Why I quit social media pt. 2

Hello and welcome to part 2 of my "Why I quit social media"-post. Before you read this post, I recommend reading part 1, a link to which can be found here. So, we left off at March 2021, with me sorta wanting to quit social media. However, I didn't fully quit until December 2022, so like... Why?

Well, I'm a very stubborn person. And sure, I had reasons to quit social media back in 2021, but those reasons were still easy enough to ignore for me. But since then, the amount of reasons has only grown. So, I've curated a list of reasons why I quit social media in semi-chronological order. In the previous post I started with the things that bothered me about social media, and in this second post there will be a list of reasons that I noticed in 2022 and ultimately led to me quitting.

The 2022 reasons:

1. The main justification I had for still using social media was that it was my go-to place for news, political updates and memes. So I worked on getting replacements for those. If I want news, I can get it elsewhere. A lot of dutch newspapers have these 1-5 min episodes that quickly recap the news of te day, so I worked on getting those into my daily routine. I'm still working on the political update-stuff, but I'm sure I'll figure that out soon too. And if I want memes, I can just...google them? Or go on Twitter for 5 mins? Idk, so far I haven't felt any dying need to watch a TikTok.
2. Which brings me to my next point. Yes, I've missed a few trends, but honestly I'm okay with missing out on a few funny memes, TikToks or trends. I had expected to miss it more, but I'm genuinely just fine. I still get entertainment from watching YouTube and movies/tv shows. There's still plenty of laughing in my life.
3. Okay soooo, like I mentioned earlier, I still consume content. It's just on YouTube and Twitch now, which means longer videos (requiring a longer attention span) and way more intentional. Unlike with TikTok and Instagram, the videos don't automatically start playing. There's still a short buffer which gives me more control over what I'm watching. Because I'm the one hitting play and it's a more consious decision.
4. I want to lengthen my attention span, social media is actively doing the opposite of that.
5. I just want to be more productive over all. And I noticed that I could spend the time I'd normally put into social media quite differently. Imagine if you could just magically add a few more hours to your day, you'd do that right? Well, technically you sorta could by quitting just one of the apps.
6. I want to focus more on me, on how I live my life, and less on what other people do and think. I keep comparing myself to other people: "Oh well A works out everyday, drinks a shit ton of green juice and blabla.." I want to work out everyday too, and I'm working towards that goal, I'm just simply not there yet. Other people can be an inspiration, but they can't be another reason for me to dislike myself. This also ties in with the productive-thing, because thinking about other people's opinions is only slowing me down.
7. Social media is aimed to keep you on the app as long as possible (just watch the Social Dilemma on Netflix). It felt like i was fighting this never ending battle of unfollowing people, constantly filtering my timeline. And once it was all filtered, there were the ads and "suggestions". Say that there's a viral video, but I don't follow the person who posted it. I'll still see that post because of Instagram's "suggestions." Not to mention the fact that the algorithm never showed me all the ppl i followed. And when I wanted to see those people's content, often times I had to search those up, bringing me to that damn "discovery page". That was the only place that still sent me into my daily scrolling spiral. Stopping the scrolling takes energy, and pardon my language but fuck all of this, this was just a daily complete waste of my time.
8. I mentioned before (in reason nr. 5) that you could start by quitting just one app. I tried this, and for me the app was TikTok. And while it worked at first, the scroll just migrated once I discovered Instagram reels, rip. Basically, I was still not achieving my goal of stoppig that scroll.
9. Our generation is subconsciously being taught that when you have a 5-10 minute gap, say you're waiting for a coffee or you're on the bus, the only thing you can do is go on your phone. When you look at old people waiting for a bus, they'll take out a book or just sit and enjoy the view or be alone with their thoughts.
10. When I was considering quitting social media, I kept thinking: 'What if i lose friends?' Well, if I need to react to Instagram stories to feel safe in a friendship, those are clearly not friendships I would want to keep anyway. Besides, a lot of my real friends and I don't keep in touch through there anyway.
11. Post or it didn't happen. Emma Chamberlain had a whole podcast episode on it and I see this at A LOT of concerts. It's when people whip out their phones and start recording the entire thing and i'm just thinking, literally what good is it gonna do?? With most artists, you can find a live version online, or with literally all artists all their songs are just online sO GET. OFF. YOUR. PHONE. And pls let's all just be present damn.. When you buy a concert ticket, you're buying an experience, not a photo-op. And yeah, I've been guilty of this as well, but I've stopped doing it a while ago and I've noticed that I'm just much more present and enjoying the moment. Because with some things that I have on film, I look back at it and I mostly remember me desperately trying to get the angle and everything right, and the moment not being as magical on camera as it was in real life anyway. I think I would've loved it more if it was just a good memory, than a poor quality video.
12. Genuinely, all I did was delete a few apps, I'm still the same person, just feeling a bit (or a lot) better about things.
13. In the end, social media is a tool. In my opinion we should use it like one and draw the line where it stops being anything other than a tool.

Wow, you've made it to the end

Damn, I'm so impressed you stuck around all the way 'till the end. Especially since our attention span is currently about the same length as a 1 minute Tiktok-video. Thank you so much for reading all the way through if you did, I genuinely appreciate it. If you want to read part 2 as well, I'll leave a link below. And hopefully this article helped you in any way, or at least entertained you a bit. If you'd like to stay updated whenever I post a new article, you can make sure of that by hitting the "subscribe"-button on the right, filling in your name and email, confirming your email, and then you're all set!