OPINION: Social Media and the Lack Thereof

by RACHEL RABIDEAU
Staff Writer

You feel your phone buzz, and you reflexively reach to see what is happening in the world around you.

Teenagers today seem to have a greater network of friends than ever before, all thanks to social media. It’s easy to stay in touch with old friends, whether that be from high school, college, or from a party you went to in 2016. Platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and TikTok give you a snapshot of someone’s life—a moment they decided was worthy enough to show the rest of the world.

It seems like everyone nowadays has at least one form of social media. I used to, too. But at the beginning of 2020, I deleted each of my accounts from Instagram to LinkedIn. The transformation was dramatic and immediate.

The first thing that changed was that I suddenly didn’t know how to spend my free time. I no longer had apps on my phone to steal my attention while I performed simple tasks, like waiting for something to heat up in the microwave. Post-deletion, I constantly checked my phone to see if I had any missed notifications. Eventually, I was able to wean myself off my handheld screen and re-enter society.

Without even realizing it, constantly being on my phone was stealing me away from my own life. I was swept away from the things that were happening in front of me because I was so focused on the lives of others.

Social media was doing much more than just funneling my attention away from daily tasks. A few months after the disappearance of social networks from my phone, I realized that I cared much less about what others thought of me. No longer was I trying to “fit in”. I was simply living a care-free life.

The amount of stress I was carrying from social media was alarming. Deleting Instagram freed me from the vanity of my peers, allowing me to focus on what mattered. I shed the stress of procrastinating homework because I no longer felt obligated to my phone, and was finally able to take a break from worrying about others.

With the many benefits of deletion came a couple of drawbacks. I’m evolving into a fuddy-duddy.

It doesn’t bother me that I’m the only nineteen-year-old I know who lacks social media, but it does make me stick out sometimes. For instance, a current trend is sharing memes. I don’t know any memes. Oftentimes things will be referenced and I’ll be left feigning a smile and nodding my head as people rattle off quotes that seem nonsensical to an outsider. I do always get a kick out of actually recognizing them, although it is rare.

A lot of people nowadays will learn your name and proceed to look you up on social media. This is something I haven’t missed for a second. When I meet someone new, my main priority is to get to know them for who they are, not for who they want the world to see. Having such easy access to information about others has led society astray, making us forget what it means to form relationships with others.

Reflection upon my hundreds of hours accumulated on apps like Instagram and Snapchat forces me to ask myself what I was even doing. I wasn’t learning anything useful, and I wasn’t making friends. Sure, it’s harder to stay in contact with people when you don’t get constant updates from them, but is that what relationships have become? A Snapchat selfie explaining what they’re up to? Or worse, Snapstreaks? Nowadays, I no longer carry the baggage that comes with those guise relationships and can focus on the people that I care about most. As long as you make a point to reach out to someone when you’re thinking of them, the only friendships that are cut are the ones that don’t matter.

Even though my friends make fun of me for being old-fashioned, I never want to live in a world where I feel chained to my phone again. My phone has transformed from a source of entertainment to being part of my work environment. I check my email, take calls, and respond to texts. All this, and I’ve never been happier.

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