Note to Social Media

We may not see it ourselves but social media can be extremely tiring. In this day and age, we are more connected than ever, especially during the pandemic where we turn to social platforms to fill in the absence of what our lives once were. Do you think of these thoughts sometimes? “I’m running out of time”, “the deadlines are approaching”, “I don’t care anymore”, “time moves too fast,”. Well I can tell you from my experience that social media is one of the root causes of these thoughts.

I found myself on social platforms such as tik tok, youtube, and instagram for more than 8 hours each day. Time seems to fly past when I’m on those apps. Eventually, I would stop to think about all the deadlines that were due and how I’m extremely behind. This then led to anxiety and stress which brought me back onto social media. It’s common that we’d want to distract ourselves from the upcoming deadlines and although I knew I was digging a hole for myself, I continued to use social media.

It’s a cycle. Social media puts out relatable, addicting and sometimes comforting content that we can use to distract ourselves from our reality. And in reality, social media is sucking the life out of us. We feel tired although we’ve done no work at all. We feel useless because we’ve made no progress on our goals and we end up blaming ourselves for being so useless.

So how do you prevent this from happening? I understand it’s tough to break out of your comfort zone and put your phone down. I’m not asking you to switch your phone off or lock it in a safe, but rather leave your notifications on, just don’t open the apps. You don’t have to respond to everything immediately, and this doesn’t mean you’re being rude for ignoring these messages. You shouldn’t have to apologise or explain yourself when you practice self care. I was able to take an entire day off from social media and it was one of the best self care choices I’ve ever made. The blissful feeling of freedom suddenly changed my perspective on a lot of things. I wasn’t useless or unproductive, but rather I was just directing my energy onto the wrong platforms.

And my message to social media? You play an important role in my life, I’m thankful for all the benefits and knowledge you’ve given to me but don’t take it personally when I say that you are mentally draining. I’m not asking you to get out of my life but simply, to understand that I need space away from you. Thank you.

- Kadence Wong