I quit social media and life feels better
I have a screenshot from the day I deleted Snapchat for good, the words “Bye Snap” written over my homescreen in sloppy red highlighter. I didn’t feel righteous deciding to get rid of the last social media app on my phone; rather, I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders. I felt happy to recover the hours I had spent facilitating drama, sending loose acquaintances pictures of my face, and drowning myself in videos of horrifying skin conditions and TikTok scandals. I haven’t looked back.
Sure, I can’t send my friends pictures as easily, see their locations on the Snap Map, or get constant updates on their lives, but my connections feel more meaningful than before. I feel motivated to see people in person instead of just sending them a picture every once in a while. I’ve escaped the drama that often festers on people’s private stories. I force people to get to know me face-to-face as my true, authentic self.
Life feels more peaceful now. I went from hours of screen time a day to about 40 minutes a day. I study the patterns on the floor of classrooms and doctors’ offices, I stare out the window in the car. Did you know Oak Park has more than 120 species of trees along the parkways? I do now. I feel more in touch with the world around me, my mind clear of pop culture fluff and my phone of notifications.
The other day I watched my friend look through her Snapchat, passing over dozens of unopened messages.
“Do you respond to all of those?” I asked her.
“It’s a full-time job,” she sighed.
I asked her if it was worth the effort and she gave a resounding “no” as she opened messages and sent back pictures.
To claim that we are bound to social media is ridiculous. I’m not fundamentally different from any other high school student, and I’ve been clean of Snapchat for two years, have long forgotten my Instagram password, and haven’t ever downloaded TikTok. It hasn’t been easy, and I constantly feel pressure to recover my Snapchat account and start up Instagram again, but I believe everyone can attain a social-media-free life.
I’m not ignorant to the fact people enjoy social media and use it for positive interactions. However, social media apps are designed to grab our attention and hold it, which can have damaging consequences to our well being.
If I could sum up OPRF students in one word it would be “stressed.” But how can we complain we’re overwhelmed with homework when we spend hours a day scrolling through social media feeds? We pay so much attention to other people’s lives that we often neglect our own.
A study from Monitoring the Future, a project by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, found a direct relationship between the release of the first iPhone and increased rates of depression and loneliness among teenagers.
We use social media as a way to escape our world, but we’re putting off our own reality by jamming endless streams of content into our heads. The long-term effects of social media use on our brains have hardly been studied. I’d rather stay on the safe side.
You may have noticed the trees are bare now. You can see the twisting branches of elms and the crooked arms of oaks more clearly with the leaves gone. Put down your phone and give them a look. You might feel a little better.