“It’s not about the technology being the existential threat, it’s the technology’s ability to bring out the worst in society. And the worst in society being the existential threat.” – Tristan Harris, Design Ethicist at Google
One casual Saturday afternoon I found myself sipping my coffee and scrolling through my Netflix home page in search of some way to spend my free time. It was that day I stumbled across “The Social Dilemma” by Jeff Orlowski. For those of you who haven’t watched it yet (emphasis on yet), the documentary explores the dangers of social networking in both our personal and communal lives. Ironically, despite how intrigued I was by its contents, I caught myself sporadically checking my phone for updates. I was literally nodding along to the discussion about the dopamine-driven feedback loop that fuels social media addiction while unlocking my home-screen to see if my best friend replied to that Bernie Sanders meme I sent her on Instagram. In that moment, I realized how unconscious so much of our technology-related behaviors have become. Checking our feed has become as natural as brushing our teeth in the morning. Although I knew this information on some level, I never really thought it affected me as much as it affected others. Classic optimism bias as we call it in psychology. It was at that moment I realized that I too have fallen slave to the system.
With my newfound enlightenment (cue the subtle sarcasm) and a sudden surge of motivation, I decided to go on a 5-day social media detox. Instagram? Deleted. Twitter? Gone. Tiktok? Canceled. Facebook? Goodbye (not that I use it for anything other than updating my elderly aunts about my life anyway). Our snap streak? I regret to inform you that it will die a painful death (rest in peace because this will be a hard one). As I bid a sorrowful farewell to each app as the clock struck midnight on Sunday morning, my journey had begun. This is the one where I deleted my social media for 5 days:
Awareness as the First Step Towards Change
I don’t know exactly what I was expecting my first day without the ‘big SM’ to look like (yes I know no one calls social media the ‘big SM’, and yes, I now realize calling it that does not, in fact, make me sound cool). Nonetheless, I expected day one to be a lot more dramatic and life-changing than it actually was. My Saturday night was spent glorifying my future Sunday and all of the great things I was going to be able to do with this extra time. For some reason beyond common sense, I thought all my procrastinating and all my self-comparing would magically disappear once I deleted the time-sucking black hole known as Instagram.
Perhaps the real-time thief is not the app in and of itself, but how vulnerable its existence has made our attention-span, how much damage it’s done to our patience, and how difficult the real-world now seems in comparison. Instead of filling my days with chaturangas, meditative strolls by the trail near my house and cooking up a storm that Gordan Ramsey would be proud of, I found myself yearning for that instant reward activation. I spent much of my first two days looking through my camera roll instead of my Instagram feed, online window-shopping instead of Pinteresting, and reading through old texts instead of Twitter. Too often I have found myself mindlessly unlocking my phone to click the now empty space where that yellow and white ghost icon used to be. It was only because there was nothing to click on did I notice how much of my energy and attention is dedicated to the device in my palms of my hands. Simply deleting an app may be the first step (perhaps even an unrealistic one for most), but it is definitely not the final solution. Embedded within years of instant gratification is a serious process of unlearning that calls our attention.
As day 3 and 4 rolled around, I was still compulsively checking my phone (old habits die hard, huh?). Strangely, however, I felt a lot lighter than I did a week ago. I read somewhere that we are exposed to 4,000 to 10,000 digital images daily. Talk about sensory overload! While some of these images may include art, recipes, and fun facts, many more include marketing ads, weight-loss ploys, and a life so perfectly unlike yours you become unsatisfied. Scrolling through Tiktok and Instagram, we are constantly bombarded with curvy hips, perfectly symmetrical faces, and expensive clothing. Our feed has become a place where filters are so normalized that it’s almost unacceptable to post a picture without one. Our digital world has the potential to trigger so many negative emotions that wouldn’t otherwise be there. Year after year of consuming these images has a snowball-like impact on our perception of the person in the mirror. I feel that social media has created a hyper-focus on the body and on appearing perfect. In the short span of 4 days, I found myself analyzing my body in the mirror just a little bit less. I was eating healthier to be healthier instead of chasing a certain body goal. There is no doubt I have a lot to work on (yes, I continue to pick up my phone every 5-7 minutes to check for a notification), but my mind feels a lot clearer than before. I keep reminding myself that growth is a process and it’s important to celebrate the small wins along the way.
There’s no denying the fact that we are living in the midst of a soon-to-be very dense chapter of future history books. The most intriguing part of “The Social Dilemma” was the chart presenting the increasing political polarity that has been occurring over the last decade. “We accept the reality of the world in which we are presented.” It just so happens that the digital world we are presented in perfectly suits our pre-established spiritual, political and personal beliefs. Everyone in your newsfeed looks and sounds exactly like you! That is, the algorithm constructs our news feed so that we continue to be presented with perspectives, ideas and information that we already believe to be true. We then look at the side opposite to our beliefs and think, “how stupid can they be? Are they not seeing the same information that I am!?” The answer is no. No, they are not. Our social media is perfectly constructed to appease our eyes only. We get so heated over our own perspective that we fail to use our critical thinking skills to obtain a more objective point of view.
The purpose of this article was not to give you an unrealistic summary of how soul-searching these five days have been (we get enough fake news over the internet as it is). The truth is, this challenge did not drastically change my life or transform me into the spiritually-advanced yogi I secretly long to be. Instead, this is simply my honest reflection. A relatively-long journal entry (thank you to those of you who made it this far) that just so happened to increase my self-awareness a little more than last week.
What’s so confusing about it all is the fact that social media can be both a blessing and a curse. It’s all a matter of how we decide to use it. Perhaps taking back control means deleting those social sites that are not useful for us, following people we disagree with to get both sides of the story, or something as simple as turning off our notifications. I challenge you, dear reader, to honestly reflect on your own social media usage, and if you’re feeling brave enough, try the challenge for yourself.