I recently “hibernated” several social media accounts. In this post, I’ll talk about why.
What are the benefits of social media?
- For the most part, the parts I like are the updates I see for friends or relatives I don’t commonly interact with any other way. I also (sometimes) enjoy suggested content related to my interests (e.g. mountain biking, or off roading).
What are the downsides?
This is a longer list, and mostly are bad for mental health.
- People mostly tend to only post their adventures/travels/etc. So, there is an automatic subtext of “geez I didn’t do anything that fun today” for readers.
- Ads and promoted posts are 100% designed to drive engagement. Not necessarily POSITIVE engagement, just things you might hover over or click on or react to. Social media companies don’t care, so long as they can sell more ads. As a side effect, most feeds are an echo chamber, which may drive extremism, anxiety, or even paranoia.
- If the service is free, YOU are the product.
- Having that instant gratification in your pocket all the time reduces the time you might actually spend thinking (by yourself) or interacting with the people who are actually in the same room.
Since suspending my accounts, I have slept better (still not great, but I’ll take any improvement). I also just generally feel better. I won’t say I’m never going back, but I’d encourage everyone to take social media breaks, or limit the time you spend on it to a narrow window. There are upsides, but the downsides are pretty toxic. A former neighbor seems to only log on every couple weeks – might be the best compromise.
As an interesting side note, my $500 phone (which is pretty cheap these days) now seems kind of expensive for what I (don’t) use it for.