What I learned from deleting Social Media for One Week (So Far…)

Image by Andrea Worthington

Social media is the new driving force in our lives. Constantly, we are staring at our phones, seeing what’s the latest in pop culture, our favourite celebrities lives and what our friends are doing. It’s endless scrolling to stay constantly updated and entertained. One of the main driving forces behind social media is FOMO (the fear of missing out). We need to know what is happening at all times in order to feel included.

I have a serious case of FOMO. Rather had. Being a 19- years-old university student, I constantly wanted to know about what is going on, where the latest party was at, what's happening on campus, who is doing what, who is doing who. For some reason, this was important to know. I was on social media during class, after class, before class, on the bus to class and before I would head to bed. When I was studying, I would always get lost on Instagram rather than being productive with my time. And then I would end up getting marks that I was not happy with and wondering why.

The intent of social media was keeping people connected. Communicating through text, videos, thoughts, ideas, photos. Now, it turned into a distraction. It went from “Oh what is my old high school buddy up to?” to “What celebrity drama is happening now?”. At the end of the day, it gives us something to do. Nobody likes to do nothing anymore. We always have to remain busy and needs to be focused on something. I like to think that we have a fear of our own thoughts. Our mind is something powerful and constantly thinking, saying things that we don’t want to hear more often than we do. It never shuts up. I am no psychologist so I can’t explain why this happens, but for me, it does. Another thing is that sometimes, I feel that it could be toxic too. I’d share something and someone would always have something to say about it. It didn’t need to be said or anything, but it was just something unnecessary and judgy. Simply because they can say something.

About a week ago, I was getting tired of social media. I felt that I was wasting my time. I could have been using this time reading and learning about things that interest me, getting some work done, doing things that I said I want to do, but never got around too (like writing) and talking to people I really care about. So I got rid of my…