Lately there have been more and more “I gave up being on the Internet for a week” videos, advice on how to limit spending time on social media, information on how the overuse of being in virtual reality affects our ordinary lives. But in all honesty, our generation is now addicted to being here, this is shown for example by the fact that when tiktok was banned for several hours in the United States, it caused chaos and a huge panic among people. Using the Internet is embedded in our daily life like brushing our teeth in the morning. The phone is an extension of our hand. So I think that while we are here, we can at least try to bring something out of using social media on a daily basis. Simply put, make these places places for bursts of creative inspiration.
Remember, the point of the post is not that you can't use social media simply as entertainment. Nor is it that everything you consume must be of great value, bringing something profound to your life, because watching a few videos that do not provide you with knowledge will be a huge waste of time. The point is that scrolling such things on the plaform for 20 minutes will only be a momentary de-stimulation, but scrolling the same things every time you are on social media will affect how your brain works - your concentration, memory and how you perceive the world.
You will have a hard time absorbing longer content formats, such as a two-hour movie, a thirty-minute youtube video, or reading a book in full concentration. You will pay attention to the fact that you will feel that you aren’t getting anything out of it, that you may feel jealous and compare what you see with your life (even though you and another person you follow on Instagram have taken completely different paths, you are at different stages of life and it is impossible for your lives to be identical), to the fact that you will feel not as smart, interesting, pretty, rich, successful as others. It's likely that after a few hours of being on the Internet you won't remember anything anyway, you won't learn, you won't be inspired, you won't develop, you won't motivate yourself to start something. And if you spend so much of your time there, why not use it for better purposes?
As for my use of social media, I spend most of my time on substack, youtube and pinterest, because all of these sites develop my artistic side, allow me to write about my goals, insights, help me create moodboards related to me and my perception of the world, give me a large dose of aesthetic inspiration, but also expand my knowledge. I’m also often on tumblr (for me it works similarly to pinterest) and on instagram. On instagram I publish my posts, and then I look at the profiles of only those people who I really recognize as people who bring something valuable to my life, such as my favorite artists.
In my case, being on tiktok is limited only to publishing a video and responding to comments, I have a large community there that I want to keep in touch with as much as possible, but the app itself doesn’t suit me very well. I know that I easily lose myself in scrolling because of how short the videos are, and it's hard to stop afterwards. As for me, there are much better places from which I can take something for myself.
So what can you do to make sure your time spent on social media is not wasted, at least in some part.
the simplest thing is to check who you are following at all, what emotions these people's content evokes in you, whether you ignore and skip them, whether they make you feel insecure, whether you find them incredibly interesting, fascinating, enjoyable. Since these are YOUR profiles, YOU decide who appears on them. You don't have to watch someone because it's supposedly the right thing to do, because they're popular and you'll “lose” something by not keeping up to date because everyone is talking about someone. Believe, you'll gain the most if you don't go on social media with the feeling that you're about to feel worse again, but with the feeling that you're about to see something that will spark your imagination, get you out of bed to do something or make you feel that there are people who think like you.
only follow artists who have impressed you - illustrators, photographers, painters, graphic designers, they don't have to be just from your art subject area, they can create things that are far from your vision, but those creative works that are more distant, more unknown to you, can really be a new, fresh inspiration. Look for people who are niche, who are not so popular, see what they have to offer.
if you want to learn a language, follow people for whom it's their native language (so you'll be in touch with this daily) and of course have content of interest to you, or people who want to popularize this language, so you'll immediately have new mini lessons everyday as soon as you enter the profile. If you're going to be on Instagram anyway, why not immediately be flooded with new vocabulary? I on my private profile watch a lot of people from France, because I would like to learn French but also live there for a while, so this is so valuable to me.
block or hide content that could distract you - by this I mean any gossip, lifestyle that won't convey value to you, content that causes you anxiety, stress. Make it a space that bombards you with inspiring content.
refresh your algorithm - for next seven days just like, save and comment only content you consider as fascinating/
instead of pointlessly scrolling, just stop. Our problem is that we get bored with content too quickly, we don't manage to fully experience it, and we are already trying to consume more and more. Because of this, we don't take anything away from the content we see, because we see it for a minute and move on. If something strikes your fancy, think about what you liked, how the post makes you feel, what it evokes in you, what emotions?
change the way you use social media - less passive scrolling, more activity, comment on your favorite posts, get into discussions with other creators, save posts, write in your journal or app notes when you find something interesting. Try to take something bigger from this dose of knowledge.
treat social media as a tool. Ask yourself - What do I look for from the platform I'm on? Is what you see, watch, read, listen to exactly what you wanted to find here? Does it meet your expectations?
change the way you think about social media - instead of treating instagram as a “place to watch,” treat it as a digital sketchbook, a library of your dream ideas, take advantage of the potential of substack and how much knowledge people give you, try to read at least 2 good essays while you're here everyday.
create your own weekly inspiration lists - at the end of the week, simply write in your journal about the best articles you've read, what video you found that sparked your curiosity, what brilliant things you saw on instagram. Remember that these amazing things will flee from your memory, they will be replaced by new ones, and yet you can save them and then return to them.
turn your ordinary use of social media into a creative ritual - instead of browsing it at random times, create a unique time for inspiration that you associate with it. This will be that special moment for you. I, for example, really like to browse social media after eating breakfast before I go on to create my own stuff.
everyday try to find at least ONE THING on social media that you can use in your own creative projects, it could be a word that will be the theme of your poem, a sentence that you will add to your book, colors that will be the leading colors in your new painting.
use pinterest and create boards there related to what you would like to learn about, what you would like to try, what you would like your life to look like. I am currently “cleaning up” my pinterest a bit, and I plan to make each new board dedicated to the following months to remember which things I thought were beautiful at the time.
similarly, you can use tumblr, believe me, there is a lot of great content there, people share their poetry, thoughts from their diaries, reflections written at 3 a.m. during a sleepless night.
youtube is literally a library of free knowledge on any topic you can think of, people record there about their often little-known passions, so you can show them that you share them or learn something new, besides, many people record video essays on really brilliant topics. It seems to me that this will give you much more than five seconds of tiktok about nothing.
instagram, your visual diary.
a) create highlights with moodboards from your day (it will literally help you see the uniqueness in the smallest things), create your inspiration journal there, add photos with short reflections from the whole day, add storytelling - in addition to the photos themselves, write stories about how they were created, create an 'instagram zine' - treat your account like a digital art magazine, publish posts in a specific layout, like pages in a book.
tiktok challenge: don't scroll for 30 seconds.
a) start each day by writing down one tiktok as an inspiration and coming up with an alternative version to it, record a 5-second video every day from yourr day and edit it into a weekly mini-movie about your life, create your own short stories in 3 tiktoks, where the first video is the introduction, the second the development, the third the ending, just be a director, actor, script writer, sound designer, costume designer all in one.
treat substack a little like reading books.
a) subscribe to those blogs that really fascinate you. If you subscribe to 200 different ones, you probably won't get through most of the new essays. And that's the point here, to actually read them.
b) instead of scrolling all over the substack, see what essays you have saved, go back and read them. I have the impression that we all have 50 articles saved, let's devote some time to each of them.
c) find substacks that help you think deeper.
d) you can review in your diary these essays, a bit like you review books, write what you would change, what you would add, what you liked, what you disagree with, how it helped you, what emotions it aroused.
e) highlight sentences that change something in you, treat reading as an active activity, pick the 3 most important things from each essay, instead of scanning the text unreflectively.
f) based on what you've read, create in your jorunal (or somewhere else) categories with best quotes, ideas for your own articles, topics to explore.
Check what portals and apps you have an account on, think about which ones you need and which ones just take up your time and give you absolutely nothing - you're just there because others are there and you don't want to “miss” something. You will get the most out of your real life anyway.
I've been absent for a while, but I have a lot of creative projects I'm trying to complete! I have taken up writing more seriously, but Substack is still a place I want to come back to. Find me on tiktok, instagram, pinterest and tumblr.
(I'm currently cleaning up the chaos on pinterest, but it will be really cool soon, I promise!)
