In October 2022, I disabled all of my notifications. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. Then I enabled limits; screen and downtime. If I’m on ANY platform longer than 45 minutes, my phone will automatically lock ALL social media (with the option to ignore it for one minute, 15 minutes or the rest of the day until downtime). Now, 2 years into this and I barely touch social media despite being a content creator.
Choosing to disconnect was the best decision made because everything has become so overwhelming toxic and it’s continuously worsening with the deterioration of the world. You can’t open media for 10 seconds without trauma porn, catastrophic events or a deep think piece being the first 30 things in your feed, even if you don’t interact with that genre of content. I understand it’s a privilege to disconnect but I’ve disconnected to protect my emotional and mental wellbeing.
Of course I still check media but it’s done maybe two or three times a month. And despite protecting my wellbeing, I also want to make sure I’m informed on important things that could affect me, my community, etc. While it’s great to be educated, not over consuming and exerting yourself staying “up to date” is just as important. However the shitty thing about disconnecting is that when trying to build contentions with others, they’re all so stuck in their damn phones.
Nobody wants to explore nature preserves, visit museums, read at libraries or check out cute coffee shops. Nobody wants to build puzzles, do crosswords, book planetarium dates or have picnics in the park. It’s always, “Have you seen this on TikTok?” or irrelevant discussions of petty stuff. I understand everybody’s idea of fun looks different and that’s okay, I do my best to respect it. But sitting around on your phone all day; doom scrolling and watching others LIVE their lives is NOT fun. It’s depressing. With the direction of where everything is going, I suspect I won’t have friends or a social circle for a LONG time.
