Today, most of us spend the greater part of our time on social media. Either we’re FaceTiming a friend, checking our Instagram feeds or watching our friends’ stories on Snapchat. Now, our activity on social media is a controversial topic that some of our elders might deem unnecessary and futile, while people our age tend to see as helpful and essential. My argument refrains from making comments about whether or not social media is harmful, but how certain aspects of social media can have negative impacts, which is why I find it is absolutely significant to take breaks from it.
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You know how every once in a while, people talk about needing to have a food cleanse? Well, this is essentially the same concept. No sane person is going to argue that having pizza and chocolate should be cut out of your life forever, just like no one should take away your ability to connect and stay updated on your friends’ lives. However, limits need to be drawn where they haven’t yet. Every once in a while, for maintaining a better mental, physical and emotional well-being, restricting some unhealthy eating habits and munching on salads, drinking a lot of water and exercising are smart decisions to make. Just like, for the same reason, restricting some unnecessary and time-consuming habits for brief periods of time is beneficial.
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I completely understand the allure of using social media: staying up to date on the newest gossip, fashion trends and friendship dramas, but I’m also deeply aware of how easy it is to get sucked into that world, obsessed with every aspect of the superficial lives we see on our phone screens. Because of this, I find it necessary that we have periods of time where we quit, or at least reduce, our presence and access to different social media platforms. We can use this time to take charge of our lives, make changes or just observe and live in the moment. I feel I can say this because I have either experienced or observed how capturing moments starts to become more about getting likes, getting heart eye comments and showing the new Chanel bag someone’s bought.
Based on personal experience, I have found that the times I have spent away from social media have been the happiest times of my life. This is because I no longer feel like I’m concerning myself over trivial matters like whether or not Kylie Jenner’s best friend slept with her sister’s boyfriend. I no longer feel like I’m wasting my time being physically inactive and I have the ability to become more productive while focusing on things I find useful. When I have social media cleanses, I find the time to be more physically active, I find that my confidence boosts as I am no longer comparing myself to supermodels and I become more aware of the world I live in by waking up to notifications from BBC instead of Instagram (because we all know the first thing we do every morning is check our phones).
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Sometimes when I weigh the advantages and disadvantages of social media, it can seem like with the way many of us use social media, we give it the power to exert more negative impact. Yet at the same time, social media has made keeping friends from all over the world possible and fun, while keeping us notified of how the world around us shifts every day; those are definitely not things to be mad about. Maybe we just need to learn to regulate our use and not get engrossed in the world of seemingly perfect lives, seemingly flawless bodies, seemingly impeccable relationships and seemingly excellent jobs.