At the beginning of the school year, I made a decision to give up social media due to the lack of free time that I found myself with. After only a couple of weeks, I started to feel lighter and more at ease, but I couldn’t figure out exactly why.
Months went by and at the end of fall term, I made an effort to check up on just how much I had missed. But the more that I scrolled and the more that I read, I started to feel a sort of weight press on my chest. I hadn’t actually realized until then that the seemingly out-of-nowhere happiness came from keeping my head out of all the ongoing social media drama.
Think about it, how many times a day do you happen to visit social media? Probably more times than you can necessarily count. The amount of time that many people spend scrolling through comments, videos and pictures is absolutely ridiculous. Not only are we indulging in somebody else’s life, but we are wasting our own. We concern ourselves with what’s happening to everyone else more than we concern ourselves with what’s happening right in front of us. Constantly being concerned with others on the Internet can send a message to the people that are actually in your everyday life.
We have all had someone we know pull out their phone when it really wasn’t an appropriate time. I can’t say that I haven’t been that person more times than preferable. Even worse, I have found myself unintentionally pulling out my phone for no reason then quickly putting it away after realizing I was being impolite.
Phantom vibration syndrome, or whatever you want to call the perception of thinking your phone is buzzing when it’s not, can have anyone reaching for their pocket at anytime out of fear that they are missing something. With a smartphone that can download any social media app under the sun, anxiety can overcome you if think you’re out of the loop, even just for one day. Like when you forget your phone at home and you’re constantly worrying about all the people trying to contact you, only to find out when you get home that nobody did. Like many others on social media, I started to feel dependent of the on flow of information. I felt like I hadn’t really gone through my day if I didn’t know what was going on with everyone else.
Nowadays many people find it more concerning to be out of the loop on the internet rather than out of the loop with their friends and family. There have been plenty of times where, even though I knew what was going on with my friends on social media, I had no idea that they were going through something completely different in their real lives off the screen.
Since I decided to cut myself off from social media, I have been more concerned with how often I actually talk to my friends rather than being concerned on how many likes, retweets and snapchats I get. When I first joined social media I didn’t expect to ever come to this point, but now that I have gotten off, I think everyone should consider it.
I find it really gratifying to not have to worry that I’m missing out on something that doesn’t really matter. I want the people in my life to know that I find them more important than what might be happening on my screen, and more central to what I should be giving my attention to.
So don’t let yourself be pushed onto the bandwagon, break free from the pack and stand up for a happier lifestyle. Cutting yourself off from social media may be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make. You’ll have a lot more free time on your hands to get your work done and really connect with the important people in your life. You might even have enough time to cross off some things from your college bucket list.