I’ve never been one for social media. Even in our “influencer” culture, where it’s all about IG and stories and snaps and bibbidy boo’s, it’s always kinda been a drain for me. Something I will perhaps deign to do for a specific purpose, but otherwise would much rather avoid like the plague.
The reason isn’t just about the surface level of social media. It’s so pretty! No no, it’s the more insidious underbelly that Silicon Valley’s brogrammers deliberately crafted to mess with your mind.
Yes that sounds paranoid; no that doesn’t mean it’s untrue!
See the thing is, no matter how much I ostensibly “enjoy” using social media, no matter how it starts off, the session will always invariably end with me scrolling, zombie-eyed, through a series of pictures/updates that I’m not interested in and would be a lot better of without, because the second I see them it kicks off a whooole other train of thought in my brain. You go down the rabbit hole. And the sick thing is, you end up wanting more.
Have you ever felt this?
Take Instagram. Something I swore I wouldn’t use because they have rights to use your pictures (remember that? lol). You’ll see a pretty picture and think, oh wow, that picture looks incredible, she’s so pretty, how did she get her makeup like that, why is her picture so professional, who is this couple and why are they perfect, why does Beyonce still look 20… basically, you think all the thoughts.
And that is within approximately 25 seconds of scrolling. Multiply that by 25 more seconds, minutes, hours even, and well… that’s not much of a life, is it?
Because the truth is, as we all know, social media is only a highlight reel. Yes we know that, and we go into it knowing that, except we still believe what we see because we are humans and we’ve evolved that way and it’s quite hard to break a billion years of evolution/biology.
The worst part is, it seems like no one talks about it.
One Youtuber/blogger whom I love, Samantha Maria wrote about a similar topic recently. She wrote thoughtfully about the pressures of Youtube and online life, and I do feel like her perspective on the matter could be parlayed to social media in general. The pressure to keep up, the standards set by everyone that don’t really make sense, the constant comparison… it’s a lot.
Of course, this is our generation and it’s the way of the world. I really do feel that the only way to stay even slightly sane is to just evolve with the times. Accept that which you cannot change & so on. But then… how about human biology? Physiology? Psychology? OUR BRAINZZZ.
If I were a betting woman (which I’m not, thank you very much), I would say that all the perfection plastered over IG is hollow. And also, controversially, that those who do it most need to fill a void the most?
Of course, in the words of Rich Lux, this is my opinion, my conspiracy, allegedly.
And then, when people do mention it, it ends up feeling… forced. The onslaught of beauty guru apology videos should tell you that. There’s a fakeness to the “authenticity” that again feels staged. So what’s a gal to do?
Well, the only way I’ve found so far is to cut off my access to social media. Altogether.
Of course, I’ve gone through phases, as I do. I’ve deleted FB (kept it that way), deactivated FB (on/off), deleted IG (didn’t last), and even deleted YT (gasp! Heavens no!). And yet, I keep going back (except to FB… although sometimes in browser… but then the boredom gets the better of me and poof! It’s gone again).
But I just can’t seem to control myself. When it’s there, it’s there, and Imma start scrolling. I actually happen to be a pretty good listener, and am not one of those… vapid (?) people who keeps their phone on tables during conversations. To me, that’s the ultimate proclamation of making sure you’re not alone but also waiting for something better to happen in the interim. It just rubs me the wrong way!
Back to the topic at hand.
As a lifelong psychology student to the nth degree — I just lurrrve that stuff — I can’t help but wonder the effect this is having on the wiring of our brains. Like, the actual neurochemicals and physiology of our body’s motherboard. If we could all sift through online content like flour, get rid of the junk and only keep what’s needed to bake some delishus cookies, then it would work. But as someone who seems to have no internal filter (although I am
Of course, this is when I become self-aware enough to actually look away from my screen and think original thoughts.
I don’t know if anyone out there can handle the barrage of images that social media throws at us, but I surely can’t. And it’s not just the images themselves, but the set of questions it kicks off in my brain that I just don’t have time for. If this is my one life (and it may not necessarily be, but let’s go with it), then I sure don’t wanna spend it power refreshing an app.
Now, if someone can teach me how to kick my gossip blog habit… yeahhh that’d be just great.