisfaction with daily life, I've found myself clinging to these sites for some sort of release or resolution to my condition. I scroll through Facebook and Instagram feeds as if looking for another world to engross myself in since the one I'm currently a part of at a given moment isn't pleasing me all that much.
In my opinion, that is the definition of a budding lunatic.
Facebook and Instagram are crowded with pictures of other people doing things. Anything from simply posing for a picture to skydiving to dancing to traveling through a new place. Even the articles and funny videos linked to on these feeds fall under the same category; they all chronicle other people doing other things. No piece of media on these feeds would chronicle someone looking through their Facebook or Instagram feed because it's a mundane act to which there is no novelty. And yet, the concept of these social networks is dependent on these mundane timeline browsers to even have a purpose to exist.
There is a disconnect, you see? If the browsers are taking up time looking at everyone else's activities, is there not a group of people that are contributing more than viewing?
Yes, there is. This may be an obvious observation, but if fleshed out, it leads you to the realization that there's little point in allowing these social networks to become a time drain. In the end, you are consuming multimedia which documents other people's accomplishments and activities, which makes you want to accomplish things on your own, which is then in turn the antithesis of sitting on a chair looking through your phone.
That time could be better spent doing all those things that you see other people doing on social media or finding ways to inch yourself closer to doing them. To feed into the vicious cycle of browsing timelines is to fail to stand above it all and see the real point of social media: a tool with which to stay in touch with others and keep them updated of your life, not a tool to live vicariously through others and low-key wish you were doing what they're doing.
It borders on lunacy, depression and is at best a simply senseless endeavor. The key, then, is to re-evaluate your relationship with social media to adapt more closely to the role of content creator rather than viewer. It'll allow you to lead a much richer life while still being an active part of this uniquely 21st century phenomenon.
