Please Delete Your Social Media Accounts
Wednesday January 24, 2024
Sorry. It’s yet another blog post on a personal website about how social media is bad. If you are reading this in an RSS reader, this post isn’t for you. I’m pretty certain that you already hate social media services, and have already read a dozen blog posts similar to this one that were probably written much better. So really, RSS homies can stop reading. I’m not writing this because I have fresh and interesting ideas on the subject. People I care about in real life visit this website sometimes so I want to leave this here for them to eventually find. I feel like everyone who knows me already knows how I feel. In person, my delivery is either too blunt or way too longwinded, neither of which is what they want to hear after a mild complaint about how Facebook works. This post is supposed to be well thought out and not angry.
It’s bad for you. You knew that already.
I think that both light and heavy social media users have a feeling that social media “is bad.” If you’re a heavy user, it’s easy to recognize something is wrong when your rotation of apps is draining hours from your day. If you’d consider your usage “average” it’s likely that you never even realized the trap you’ve been sucked into. The occasional bleh feeling you get after seeing too much “personalized” “content” is a clear signal to close the app, but the other negative feelings caused by these services are more subtle.
Self esteem
I think most people don’t realize how bad it is for their self esteem. Nobody posts about the bad times on Facebook. Well maybe some people do, but those people didn’t get enough attention as a child. When every acquaintance you’ve ever had is regularly reminding you how great their life is, it’s impossible not to compare your own life, looks, bank account, whatever. You may not be the type to brag, but I would bet a lot of people on your feed are.
Attention
All forms of social media obliterate your attention span. There’s a reason every platform is embracing short form, auto playing, algorithmically generated vertical videos. It’s digital crack. When your brain is rewarded with dopamine just by flicking your thumb, it makes the difficult but actually rewarding stuff more difficult to focus on.
You won’t miss anything
I used to have a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Since deleting all of them, nobody has told me I should make new accounts. I don’t miss anyone, and nobody misses me. Not caring about where a friend went out for his anniversary dinner doesn’t mean I don’t care about my friend. You might be thinking “but I will miss things.” You won’t. I promise. There is no way for me to prove it to you, but you won’t. There are 9000 other (better) ways for you to send and receive baby photos.
Nerd shit (nobody cares)
Even grandmas know that “they are listening” but most people don’t actually understand how they’re tracking you so effectively. They are not recording every conversation you have with your phone mic. What they actually do is way easier than recording your voice. I won’t even bother getting into it because you don’t care. If you have TikTok installed, there is nothing I could possibly say that would scare you. TikTok makes me want to throw up. That isn’t the point. Remember, this post isn’t supposed to be angry.
The point is that you are getting nothing out of TikTok, while they are getting so much out of you. It’s not a fair deal and you already know you’re better off without it. Why continue using it? If your answer is “it’s entertaining”, think about how often you’re enjoying what’s put in front of you. Most of your “entertainment” is probably flicking upwards.
Conclusion
Now that I’ve posted this, I’ll shut up about it forever. That’s a lie. Anyway, you had a life before social media and there wasn’t a void that needed to be filled by moronic opinions and advertisements. You’ll be fine without them.
By the way, I really do mean delete your account, not just the app. Has deleting the app ever worked?