This past week, I decided to take a large step and delete my Twitter account. Something that once played a prevalent role in my life and dominated so much of my time and attention was now a thing of the past. I was finally free of the pressing need to scroll through a timeline of tweets that meant nothing to me.
Recently, I found myself turning to my phone every chance I got: at times of boredom, times of stress, and even times when I was in a rush. I realized that I was using social media as an escape. I’d lay down in bed and promise to only spend 5 minutes scrolling through my feed but before I knew it, an hour had passed and I was still lying in bed groggily trying to face the rest of my day. I finally decided to put an end to this wasted time and use it for things more productive than checking if my friends filled out my Twitter poll asking which ice cream flavor I should order.
After deleting my account, I found that my mind was clearer. I felt much calmer. I was no longer plagued by the fictional pressure to constantly update and check the little blue app on my phone. I was also no longer preoccupied with diligently creating a persona for myself in the virtual world to exclusively to impress others. As I walked to class the next day, I found myself looking up instead of down. I was able to enjoy the beautiful weather on campus instead of reading tweets about it on a tiny screen. When I got back to my room, I read for pleasure, something I hadn’t done in so long. Instead of drafting a tweet, I sat down and wrote in a notebook.
In reality, we can’t deny that our society is dependent on technology. It’s true that this technology has a beneficial impact by connecting us with each other but in a way, it also pulls us apart. In restaurants, coffee shops, and waiting rooms, for example, there is rarely not a screen separating us from people sitting right beside us. But why? Are we that socially anxious that the thought of talking to someone in person forces us to reside solely in our iPhones? Has human interaction lost all appeal to us? Are we becoming entirely socially disconnected? We need to think about what kind of place our world is becoming if we choose texting over hearing someone’s tone of voice and seeing their genuine facial expressions during an interaction.
In the end, I decided to live for reality. I realized that social media put a strong barrier between myself and the world around me. Deleting my Twitter was the first step in living life the way it should be lived, unplugged from the digital world. As I go forward, I’d like to further purge my phone and life of unnecessary social media. Instead of tweeting my plans for the day and taking photos only for others to see, I’ve decided that I want to start living purely for myself. My experiences and thoughts are precious and I should enjoy them to the fullest instead of typing them into an insignificant app.
