Why I quit Social Media

If you follow me on Instagram you might have noticed a pronounced silence from my part.

I have taken sabbatical from social media before specially during lent where in case you don’t know much of the Christian Catholic religion we offer something up as a sacrifice for 40 days like Jesus that went to the dessert for 40 days before He died on the cross. Normally we give up something that has gotten ahold of our soul and heart, like an addiction, something we feel drawn to and can’t survive with out. A lot of people give up coffee, chocolate, sugar, social media, tv, or more spiritual things like gossiping, complaining, etc and we in exchange do something to grow our faith or person instead, like praying, reading spiritual books, excercising, volunteering, and so on.

The dragged out point is that deep down I knew social media had a strong hold over me, it has become some sort of an addiction. I find myself unable to sit down with my thoughts while I wait at the table or in the car while i’m parked or while in line for something without reaching for my phone or checking Facebook or my favorite: Instagram.

I kept telling myself that it is ok, I only follow people to inspire me or like to see pictures of cottages and cups of coffee, or keep up with what friends are doing.

But I actually noticed I ended up wasting minutes if not hours that “just flew by”, also wanting to “space out” for a bit kind of like exiting my life into a parallel reality. I also noticed I was feeling more short tempered and quick to anger, I was sometimes actually annoyed at getting interrupted, or feeling the need almost with anxiety like symptoms check if there was anything new I was missing out on. It was also stealing my peace with the hate and aggression shown to me and fulling feelings of righteousness and pride leading me to judge others for their opinions and beliefs causing me to want to end friendships and oppened my eyes to the division in family ties. I also noticed greed creeping in and jealosy when I would see friend’s in their cool vacations or the dream homes I pine for. It also lead me to tip toe in the dangerous dance with vanity not just the typical sense of vanity of cute selfies but in the sense of wanting to shrink back and not share my beliefs and oppinions because I was afraid of what others might think of me or say of me and over analizing what people might be thinking of me. It also tempted me to get things I don’t actually need, you know like when you say you like something and facebook automatically bombards you with adds (sometimes you just have to think about it and it just shows up like they can read your mind lol or so it feels).

As you can tell by now I have been pondering on this and I have become more aware of it for a while. Like I said, it has become heavy on my heart. But I never knew how heavy until my little one got ahold of a calculator and began calling it “her phone” and playing like “mommy and daddy on their phones” or “I am going to share this to my facebook” talk about eye oppening! I guess that is all she sees and is absorbing and it made me question “do I want her to remember me glued to my phone?” Do I want to train her mind to think of facebook like unconscious training?”… so for our family get away we decided to give up social media completelly.

It was quite a fascinating experiment. I actually went though withdrawl symptoms! yes, you heard me (or read me lol) I had a massive head ache after, racing heart, the feeling of something is not ok- something was missing, and I kept grabbing my phone and looking at it or pulling it out of my purse.

How ever the next day I felt a massive wave of peace, almost like I was flying in a cloud, the invisible pressure off me like a backpack full of rocks laid at my feet, I was happier, less worried, less annoyed and judgy of things and people (mind you this is written right before the elections 2020) I felt content and present, I had more meaningful conversations and laughed with my loved ones, I came up with fun things to do and was fully present for the sake of being with them and not for sharing after as content, it was awesome.

But once we came back so did the phone and social media, just like before, but this time I was actually more aware kind of like continuing the experiment since my eyes we actually open. I wondered what will happen now? will I notice a difference? and the answer was yes I did, and right away actually.

But then the conundrum presented itself, I knew my suspicions were valid and I had (and actually wanted) to quit but I didnt want to stop for good, I kept telling myself “I am inspiring people, I am making a difference, etc” (funny enough my confirmation came at church today in the 1st reading the book of Ecclesiastes 1;2-11 go google it if you are curious lol). But then again I do like to write and quite enjoy it, I do like feeling like the tips I shared were practical and could help others, and like I could inspire someone. I also liked reading what other people wrote.

So with careful consideration I have decided to quit for good, well kid of, I will no longer be active on Instagram or Facebook (I quit twitter a long time ago) I will only be active on my flower page on facebook because it is my only advertsement along with word of mouth, and I will instead move my writing and what we are up along with some of our shenanigans to to this blog.

I will satisfy my need for inspiration by reading more from others blogs, wich I have found to be quite a challenge actually,I guess it is a good thing since it will keep me off my phone in annoyance, because the amount of advertisements thrown in my face makes it hard to actually read the blog having to skip, close, pirouette around the adds to keep reading (that is not if I don’t quit and just close it) I get it bloggers make money from adds or your stuck with them like here on my page if I want to use Blogger for free (hence why I oppened the patreon page hoping to raise funds to make it add free, if you feel compelled to join the cause it’s just 1$ a month and hopefully I’ll raise enough for an add free page) and in the mean time I apologize for the adds and won’t be adding more (other than associate links they are less aggressive towards out attention) and if you are a blogger that puts them on purpose pleeeeeease I beg you think of your readers.

Back to my point, yes, no longer on social media… which interesting enough I was recommended to watch this 2 videos I’m linking from Youtube that were made from a ex employee from Google and he talks of the dangers of algorithms and what they are doing to our brain (quite fascinating) he does have a documentary called “the social dilema” with people that were major players in creating things for facebook like the like button, instagram, twitter, etc and how dangerous it is for us. I have not watched the doumentary yet (it’s on Netflix and I am boycotting them because of their movie Cuties where they exploit minors) but it does sound interesting from the snippets of the documentary in this video (if you have watched it let me know your thoughts on it) but the videos I am linking below are super interesting and it is him talking about this stuff, let’s just say it confirms my suspicions of addiction, polarization in our society, depression, etc.

Video 1 super good all the way until the last 10 mins

Video 2 (more an add for the documentary but the info shared it’s eye oppening and frankly quite scary)

So, there you have it… why this blog might change a bit and why crickets will be hopefully chirping on my social media accounts. And if you need to get ahold of me you know how and feel free to comment on my blog and keep the online friendship going or start one! I do check my comments regularly

Luz

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