Life’s A Trap – An Introduction

For the last 48 hours I’ve been incessantly thinking about starting this blog/journal to record my evolution, or regression, as a social human being after taking a break from social media. It may get preachy at times, but at the end of the day, this blogs sole purpose is to record the difficulties and changes I experience from kicking the habit.

After finding myself mindlessly doom scrolling through various social media platforms for somewhere around the six hour mark, I realized I no longer feel like a human, at least not one I am proud to be. The layers of toxicity of social media far outweigh the positive aspects of it all, in my humble opinion. Now, I realize if anyone is reading this, you could simply think to yourself, “but isn’t this just another form of social media?” and I would be forced to say yes. However, after much thought, I’ve decided to move forward with recording the next “x” amount of days post social media deletion. My rationale is that not all aspects of social media are evil, and I would hate to lose the ability to share my thoughts, ideas, creations, memories, etc etc… with friends and family who care to see it– You know, the original intent of the social media giants. That’s what this blog is for.

Now, the obvious evil of social media is the endless time sink that is Reelz, Shorts, TikTok’s and whatever else you hip kids call them. Those 30 second videos that have rewired our brains to crave instant gratification without even realizing we just watched an hour of mindless garbage. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve literally spent switching from Facebook to Instagram and then back to Facebook to see if anything else had changed in the few minutes I was on the latter platform. It makes me sick to think about. Beyond the Reels, I found myself faced with a lot of scrolling in the comments looking for negative responses and the replies that combat those. What an absolutely horrid way to live. Luckily, for me, I was never too addicted to Marketplace and I’ve never compared myself physically to others based on social media platforms, but it’s an obvious issue for some. I’m not here to ask others to quit, I’m just pointing out a few other obvious reasons it’s toxic.

The good aspects of social media, of course, are keeping up with friends and family, getting invited to events, staying relevant in people’s lives, and buying and selling goods. Unfortunately, this is going to be the most difficult part of giving up all the socials…or so I think. I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks.

The more I thought about the time sink, the more I started thinking about how it negatively impacts my life. I realized I couldn’t take a piss without reaching in my pocket to open my phone. It became the first thing I did when I woke up and the last thing I did before going to bed. I realized it was a sickness, for real. A sickness most of us suffer from and seemingly, most don’t know or care. The biggest thing for me, however, was that I began losing sight of the reasons I do what I do. If I am off doing some sort of activity, how much of that is out of the love of the activity vs to show people? Was it 50/50? Was it 60/40? I have always enjoyed taking pictures of what I am doing and I can honestly say, I do regularly go back on my hard drive and look at photos I’ve taken and enjoy the memories, but the past few years of pictures haven’t been take one picture to go back and look at fondly one day, but rather take five or six of the same shot to ensure I’ve got one good enough for social media. As I watch my friends stories and photos, I know I am not alone. I see you all sharing the books you’ve read, the hikes you’ve done, the movies you’ve watched, etc etc… The things that should be for your own enjoyment.. but hey, I guess we’re all out here just chasing that dopamine hit when someone “likes” what we’re doing.

As of right now, I have a deactivated Facebook, but kept messenger, for now. I have a Reddit that we’re going to keep a close eye on before deleting. I have an active Instagram, as of now. I may include a link to this journal on my Instagram page, but delete the app off my phone, as Instagram isn’t very conducive to a web browser. I do want to share this page with friends, I just want to ensure that I’m not doing it for the likes and dopamine hits. I want to ensure I am doing it for the love of writing and the idea that maybe it’ll inspire others to try to kick the same addiction that they may or may not realize they have. More than anything, it’s for me to keep a record.

I will update soon. Wish me luck.

Edit: Upon trying to publish this post, WordPress gave me a pop up to include a bunch of “tags” to generate more traffic and share with strangers. Stay vigilant, friends. Wild.