The lessons from my early 2020s blogs on quitting social media before it became a mainstream conversation.
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Questions
Have you ever been sick after being online? Has your screen time increased constantly as the years went on? Or, have you been “doom scrolling” for an unthinkable amount of time without realizing it? You think someone is talking about you subliminally? Ooh, I know! You feel depressed when someone unfollows you or doesn’t engage enough on your posts, don’t you?
Answers
It’s ok. Since the early 2000s, social media has become a place folks divest an unhealthy amount of time. Facebook, MySpace, and old school forums such as Reddit have been a cesspool of society. From desktops to laptops, tablets, and now phones, it’s optimized into any device we can control to be fully functional for daily use.
Communication has become less about physical connection, but more about instant gratification. Bonding is through doing goofy dances while recording yourself instead of having people film you and your buddies being in the moment so they can reflect and receive a different type of hormonal release from reminiscing. Listening has been one of the six senses affected severely because unless the message is entertaining, the party involved might not care or misperceive what is said.
I myself love when I post a rare pic on Instagram (the only social media I have, besides LinkedIn, as that is for professional services, while IG is more casual), and I reach good numbers on there. We take unfollows as if that person isn’t your friend anymore, when that generally might not be the case. I know quite a lot of people lately that have unfollowed me, and if I like a story, post, or comment, they re-add me. Then, they’re surprised that they had me unfollowed.
Personally, if you have my phone number and neither of us are blocked, then there is no issue. I truly believe the Meta system causes glitches to certain profiles to create a divide or ruin their metrics.
Post COVID
YouTube is generally an online video-sharing platform. I remember being on YouTube when Dailymotion, Limewire, and other earlier sites of that genre were out. What YouTube did was have a better interface, presentation, and the ability to comment on others, as it was a forum, except you can reply to people off a video!
Original content seemed genuine, but as the link I shared above, it’s considered “dead” because it’s lacking that. At first, I was thinking too literally about it. I declared that we need stats, but I’ve come to realize sometimes your gut will tell you the truth about things, and the YouTube I know is dead because it was chasing trends of TikTok and others following suit.
This made me realize a few years later. Everything is trending to being more social media-driven. Even Medium with the new repost feature. Which makes sense, as it was founded by the creator of Twitter, but hopefully Medium keeps most of the essence I remember it had in 2015. Straying too far into trends can lead to a devolution in substance. Leading to formulaic blogs about passive income, this industry is failing, blah, blah, blah…
The internet has always been a dark place. We got people scamming, lying about what they’re actually doing, but a lot of anonymous users that comment on the platforms they’re on are unfortunately shallow as well without realizing it, and social media drives ego, narcissism, and leaves people to comment unnecessary words that they wouldn’t say in person.
Energy never goes. It’s replaced, dispersed, or regathered. Only if folks on social media know it’s the main fuel of connection that links humans to do the things we do. If one person says something negative about a reel, then guess what? Others agree with that sentiment and will pile on the user who made it. Usually, when that happens, the video doesn’t warrant the vast criticism, but because it’s online, context clues are off: gesticulations, tonality, etc.
Usage
As I previously stated, I only use one, and I hardly use that. Just to see how my FRIENDS in the past are doing and have people reach me if they don’t have my number. Even then, I’ll go MIA off the platform. Deleting TikTok wasn’t easy, as I was using it to cross-platform promote my content. But it was leading me to watch lives and waste time. Even sleep was reduced for me, with staying in bed messing up my REM cycle. On average, I was on those apps for a few hours a day. Now I don’t have the app on my home screen to prevent constant access.
Offline Will Be The New Way: I Guarantee That
This is a hyperbolic statement to a lot, but I love saying stuff like this because having the foresight to see things and act on it isn’t easy. Not always going to be right, but when I’m right, I’m happy because I know I did my due diligence through observations, analysis, and intuition.
Re-reading these made me remember why it’s important to write down your thoughts and opinions. You’ll keep it in your psyche longer. Also, you will realize things about the present that will allow you to circumnavigate the BS later than others. Mobile apps have utilized the UI of TikTok, and Facebook, and even dating apps are impacted by it. It’s all about presentation and that person’s style that people care about. If it looks good, great. If it doesn’t? Why care, or even worse, be cruel about it.
Lately, celebrities have been saying they are using their managers to run the social media accounts and do not engage with fans. That’s smart imo. Why get overstimulated responding to so many people and getting so many notifications about everything related to the posts? My mom and I were talking a few weeks ago, and we mentioned how, as humans, it’s not emotionally healthy to connect with TOO MANY people. We’re not supposed to know everyone, or be in contact with a lot of people in the way social media allows it. The mind and hormones just can’t handle it.
But, due to the sad reality that celebrities are still being worshipped in 2026, the vast majority will keep hearing stories from actors such as Millie Bobby Brown’s. Her experience about quitting social media will try to implement this method almost a decade later, when it's kind of too late. I'd rather get ahead of something than do it when others are, but that’s just me.
What You Should Read to Help?
These are my articles that referenced my history with social media. Hopefully everyone who comes across these pieces takes the time to contemplate a little more on what they’re consuming and how it’s affecting their lives. It’s got a lot of stuff that I think people can relate to. I’m in my late 20s now; I can say while I wish I was allowed to have social media at 16 to get a head start on how to navigate the platforms, I can’t say I still wouldn’t be on this type of time. I would just have 2–3 times the followers I do now lol.
Peace!