There are many forms of social media that people around the entire globe access on a daily basis. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, YikYak, Tumblr, Pinterest, texting, Tinder, and if you're stuck in the stone age, Myspace. Most of you reading this probably have all or most of these social media apps on your phone or log in on your computer on a daily basis. Our lives as we know it have become encompassed with tweets, selfies, updates, snaps, filter changes, and hashtags. The English language is dissipating, as we know it because we are forced to fit our thoughts into 150 characters or less. Here is my personal account with how social media has affected my life.
When I was a sophomore in college I was like any other college girl. I loved football games, working out, buying new dresses, and of course keeping up with social media. I had a routine of checking my phone almost every five minutes or less out of boredom, and I even walked to and from class with my phone shoved in my face. I was being just like “everyone else” by being obsessively involved in the social media trends and I thought it was 100 percent normal. I wanted everyone to know what I was doing and I wanted to know what everyone else was doing. It became like a drug that I began abusing because I was on social media what seemed like 60 percent of my day. It was the first thing I saw when I woke up and the last thing I saw when I eventually went to bed. I was addicted. I knew I had to put a stop to this so I decided to delete all of my social media applications until I felt I could recognize that I could live without it. I had no idea how long it would last and what I would find out about myself.
I started off strong by not looking at my accounts at all. The only apps I had on my phone were the basic ones it came with and my school email account. After the first week I noticed myself checking my phone constantly even when I knew I had nothing to look at or check. I started obsessing and I went through old pictures in my phone just so I would have something to see and flip through. I must have looked through my pictures and checked my email a million times because I was so bored and all I could think about was checking my Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. I even started taking pictures of objects around me because I could not put them on Snapchat. Some of the real pictures I took are below.
This was a sickness and I knew I had to break it. I never thought social media played such a big role in my life as it proved to be by getting rid of it completely. I felt so weak that I let something intangible control my life so much. In a study conducted by Pew Research Center, 92 percent of teens report going online daily and 56 percent of the teens go online several times a day. Even though I was being like the average teen or young college person, I knew I needed to make a change. I stopped splurging and checking it and I eventually stopped looking at it completely.
I was actually super happy. I started noticing things around me like the beautiful trees on my way to class, the happy students that attended my same college, and even felt like I had more energy and positivity in my life. I did not have any social media on my phone for six weeks. That may not seem like that long, but for me it was a huge accomplishment. I realized that what other people are doing does not matter and it will not make my life any greater by keeping up with people I barely know. I decided I did not want to be like everyone else and obsess over the next tweet from so-and-so or spend hours picking out an Instagram filter. I have since redownloaded apps on my phone, but I do check them less and I realize the dangers of being addicted to social media.
I encourage everyone to delete their social media apps off their phones for an extended period of time and see what you learn about yourself. I learned that I can do anything I set my mind to, I do not have to rely on other people to make me happy, and you can see a lot of beautiful things when you look up.
