This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UWindsor chapter.
Me time:
When I’m alone with myself, I’m genuinely alone. I don’t have others’ lives to look at and I’m
not virtually sharing anything with them. I’m completely alone. That can be scary when you’re
used to constantly either being with people or seeing their lives on a screen. You have to actually
deal with yourself, your feelings, and your responsibilities. In this way, you discover more about
yourself: you realize more of what you’re capable of (with the time you don’t spend online) and
you learn that maybe you don’t like to be lonely.
Thoughts:
The media bombards you with all sorts of information and opinions. Not all of it is true,
either. You’re overwhelmed by gossip, news, facts, ideas, opinions, and everything that can cause
confusion. Teenagers – and even university students (no matter how mature we think we are) –
have so many decisions to make: about character, about the future, about our world views, and
more. We see all sorts of things portrayed through the media – especially social media – that eventually, we’re
not so sure what to think. When you stand for nothing, you fall for everything; we take in whatever
information is being thrown at us. Therefore, we’re not responsible for what we believe or think.
Our thoughts aren’t our own. We’re afraid to reject an opinion and be left out. Social media is all
about being “in”. So when you detach yourself, you realize that you have strong opinions. The best
part is, you’re not afraid of being rejected by something as huge as the internet for those opinions,
either. Sites like Tumblr, however great they may be, can also humiliate any minority – not in the
sense of race, religion, or ethnicity, but of opinion. The little ideas are rejected, and therefore, so
are you. So maybe it’s time you stopped sharing your opinions so much, stop worrying about
others’ as often, and only engaged in debates with people who are in front of you and actually
interested in what you have to say.
Productivity:
Frankly speaking, you have more time. If you consider how much time you spend on
social media, it’s a lot – even the small periods of checking your notifications adds up throughout the day.
Because you can’t scroll through media when you’re bored, you can’t distract yourself as easily
from the things you’re supposed to be doing. We all know we have that essay coming up, or that
midterm, or that art assignment. So when you can’t do anything else, why not at least make some
notes to get you started? And then the next time you sit down with nothing else to do, why not
bother trying to start on the work? The amount of time you don’t spend on social media will greatly
increase your time on the things that matter to you. Maybe it’s not schoolwork. Maybe you’re
working on your poetic abilities. Maybe you’re reading more. Maybe you’re doing more yoga or
hitting the gym more often. Social media, however fun, is not at all important work. Without it,
you realize there’s so many more fulfilling things you could be doing with your time. After all,
time is limited for us; we might as well spend every spare moment on things that will actually
fulfill our lives.
“Social”:
When you’re on social media, you’re not actually being social. Yes, you are somehow
communicating with others through words, art, or life events. You are expressing your thoughts
and feelings. You are telling and showing others what your life is supposedly like (but remember
all the things you don’t tell them, too). However, you’re not connecting with them on the same
level as you would if you actually spent time with them. Your 400 Facebook friends? They’re not
actually your friends. Your 1000 followers? They don’t actually care about your life events. Maybe
they want to distract themselves from their own life by looking at others’ lives, but they’re not the
people you are actually social with. Without “social” media, you realize that the time you spend
with people you actually care about is infinitely more important than trying to interest people who
you don’t connect with at all. You are not an advertisement, so stop trying to sell yourself. You
know who your real friends are; share more time with them.
Negativity:
Probably most importantly, there’s this world of negativity, sadness, and troubles that I’ve
been avoiding. The internet, however great (and despite this article, I do think it’s awesome), is full
of things that are just, plainly put, depressing. It’s a place where we can vent, where we can post
things directed at people we’re upset with without actually confronting them, where we can go to
when we’re sad to find images and words that relate to our mood. The thing is, by sharing or re-
posting these sad things, it’s only solidifying that negative feeling. Scrolling through news feeds
and dashboards of depressing thoughts and art will only add to your sadness. It’s a pretty easy
concept: what you see and expose yourself to will affect your mood. If you’re focusing on the sad
things, if you’re trying to find yourself in this negative media, then ultimately it’s what you will
become used to and what you will become. Without media and the ability to share my
extraordinarily important issues with the world, I can focus on actually dealing with the issues, or
I can simply think about other things. The small, troubled thoughts just pass through your mind
and eventually they’re gone, rather than posting them on the internet and having them permanently
stamped to your profile. It’s easy to convince yourself that you’ll feel better by distracting yourself
on the internet or by being ‘understood’ by these sad posts. However, you’re only digging a deeper
grave (pun intended). Cheer up, keep your chin up, and look away from the screen. There’s a
beautiful world that’s full of wonderful things that – surprisingly – you won’t find on the internet.
The internet can be great for sharing things with longdistance friends and family, for
inspiring creativity, for scheduling and business affairs, for broadening your mind, and so much
more. I think we abuse the good things that can come out of technology, though, and use it to not
make ourselves and our lives better, but to distract ourselves from real life. It seems nearly
impossible for some people to even consider giving up social media. I recommend taking a step
back, tucking your phone and laptop away, and breathing in the world that was here far before
technology could be even be thought up. Real relationships, real opportunities, and real life can be
gained when you stop distracting yourself from them. I encourage everyone to discover themselves
and to discover the world, not by hitting “search” on Google, but by experiencing the good, real,
social life.