Quitting Social Media- A Personal Story

Think about your childhood, life was so carefree and everyday was an adventure. Besides the occasional test or two at school everything was wonderful and the world was your playground. Life was so incredibly simple yet a simple place such as a backyard could transform to a whole new world.  At one point in time my backyard was the jungle and I trekked between the trees in search of treasure buried in the deep forest. My front yard was a bicycle yard and my siblings and I rode up and down the mountains which in realty was the slope of my street as well as my neighbors’ driveways. The front yard also was a baseball diamond allowing my siblings and I to hit home runs and play baseball on the front yard. The pool was the greatest place to be and my siblings and I would swim in the deep ocean being very careful to not awaken the great and mighty shark who lived in the deep end of the pools abyss. Fast forward to where we are now and instead of being driven by our imaginations and the world of make believe we are driven by the fake world of social media. It is incredibly sad that instead of children growing and learning through their senses like I did they are glued to an Ipad or some sort of device electronic device.

While I love the fact that the internet brings me quick information when it comes to schooling it has created an environment where as I mentioned in another post we are only on it to show “how great our lives are” when actuality people are struggling on a daily basis with their own self-esteem and stress of life. It is a false reality which constantly causes us to compare ourselves to others. This can cause a situation where people are subconsciously competing with one another and the competing can be deadly emotionally if we are not in that stage of life.  Things which are meant to be enjoyed in the moment are now done on a daily basis. While a simple food photo never hurt anyone 20 years ago we didn’t take pictures of our food, we simple ate it. This then begs the question why should we be sharing aspects our what we do in our daily lives? Where has our sense of privacy gone? We live in a world were we constantly want to be seen and want to feel important so perhaps this is why we share aspects of our daily lives but at the end of the day while people may like these posts they may not actually care. Maybe that is just my opinion personally but after a hard day at work all I care about is my family and not what one of my friends ate for lunch. I don’t mean for this post to offend anyone and I apologize if it does but I am simple trying to prove the point that it should not be overtaking and controlling our lives. We live in a society which is addicted to social media.

I honestly am one of those people who did compare themselves to others and have done so in the past. Social media was something which was a constant which I thought was cool to connect with others but actually became an addition and actually made me feel worse about myself although I have a lot going for me in my life. With that being said I make a conscious decision to get rid social media of it to live a more meaningful life. I now live more in the moment, connect more with family and friends, as well as to get back into the things I love which allow me to use my imagination. About two weeks ago I cold turkey quit social media and have not been on since.  While I have not deleted my accounts completely I have not gone on and don’t have the desire to do so.  I am trying to work on myself and what brings me joy in life and the elimination of social media has helped that tremendously. I am more at peace with myself and am finding more joy in everyday experiences. The next time you are thinking about going on a social media site think to yourself if you really need to do it or if you can find joy in the day without the need to find it in the social media