I've been a member of the social media realm since I was eleven years old. Fifteen years. I don't want to be repetitive with what we all know about social media. And I know that there are positives associated with social media. But in a little over a week I've made some pretty interesting realizations about myself (and social media as a whole) and wanted to share:
4. If Americans used any other substance the way we use social media, we would call it an addiction.
It sounds extreme but it's true. Check the number of pick-ups on your phone in the settings. Right now at 9:30 at night, mine is 127. Since I'm currently off social media, that's not so bad considering 75% of that was texting friends. But those other 31 pickups are unaccounted for; why did I feel the need to pick up my phone when it wasn't dinging? If those pick-ups were cigs, I'd need a patch. The need to scroll Instagram and see what other perfect strangers are doing is truly involuntary and sick. It's unwell, folks. But when I have the app, I can't stop.
3. I live for the moments that make me look cooler than I am.
We call them candids, but they're everything but candid. For a while there, those "laughing-before-the-picture" pictures were all the rage. Now it's more of the "act-like-I'm-doing-something-meaningful-when-really-I'm-not" pictures that have taken over. And bloggers are the worst about it. There are literally trendy coffee shops and ice cream parlors designed to be Instagram-photo worthy. And we I eat that !#$% up. And then I slap some boujie looking preset on it and post it to my stories. (Because I don't want to over-post on the feed, but I definitely want credit for how cOoL I think I am.)
2. Seeing other people scrolling is actually super repulsive and bizarre.
Okay so I've only been off the 'gram exclusively for eleven days, but I already feel weird seeing people scrolling. It's a weird habit and has to be doing weird things to our thumbs y'all. I don't want my baby growing up thinking this is just what folks do when they grow up. "Mama, I can't wait to grow up and scroll as fast as you do in the morning when I'm stirring my coffee and checking the 'gram." Hopefully my daughter is a lot cooler than her mom and will be reading books.
1. I'm actually addicted to the posting more than the scrolling.
And this fact is the most embarrassing of them all. After fifteen years of creating content, posting the content, and then waiting for the instant gratification; I'm addicted to the process. I've found myself texting the same photos I would have posted on Instagram to my friends, and then waiting for the same instant gratification. (I know, GET. A. LIFE.) And here I am writing a blog and sharing some images and hoping for feedback.
My Instagram pause isn't permanent and I haven't really decided what to do now that I've seen life without it, but I really want to challenge others to delete the app (or whatever app you're glued to) and see how it feels or what you learn from it.
I feel so fortunate to get to raise my daughter in our home and stay home with her everyday, but what a waste that is if I'm not intentional about our time together.
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