With the recent TikTok ban taking away the app for around twelve hours it felt like chaos abrupted in the light of losing the app. For a moment it was gone. Truly inaccessible to Americans. What will we do without TikTok?
TikTok is my biggest free time go-to. Until I deleted it. The idea of losing TikTok made me realize I have forgotten how to enjoy silent moments and now rely on meaningless noise to get through my day. I needed every moment of my day to be filled with something, even a social media scrolls from post to post.
Overconsumption of media has become a norm that we all accept, we joke about our addiction and shrinking attention spans as if nothing is wrong. But the implications are present. As of last January [a Pew Research Program study] found that 41% of U.S. adults reported being online “almost constantly.” Among those ages 18 to 29, 62%. We are all aware that we are plugged into the internet world and forget to unplug to be in our own, present world, away from screens.
I feel that the world has become progressively louder, and we are unable to hear our own thoughts, let alone the thoughts of others. With so much information thrown at us, good, bad, funny, and sad, social media limits our ability to digest the world around us. Social media highlights the split and further separates us. Algorithms determine what makes us tick, fuels our interests, and confirmation bias all while hooking us in. Meanwhile, we never feel like we get a break because we are always plugged into something. While social media appears to be a break it fills up our time with stress of the state the world is in, or an instant gratification that we then rely on. We work and live in technology, without a break from it.
I do not necessarily think everyone needs to delete an app or go completely free of social media. That is not realistic for the world we live in. Sharing TikToks or Instagram Reels is a way we can connect with one another. However, I think sometimes it can be hard to set limits with social media and create healthy boundaries with it. In a world where this technology is so new, balance with it and away from it is not talked about enough.
How can we break away from overconsumption of media?
1. Be aware of the amount of free time you are using online. Ask yourself how being online is making you feel, what apps suck you in for too long?
2. Set goals with friends, roommates, or family on limiting technology, it can be a fun competition or just a way to help keep you accountable
3. Download an app that limits your screen time. Downloading an app to limit your screen time serves as a barrier away from technology and set limits on how much time you spend on social media.
4. Find a hobby away from screens, this can be cooking/baking, reading, working out and so much more
Social media is not going away anytime soon; it is important to make the relationship we have with it healthier. Understanding the apps intended to be fun or informative can also limit our individual happiness and make our self-perception negative while spiking anxiety allows us to see the demand for balance needed. Taking a step back from social media has taught me I can take a step forward towards taking time for myself and my mental well-being. I hope to restore my relationship with social media but I realize that it currently is doing more harm than good in my own life.