Why I stopped using social media

The Curse

I haven't used social media at all for 2 years straight for one simple reason. Social media sucks . There is very little reason to use social media in the modern world. Specifically, I simply don't understand how people enjoy the AI-slop that floods TikTok and YouTube, or the extremely vicious algorithm that Twitter uses to hook you in.

Its worth pointing out that social media used to be great - in that it connected people together. When Facebook was released way back when, there was no "news", there was no "trending", only your feed with your friends. Now, more emphasis is put on algorithms that give you posts from random people on the internet to steal what little time we have. This is a common trend with other old social media platforms as well.

The amount of time I used to waste doom scrolling is depressing. Worst of all, out of all that time I spent using social media, I couldn't even tell you what posts I saw, things I liked, or any interaction I was apart of during that time. All of that time, in the grand scheme of things, is just a massive black hole. It sucked away my time.

I recall Twitter and Reddit being "funny", but I don't remember smiling once. Observing other people staring at their phones indicates the same thing. It just looks like depression. There is no other way to describe it. Consuming thousands of posts intended to be "funny" without actually enjoying it is depression. And it makes me depressed watching people throw away so much of their life for something that does not give back.

Sure, maybe there is something actually funny. But for me, that doesn't cut it. I'm not wasting all of my time for the chance to find something funny.

Side note: I hate walking around Melbourne and seeing thousands of people on their phones with their neck bent 40° permanently... while walking? How do people even do that without bumping into each other?

The Cure

I just stopped using it

Once I left social media completely, I was much happier with myself.

Getting off social media was relatively hard. The first week I struggled a lot. I felt extremely bored, and had no idea what to do. But then it clicked. Being bored suddenly became a time for me to wonder what important stuff I could do.

This is when I started to learn new programming languages and develop interesting projects, get back into playing the guitar, and to simply go outside for a nice, relaxing walk. Finally, I had an actual personality , things to talk about, and things to do that fulfil me more than scrolling ever did.

If you want to get off social media, you must embrace boredom . Once you get past that, you will be much happier in the long run.