My Fall term of college was very difficult. When my Winter break was drawing to a close I decided to change many aspects of my life, including the amount of time I spent on social media. One of my addictions was Snapchat. I realized that Snapchat was an incredibly huge stressor in my life. Rather than focusing on the present, I was constantly aiming to capture moments on my phone. Instead of listening to my professor’s in class, I opted to scroll through my friends and mere acquaintances stories. Additionally, my 158 day snap streak was a looming presence.
When looking at Snapchat I realized I always felt like I was missing out, not just at UO, but from experiences my friends from other schools were having as well. FOMO was a daily, nagging feeling. My first two weeks without Snapchat was really strange. I kept opening my phone check the app, my friends questioned why I didn’t respond, and I kept thinking of moments that would be great to share on my story. Instead, I opted to use my actual camera to take photos and videos that lasted more than 10 seconds. Slowly, my habits of going to open the app, snapchatting in class, and my obsession with only temporarily capturing moments faded away. Without this distraction, I didn’t have an additional pressure to share a quality image of my life with my friends and others. Alternatively, I focused on just being myself, rather than being my own PR agent.
My take away from this three month hiatus is that social media can be real, but often times moments are be posed, forced, or just exaggerations. The party probably wasn’t at #lit as it appeared, that amazing brunch date probably cost more than your data bill, and that beach day may have been incredibly boring. Technology and the ability to instantly share is an amazing advancement in our society, but sometimes we abuse these tools to create unnecessary competitions and boundaries for ourselves and between our peers. Snapchat and social media should be fun and no one is required to participate and have a presence just because everyone else is.
I redownloaded Snapchat, but I deleted many of my contacts so I am only following close friends and those I am genuinely interested in catching up with. Social media is designed to be meaningful way to connect with those you care for and a platform to comfortably express yourself. I encourage everyone to be mindful of their mood after you use Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media. If you end up feeling annoyed and upset more times than not, it may be time to reevaluate who you’re following, your approach toward social media, or maybe just cut it out all together, even if it’s temporary.