If only we could block social media...
Hi everyone, I hope everyone is doing well and that everyone is looking forward to summer, or winter depending on wherever you may be in the world at the moment. For us in the UK, it means the end of an educational year. Which means putting away the iPhone alarms for a prolonged period of time and restoring the body, mind, liver (not actually joking, sadly) and soul for the next term starting in September, where another year of studying, procrastinating and social pressure begin yet again. But sometimes these social pressures can get worse, even when you aren't socialising face-to-face as much as usual.
The heavy presence of social media is somehow a new foundation in everyday life; the instant gratification of scrolling through your feed on your phone, liking pictures for the sake of it on profiles of people you barely know, is now more than ever blaring into every aspect of each day. You get up and check if your colleagues have finished the group presentation on Messenger, then you take a Snapchat in Starbucks when you get the same coffee that you drink every morning, to taking an Instagram of a dog wearing a hoodie with the caption "it's a pug life" before you go home and WhatsApp your family about how your day has been. I mean, we all do it, I am guilty for it especially, but even though it is a natural habit to us now, is it really healthy and beneficial for us to be reliant on a world which only exists under a glass screen?
Even though I have some social media profiles (@karunai_music if you are interested, I apologise for the shameless self promotion) I don't find it that comforting to check or update, if at all really. Being quite antisocial and shy myself, it's always a strange feeling when I see people I know post pictures together when I'm watching Bridget Jones for the 20th time this week alone, because it then leads into a whole onslaught of "did I do something wrong?", "why wasn't I invited?" or the worst of all, "what is wrong with me?", even though it's probably not the case at all. It's just that seeing everyone having fun around us without including us directly makes ourselves question our own personalities, worrying about all these aspects of ourselves that no one else notices apart from our own worst critics; us. It is almost like an invisible weapon which we attack ourselves with, and we don't even realise we are doing it most of the time. When I see it from this perspective, it's strangely quite realistic, and frightening.
So how do we stop this ever-changing force of social media rolling into society? We can't, unfortunately. The cat has sat in your lap, digging its claws into your ripped skinny jeans and it ain't moving anytime soon. But we can get around this. What I am trying to do at the moment is a 10 minute allowance, once a day, each day. I put my phone timer on and allow myself 10 minutes in the morning to do a quick browse of the social media pages; like a post here, send a private message here, then I lock my phone and try to stay as far away from social media as I possibly can for the rest of the day. Then the next morning I get up, and the whole cycle starts all over again, so I can try and reduce its effect on my brain, and to stop trying to compare my life to the rest of the world. Also, if you find that looking at a certain person's profile or updates is making you feel upset or uncomfortable whatsoever - no matter the reason - you could try blocking their accounts. It sounds harsh, but you have to take care of yourself, and like a friend of mine said to me: "you need to let the wound heal".
I wish you all the best with your endeavours, social media related or not, and even though I am no Kevin Systrom or Mark Zuckerberg and can't sadly shutdown the technological void for you, I hope this has helped you in some way, even if it's in a tiny tiny way. Because no matter how many followers we have or which celebrity has retweeted us today, we are still people, and we still care, and I will always care about my friends and family, and you guys; the people who surround us every single day.
Take care,
Em x
The heavy presence of social media is somehow a new foundation in everyday life; the instant gratification of scrolling through your feed on your phone, liking pictures for the sake of it on profiles of people you barely know, is now more than ever blaring into every aspect of each day. You get up and check if your colleagues have finished the group presentation on Messenger, then you take a Snapchat in Starbucks when you get the same coffee that you drink every morning, to taking an Instagram of a dog wearing a hoodie with the caption "it's a pug life" before you go home and WhatsApp your family about how your day has been. I mean, we all do it, I am guilty for it especially, but even though it is a natural habit to us now, is it really healthy and beneficial for us to be reliant on a world which only exists under a glass screen?
Even though I have some social media profiles (@karunai_music if you are interested, I apologise for the shameless self promotion) I don't find it that comforting to check or update, if at all really. Being quite antisocial and shy myself, it's always a strange feeling when I see people I know post pictures together when I'm watching Bridget Jones for the 20th time this week alone, because it then leads into a whole onslaught of "did I do something wrong?", "why wasn't I invited?" or the worst of all, "what is wrong with me?", even though it's probably not the case at all. It's just that seeing everyone having fun around us without including us directly makes ourselves question our own personalities, worrying about all these aspects of ourselves that no one else notices apart from our own worst critics; us. It is almost like an invisible weapon which we attack ourselves with, and we don't even realise we are doing it most of the time. When I see it from this perspective, it's strangely quite realistic, and frightening.
So how do we stop this ever-changing force of social media rolling into society? We can't, unfortunately. The cat has sat in your lap, digging its claws into your ripped skinny jeans and it ain't moving anytime soon. But we can get around this. What I am trying to do at the moment is a 10 minute allowance, once a day, each day. I put my phone timer on and allow myself 10 minutes in the morning to do a quick browse of the social media pages; like a post here, send a private message here, then I lock my phone and try to stay as far away from social media as I possibly can for the rest of the day. Then the next morning I get up, and the whole cycle starts all over again, so I can try and reduce its effect on my brain, and to stop trying to compare my life to the rest of the world. Also, if you find that looking at a certain person's profile or updates is making you feel upset or uncomfortable whatsoever - no matter the reason - you could try blocking their accounts. It sounds harsh, but you have to take care of yourself, and like a friend of mine said to me: "you need to let the wound heal".
I wish you all the best with your endeavours, social media related or not, and even though I am no Kevin Systrom or Mark Zuckerberg and can't sadly shutdown the technological void for you, I hope this has helped you in some way, even if it's in a tiny tiny way. Because no matter how many followers we have or which celebrity has retweeted us today, we are still people, and we still care, and I will always care about my friends and family, and you guys; the people who surround us every single day.
Take care,
Em x
Bravo! xxx
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