I think, like most people my age, I spend a lot of time on my phone. It’s amazing to have this little gateway to the entire world that can fit in my pocket. I read the news, catch up on politics, take and share photos, and scroll endlessly through more content then I could possibly ever hope to actually consume.
I’ve come to realize, though, that the more social media I use, the more stressed out I get. Because there’s so much toxicity online. It’s people on Twitter joking about how much they want to die. It’s my Facebook “friends” complaining about life, sharing political posts, or ranting about the outrageous trend of the moment.
It’s nothing but negativity. I literally spend hours of my day scrolling through nothing but the most upsetting parts of humanity.
And then there’s the algorithms. You read one news article about something ridiculous, and suddenly your feed is crammed full of it. I’m an inquisitive person – I like to read articles that differ from my views, because I want to understand how people can think or feel the way that the do. But, especially on Facebook, me wanting to learn more in an instant becomes me bombarded with posts and articles that directly counter my personal views and inevitably leave me feeling angry, gross, or just down.
And that’s really unfortunate. You see, for the first time probably ever, I’m actually really happy with how my life is going. I have my own home, I own my own business, I have multiple floofs and a husband that loves me. Some of it’s been a conscious shift – I’m trying my hardest to grow as a person, stay in this positive mindset, and give off nothing but ~ good vibes ~. But all the negativity surrounding me from social media just berates me with bad vibes, day in and day out.
It’s a waste of time, a waste of emotions, and ultimately a waste of life. I have better things I should be doing.
So I’ve decided to step away from it. I deleted Twitter off all of my devices. While I can’t deactivate Facebook (I do need it for work), I’ve deleted it off all of my devices. When I do have to be on it for work, I’m going to use the Newsfeed Eradicator Chrome Extension to block out the newsfeed. I’m tired of Facebook dictating what I can see and do – from now on, any and all interactions I have with the platform will be 100% intentional, and 100% in my control.
I still plan on using Instagram and Pinterest. To be honest, they don’t stress me out. While the content there is curated, it’s less personalized and less negative. And I have Buffer & a few business tools that will auto-post for me on those networks, so it will likely be like I never even left.
Technology is a wonder. But I definitely think there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing.
Sometimes you just need to unplug! I don’t care much for Facebook or Twitter. My vice is Reddit. I have been slowly unsubscribing from subreddits but I still check it quite often. Thankfully it’s mostly useful information and very little toxic things. I think moderation in all things is key.
I can totally relate. Reddit is addictive – I don’t go on it often but when I do I always end up scrolling through page after page, post after post.
I’ve been unconsciously doing the detox thing, too since the beginning of the year. While I’m not super-duper happy… I’m feeling more like myself, again. Less worried about the state of the world (which I can’t tangibly change) and more focused on what I want out of life. I guess living intentionally is the key ingredient to happiness.
Yasssss. It took me forever to realize that flooding myself with all the ~ bad vibes ~ from the internet/world was bringing me down. Picking & choosing what I see, and how I react to it, has done wonders for my psyche.