If you see your friends suddenly disappearing from your social media feed (as in they’re deactivating their accounts or did not post for long periods of time), we often tend to assume the worst.
That’s when worry kicks in, especially in these times when other netizens seem to deem their own worth by how many times they would post anything – live videos, photos, even snippets of their everyday lives.
However, an increasing amount of netizens are now finding social media, even the Internet itself, as “not as fun as it was ten years ago.”
Wika nga ng iba, nakakamiss yung panahong puro laro, quotes, wacky photos at memes lamang ang nakikita natin sa ating social media pages.
Nowadays, all we can find is toxicity, hatred, division, and stupidity – not to mention spam posts, bots and artificial intelligence (AI) manure.
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As a result, some netizens are now undergoing what’s being called “social media detox,” or gradually disassociating themselves from social media.
Scientific studies have noted the positive effects of “social media detox,” where even limiting social media use for a week has resulted in positive changes in mood, better productivity, improved sleep and reduced anxiety.
Techniques differ: from limiting browsing time to, let’s say, two hours, to choosing to spend an entire day away from their smartphones. (Of course, to me, that sounds difficult, even impossible, as part of my job is browsing through social media.) The most extreme method, of course, is completely deleting yourself from social media, deactivating your accounts and generally deciding to live your life without being “controlled” by your devices.
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A very dear friend of mine from high school is one of those who have taken that extreme step of deactivating most (if not all) of her social media accounts.
In fact, it was only through Tumblr (a social media site that has often been associated with fandoms, but has gained traction because it’s one of the few sites where being “true to yourself” has been tolerated and even accepted) that I managed to contact her, just to greet her on her birthday. It’s one of the few social media platforms where she still posts, just to reassure her relatives and friends that she’s still alive and kicking.
Some of you might wonder: how do these people manage to keep connected with people around them?
Well, consider this: maybe we could (re)visit other methods of communication that are now deemed obsolete in this age of instant information and global connectivity. Things like snail mail or even e-mails, which are now even being ditched in favor of messaging apps.
Better yet, find time to be “physically present” with your relatives and friends. Go out, dine with them, find time where you can be with them.
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Some studies have come to the conclusion that addiction to social media can be as destructive as alcoholism and drug abuse.
Like other forms of addiction, social media addiction can lead people to think that their lives revolve around their devices, and forget that there is an actual “real life” beyond what is shown through their screens.
Yes, there is a real life beyond your screens. And I believe that the sooner we reconnect with that real life, maybe we’d behave better around the people around us – and understand that there will always be people who are different from us. And that is how we grow up as human beings.
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