Reject Social Media

It has been over 3 years since I quit social media. Sure I still use YouTube for informational content like tutorials, and WhatsApp for texting friends, but I am no longer bound by incessant doom-scrolling, and I can with great pride say I’ve never had TikTok.

I’ll take my brain unscrambled, please

I don’t think that somehow makes me better, nor do I impose my personal choice on others (“casually religious” people do that quite enough already), but it is a personal stance I foresee continuing to benefit me. As I perpetually mention, I love learning, and I’ve simply found no value in social media - there’s nothing worth learning; the little bites of useful facts or information that are there get drowned out by the sheer volume of brain-numbing filth.

I’ve noticed that, when one doesn’t have the comfort of scrolling through one’s phone, looking busy to avoid awkward interactions, many more interesting things happen, many more interesting conversations with interesting strangers in interesting places, with infinitely more interesting outcomes than doom-scrolling and resultant self-loathing.

More opportunities for genuine here-and-now living, savouring every moment of existence, arise from simply unplugging. Nature is a much more interesting and engaging dimension than that of our phones; travelling offers a better showing still. It is simply easier to endure the discomfort and dissatisfaction of doom-scrolling than to act, to go outside of one’s comfort zone to experience something new, with the potential to be either positive or negative.

And so the saying truly holds, social media really does kill time.