Have you ever felt bad after seeing something on other person’s profile? Have you ever observed your friends getting out and noticed that everyone is on their cellphone? Have you ever stop to think about it? About your relations? About your priorities? Our generation is increasingly dependent of the technology. In a globalized communication world is hard to stay away from the internet and we became hostage of social media without noticing that. The feeling of miss something is frequent as well as the pressure for everyone to be online all the time. Therefore, to update pages become an automatic movement, to stalk, to post… What if you just don’t? What if you choose to stay out of this environment? Milena Belo, who stayed two years away from Facebook, have an answer “If you really want something, nothing is impossible to make it happen”. Some other girls followed the same idea and reported their experiences during this period.
The most common reasons for girls opting to disconnect was to focus on themselves. It is tiring to be available to everyone all the time. Social media tends to affect our self-esteem and, in the most serious cases, it provokes anxiety crises. Consequently, to be away from social media can be a therapy. Amanda Lucas, who stopped using Facebook and WhatsApp, informed to feel better not stalking others, but focusing on her “It is preventive, once the other’s things can affect me”. There are a lot of ways for you to be disconnect. Daniela Arrais preferred to supply one social media for other: Snapchat for Instagram and Twitter for Facebook and Júlia Pereira, who left Twitter, recommended to exclude only a social media or a few of them, for you to keep updated. On the other hand, Ana Carolina Navarro considered the idea of excluding the account very extreme, so she chose to block her access during the day. It doesn’t matter how it is done, but the result, as Andressa Oliveira, who dropped Facebook and Instagram, revealed, is relieving “I see everything with more lightness and not as a social obligation”.
Social medias are an entertainment and informing network for sure, but we need to be careful, the exposure, we allow ourselves to be, is dangerous and hard to control. We never know who is behind the screen and, even knowing that, we share things not only with our friends, but people we don’t know well, that we are just friends in the social media, which Isabella Lopez fears “specially for being a woman”. For this reason, many times, people are rude, chauvinist, homophobic, violent and disseminate their prejudices, because they feel safe behind a screen. Social media transforms into a discussion and fight stage. However, we continue to demand ourselves to be present in all the social medias and always alert. All this bad stuffs we see brings a terrible energy “When you stop to think, you are having a bad day for the amount of this type of information that you absorbed” concluded Luiza Iaconelli, who didn’t use Facebook for a while.
Much more than a simple addiction, some people use social media looking for acceptance and only feel empty, but Giulia Lima, who is not using Facebook and Instagram, remembered that there is always a part of us we don’t want anyone else to see and alerted that people create an image of themselves for others to see that don’t match with the reality. Some girls needed a time away, knowing themselves better, to notice that their self-esteem didn’t depend on that, because social media condemn us to think that something is wrong with us. Therefore, there are pros and cons of using the internet: the facility and amplitude of the news in one side, but the exaggerated exposure on the other. We just need to be aware of it, to see social media as Mariana Chiarelli “A complement to our lives, not a stimulus to do things”, maybe to do as Giovanna Angeloci and filter better what she follows in social medias.
You have to be happy independently of that. It can’t be a reason, but a detail. The important thing is to enjoy life and Rafaella Piragini, away from Snapchat, knows it well “I don’t need to expose my life to, in fact, live”. Nathalia Fagotti complemented that there are things that must stay with you and things that can be shown. Life is much more than we share or see on screens and sometimes it is necessary a detox process to reflect about that. Giuliana Gadini did this and, after giving up Instagram and WhatsApp is using Facebook less “Most of the time is a superficial thing and obligates you to be aware of everything that is going on, even when it is irrelevant to you”. Giulia Lima, already mentioned, emphasized “I don’t feel like I lost something, people that lost me”. Over time, according to these girls, to stay away from social media become something natural and peaceful and you see that everything is smaller in reality than it seems online.
Most of the them recommend that people do this, Bruna Caratti informed that it taught her to look around when she is on the street, subway buss… to enjoy every moment and to be more observer, but they highlighted that people need to have a self-desire of excluding their accounts, it doesn’t work if it is a recommendation. Jennifer Lee, who dropped all the social medias, promised you will have more freedom “but I can’t guarantee to be happier as well”. Never the less, you can use the time that you would be in social media to do something that makes you happy. It is useful to rethink about your priorities and value more who is by your side for Mariana Morello, who is without WhatsApp and Snapchat. The main idea is to discover what works better for you and then find the right balance between using and not using the social media, as everything in life.