Assalamualaikum 💖
I'm inspired to make this post today after watching a YouTube video called 'WHY I QUIT SOCIAL MEDIA FOR A YEAR AND WHAT I LEARNED'. Click on the title if you want to watch it.
I, too, have quit social media before.
I quit Facebook in 2013/2014 because it was getting lame (ONLY IMO DON'T JUDGE).
I quit Twitter in 2015 because of personal reasons.
I didn't have an Instagram account before because I thought it'd be too much pressure.
I literally avoided any social media that would allow me to know other people's news, and vice versa. I kind of kept my life low-key and only people who know me in real life would know what I was doing. In other words, I cut off any connection with people online, but you might've seen me once in a while on other people's accounts.
Nothing much changed after I deactivated my Facebook account because I didn't use it that much. But after I uninstalled Twitter from my phone (I didn't deactivate it), I can tell you that my life did change.
I used to be on Twitter 24/7. There was a point in my life when I would literally tweet everything that I did and thought. After that phase, I started to tweet less nonsensical things and more to advice kind of thing. This phase only stopped after I uninstalled Twitter.
For the first few days without Twitter, it was really weird for me since I was so used to scrolling the tweets. I got used to it after a while and basically lived my life without social media. Wherever I went, I saw people on their social media but it didn't bother me as I thought I was free from 'social media pressure'.
Whether you admit it or not, you must've been under that kind of pressure at one point in your life. Your friends having more followers than you, your friends getting more likes and retweets than you, your friends looking prettier or cooler than you, your friends posting better-quality photos than you do. All of these create pressure, making you feel insecure, no matter how mild. As if your happiness depends on social media. This is the reason why I avoided Instagram before, because I knew it would cause more pressure than Twitter did.
Look, I wasn't that pressured by it but if possible, I wanted to escape that kind of life, that kind of addiction, and so I did. Some people asked what I did at home if I wasn't anywhere near social media. See, life does not revolve around social media. When you stop using them, you're able to do other stuff you couldn't before.
I have to admit though, I don't even know if I became more productive or not since I was taking STPM. There were already lots of things to do even without social media, so I guess I wasn't as much distracted. I didn't keep up with things that other people did, so I wasn't bothered by petty issues.
The thing is, as I got addicted to YouTube, there are YouTubers that I like and (of course) they own social media. I'd like to keep up with them but couldn't because I didn't use social media anymore. It was only until this year did I suddenly start using social media again.
- Although I didn't quit blogging, I started becoming active once again after I changed my theme last June.
- I started using Twitter again since WWBookClub existed.
- I created my Instagram account last raya because I was missing out too much as a youngster.
What I learned is that, it sure felt good to be free of the social media addiction. I enjoyed it a lot (though last year I started using Pinterest and got real addicted to it). The consequence was that I felt old, because I was missing out on what others already knew. I'm only 20 and when people talked about things that went viral, I got confused as hell. That is the main reason why I'm back on social media.
Since I learned a lot from social media already, I no longer feel pressured because those things that I mentioned above don't matter at all. I only use and post things when I need to now. EXCEPT for this blog because I'm so in love with it!😍
Conclusion: Love yourself. Love your surroundings. Love what you have. Put yourself and reality first before social media. Don't get too addicted and affected by social media. You're already pressured by life, don't let yourself feel pressured by social media. Focus on your life before social media (unless your life and job depends on social media). Do what makes you happy!😋
P.S. I have a feeling that this post is going to be the most productive post in this blog😂.
Till the next post!💝
