Deleting Social Media

16:34


It's been absolutely chucking it down with rain all day, and this afternoon I really wanted to get out, so my Mum and I went for a quick lunch. Our meals arrived, and mine looked super pretty that I knew I just had to take a photograph, and then I realised something. I deactivated my Facebook account earlier on in the day and deleted the Instagram app from my phone, so I had absolutely nowhere to post this picture of my food!

Now, I know this is the epitome of every millennial's first world struggles, but it really got me thinking. 

Why do we need to take share a photo of something to prove that we did it? I always used to joke with my friends and say, "If you don't take a photo of your food, did you really eat it?, but you can really take this into any element of life though. Whether that's the obligatory airport check in, the "look who I bumped into" selfie with that friend you haven't seen in a long time, or even making your relationship status "Facebook official". 

Does anyone really care though? I know I don't, reaaaally. Think about it this way; when you're scrolling through your socials, do you really take the time to properly read through someones status before liking it, for example? Most people, including me, just skim through their feed liking things here and there and often only liking things to get the attention of other people.

Why? What's happened to real life communication? Have we lost the ability to socialise in person? 

Social media has changed SO much in recent years and we've grown to become almost dependant on it - it gives us instant gratification. We hear the ding of a notification or a message, and even if we're busy with a group of people we have to know what's going on, and I for one, will have this nagging voice in the back of my mind willing me to check, when I know deep down I should be present with the company I am with.

I deleted the Facebook and Instagram apps off my phone yesterday - the Instagram one was easy, but I knew Facebook would be a much tougher challenge. After doing this, I picked up on the fact that I kept going to check my Facebook, only to realise that it had gone, and I'll admit, I'm still repeating this even now. I have this habit of "quickly" checking Facebook when I've got a spare moment, and it's going to be hard to get out of the habit because of how deeply ingrained it is. This morning, after not checking my Facebook at all last night on a web browser, I went to see if anything had changed.

I had ONE notification!

It made me realise that nothing actually happens between each check of my socials...okay...nothing might be an exaggeration but barely anything of any worth happens anyways, you know what I mean! With this in mind I just made the decision to deactivate my Facebook. I'm not saying that it's going to be a permanent thing, but I'm going to try a week to start off with. I want to learn how to be more disciplined with my consumption of social media and consequently learn how to be more productive in other areas and see how I get on.

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