Quitting social media can be really relieving

[noname223]

I think there were similar posts in the past. But I feel better after boycotting many social media platforms. For me Instagram is the worst. I despise the artificial happiness and claimed perfection. It can be so unhealthy to visit this website very often. Many people turn anorexic and depressed from it. I have used it for a short time and I hate to compare myself with all these people who pretend their life was perfect. I think being an influencer on instagram could me make even way more suicidal. On these pictures you always have to smile and act as if there were no sorrows in your life. This is so toxic. Everything is so superficial as if you could express your life only with selfies. There is something deeper inside myself which needs to be nourished. If I don't address that something dies inside myself. Or at least it protests. Then my archaic instincts take control over myself. This sounds somewhat overdramatic. But this basically happened when I developed my psychosis. Comparing myself to healthy neurotypicals just makes me pretty unhappy. I try to accept that I struggle but sometimes it really hurts not to have a normal life...

There are many other toxic platforms. I hate Facebook. I hate Zuckerberg, the censorship on Facebook is ridiculous. They ban you if you state that you want assisted suicide. It is a joke. Facebook is a data leech which is poison for our societal cohesion. I am glad there are barely any young user on this platform. But the other platforms might be even worse...

Twitter can also be so toxic. The echo chambers are so insane there. There is so much hatred, resentfulness and bullying on it. At least they censor less which I consider an important value. But the discussions on there is culture war 24/7. The posts with the most likes are often aggressive, exaggerated or controversial. Nuanced discussions are barely possible.

The best social media platform is in my opinion Youtube but only if you are not one of the creators. Being a creator on Youtube can also be very exhaustive and painful. The best thing on youtube is the following in my opinion: it enhanced the experience of watching content a lot. When everyone watched TV there were like 40 or let's say 200 channels. You were forced to plan your schedule exactly to follow interesting content. The content which is really interesting is often not made for the mainstream. In our particular and special interests were are pretty different. It is difficult to adress a large audience with this special interest if you only have 200 channels. There are so many niches on youtube. It can have a very good educational purpose. Though I disike many mainstream content on youtube. There is also a lot of bullshit.

What are your thoughts on social media? Do you have similar experiences that qutting it can be relieving?

 

[Sakura94]

It's horrible. I honestly fear all those "likes" will be turned into some form of currency soon and then it will be hell on earth. And those who don't participate in the cultural showdowns will be left poorer for it.
I know that sounds schizo but I can't envision where it won't be turned into cold cash at some point. The attentional economy demands it.

 

[Smart No More]

Social media is so geared towards fakeness it's worse than the cliques that used to be and only serves feed and worsten that mentality whilst also perpetuating it further. I don't think there has ever been as many narcissists in the world as there is right now. Social media breeds them from a young age alongside victims of narcissism. It's the last thing humanity could do with right now!

 

[Tristan]

I can live without FB but i do have the message active, but love Instagram and telegram.

 

[DeepSlumber]

It's horrible. I honestly fear all those "likes" will be turned into some form of currency soon and then it will be hell on earth. And those who don't participate in the cultural showdowns will be left poorer for it.
I know that sounds schizo but I can't envision where it won't be turned into cold cash at some point. The attentional economy demands it.

Truly a viable concept for a dystopian story. I fear it's already happened.

 

[onlyanimalsaregood]

I deleted all my social media accounts about 2 weeks ago and I'm feeling better

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

I only have an FB page. And I only made one because I needed it to join some business thing online. Then people from my high school started finding me and adding me. After a few pleasantries that died down and now it's a ghost town. I have 1 pic of me and no comments or anything, lol.

I haven't gotten to know anyone outside of a few girlfriends since then (20 years) so I don't know what I would even use social media for. I have no idea how people have or form all these connections with others. Although to be fair I'm like an Uber-schizoid.

 

[Ethereal Knight]

yes it was relieving for me too, to delete it.

but I've been so lonely and socially isolated these recent years, that I created a profile on facebook just so people that don't have my number can find me. it's been almost 3 months since I did it and still not a single message or friend request, I didn't find anyone I know too because nowadays I don't have any friends in real life (so it was expected that I wouldn't have friends on a social network too).

so... it's not helping me to meet new people.

there's tinder and happn, but people are there just to bang each other and nothing more, so they don't help at all.

there's patook, a social network designed to make friends, but nobody uses it lol.

discord is a joke, there's almost only young people talking shit.

trying to use the internet to meet new people is apparently useless in my recent experience.

maybe I'd be better just trying to get used to being socially isolated.

the only reason I haven't deleted my fb profile yet is because i still have hope that one day a person that wants to find me can do it easily, or I find them through FB, without us having each other's numbers.
it's not that I can't talk to people in real life, I can. but I'm fairly shy and other people can be shy too, so in the end a lot of people use the internet to approach someone that they feel too awkward to approach IRL.

loneliness hurts me a lot, but apparently, for a long time, life has been trying to tell me that "lonely" is how I am supposed to be...

 

[Foresight]

I actually love Instagram. I only go on once or twice a week but I'm exclusively following people with disfigurements, deformities, skin conditions, etc. and there's a little community of people lifting each other up and sharing their experiences. It's not toxic, it's real and people share their ups and downs.

I think scrolling habits and social media messes with your brain. I've been doing digital detoxes on and off and it really helps to let it go.

 

[Feeding Pigeons]

I love not using social media and only browsing websites with userbases consisting of antisocial lunatics.

 

[divine4u2b]

I deleted all my social media accounts about 2 weeks ago and I'm feeling better

I am considering doing this same. I have no time anymore when a phone is in my hand.

 

[onlyanimalsaregood]

I am considering doing this same. I have no time anymore when a phone is in my hand.

I think you should :) I was always on social networks and honestly now I don't even miss it

 

[Tristan]

It sure feels good to break the chains of social media, the first few days I felt like a junkie looking for drugs, like i would wake up and go straight to FB, then I realized »ph I deleted it». I never had telegram. Have insta just not to lose my photos but dont use it either. Only use FB messenger abd Zap. So I can talk with the few friends I have. Social media make us feel bad about ourselves, because everything and everyone is so perfect. And then I look at myself and would need lots os make up and perfect lighting to look like them.

 

[hamvil]

years ago a self-banned myself from facebook because I did not like how I was becoming. then after I while I joined twitter mostly as a way to further disseminate the results of my work. In fact initially it was from a sort of institutional account. This made me lower my guard to the point of creating a personal profile. I started posting and little by little i become more and more toxic. I did not realise that change at all and I had nobody around me to make me notice that. Well that is not totally true, in retrospective i have got some messages from some people trying to making me notice I was out of line. Then one day I was stressed, pissed of at the world and one comment to a post made me lose it. I answer with post full of hatespeech. That was caught by my employer and that was it.

Social for me are not good, i react to them in the same way other people react to alcohol or drugs. Even a few days ago I created several fake profile on twitter to keep posting hateful posts. I got banned three times and now I stopped. Not sure if what I posted will have legal consequences. I really do not know why it is so easy to trigger my anger. Maybe I just want to self sabotage myself to the point I have no other way than to kill myself.