Life w/o social media

I made the decision to stop using social media starting in November of 2024, and put it in action around Christmas.

Mindset

First of all, to break addiction, you have to want to do it. I already hated social media for how much it harms you.. and how blatantly obvious it is. But of course there are multiple factors to me quitting social media that was outside of my hatred for it. I worked in tech for a bit, and when I did, (I'll explain this very very sparingly) essentially, our teams problem was "Our userbases engagement dropped on our app. How do we make them start using it again?" Learning the intricacies of how companies collect data and use it against their userbase to make them more engaged... it really rubbed me the wrong way. My friendgroup at the time had some drama around this time that I wanted to get away from, and this is not the best response, but I chose to run away from it since it stressed me out. Something else that made me way less engaged with social media was deleting all my accounts and starting over. It will make your feed the default feed since they don't know what you like yet. Having that will in turn make social media a whole lot more boring to you.

Remaining Behaviours/Withdrawl

Keeping in touch

When you stop using social media, you will quickly see who really has the *real* drive to talk to you and who doesn't. Who is more of a friend and who is more of an acquaintance who just sends you stuff & replies to your posts. It is really damn odd to know that some people who you thought were great friends- really are more alike to acquaintances. Its kind of alarming how much we let social media dominate our relationships. I do not mean purely talking to someone on there. I mean when your only interactions are because of social media. That you barely exist outside of being someone whos posts the other person wants to see. The most worrying thing to me, is that alot of people highly struggle with communication if it wasn't for social media. Here, I specifically mean that if you never posted anything, there would be no will to start a conversation. It was very nice to even see that change within myself. You start to talk to people one on one and of your own accord, suddenly think of someone and think "I wonder what they are up to." It was such a welcome change to start really talking one on one. But its also extremely sad to see people drift apart because they do not want to put that effort of simply talking to you in.

Detaching from the phone even more

Anything you can do on your phone but text and call, find the alternative. Music? Get an Ipod or carry a portable CD player. Pictures? Get a digi-cam or a cam-corder. Calendar or notes? Carry a notebook or a planner. Clock? Get a watch. Games? Carry a handheld with you! Of course, some of these things are increasingly harder to do, and seem like more shit to lug around. I would certainly get a flipphone if I didnt *need* my encrypted messaging and my local files... and have my banking app on there, and have a huge need to reply to messages from customers quickly. There are probably ways to have those without a smartphone. But I do need the convenience of those- atleast for now. I would love an alternative. There is also the problem that most restaurants want you to scan a QR code. I outright REFUSED to scan those when they first started coming along. So I am aware that most of the real world is digital now. I am aware that you somewhat need a smartphone.

Having no fucking clue what anyone is talking about

I have no clue what the newest meme is or what new stupid drama is around or what the new slang is. And god..... I prefer it. My head feels so CLEAR now. Everyday I used to get drama I don't care about about some new celebrity or whatever shoved down my throat. Its so small but shit like that really takes a toll on your time and working memory. and your mood....