About a year ago, I stumbled upon an article shared by someone on my Facebook news feed. The article had somehow left a huge hole in me that demanded to be filled and satisfy, it prompt me to ponder on thoughts I have never thought before. What if, I leave the world of social media. Leaving behind my followers on Twitters ,daily routine selfie on Instagram and the obligatory check in via Swarm. In the beginning, I did not take any action on it cause I was like " meh, I cant get disconnected. Its important to be connected to everyone. The world needs me! '' .
I left Social Media for a Week.This is what happened. by Kate Arends
Some time my encounter with the article, I was in a serious and constant stress with everything in my life. Life was not treating me right and I felt like everyone is just watching by and not doing anything to help me out from my depression. Not that I am suggesting anything nor am I blaming anyone in this case but at the point, that's how I felt. I woke up one day thinking I had enough of the world and everyone in it. I need to be alone.
And that folks, is how I deactivated my Twitter, Instagram and Swarm all in one day. I kept my Facebook on tho, since I was still in my AIESEC term and I need Facebook to be connected with other AIESECers + the group assignments discussions that are all done virtually. But still, losing a bunch of sites that stops you from updating your life to 'friends' kinda hurts. ALOT.
For the first few days, nobody took notice of it and I am perfectly fine with it since I was in the phase where I hate you, you and everyone else in the world period. On the other hand, I had tough time coping with the absence of few icons from my list of phone application.I had few occasions where I reached out for my hand phone while thinking I have to tweet this just to realize that I no longer have the blue bird icon on my phone. Or the days when I had my on lipstick ,my hijab looks nice and I feel like I have to update this selfie before realizing there's no more Instagram. I thought I could have some peace of mind as what the article had suggested but instead I felt empty, disconnected and the feel of needing to update someone out there of what colour is my top today.
Now, it has been almost been a year since I've tweeted or Insta. Looking back I have learned so much, improved on a lot of things and achieved on things I never knew I could.
So , here are the
5 things I have learned from deleting my social accounts.
1. You dont feel the pressure/ stress of posting EVERYTHING. From what you wear, what you ate, and where you went who cares? Even if your eyebrows were on fleek on that day, wouldn't it be better if noticed it in real life instead from a heavy edited photo and a short comment on your insta comment box?
2. You begin to notice more details in your life. When you are not longer looking at the screen on your gadgets, you begin to notice the laugh lines on your SO's face, the grey hair on your mother's hair, the beggars at the road side and how fluffy the clouds are today. So, no more #cloudporn :)
3. When there's no Twitter, there will not be some random un-thoughtful rants and thoughts. It would save you from soo many online drama. Before I deleted my Twitter account, I was facing a really bad post-break up. So there's a lot of self pity tweets and haywire comments on my account. And I get mad when people asked me " what happened? ". After deleting it, it kinda restrain me from saying things I shouldn't have and exposed information that people should not know. So yeah, I am glad that people can no longer read what I runs in my mind every single time. I do admit, sometimes I still do draft out tweets in my mind or I write it down somewhere haha. But yeah, privacy is the way to go man.
4. You spend more time having quality conversations. Seriously people, put that phone down when you're at a restaurant or just chatting with a group of friends. What I noticed when we are not *again* facing our gadgets we are connecting ourselves with the people around us. Personally, I have had more quality conversations in real life than virtually. So please, engage with real humans when you have to.
5. Yes, not having social media means you would be missing the current trends/topics worldwide. But why are we obsessed in taking part of the current #swag #twerklikemiley and other weird trends? I don't know maybe its just me, but I think it's a waste of time and energy. And in the end, you gain nothing but some online drama between you and another stranger at the other side of the world. Hmm, I would rather be a Global Citizen in a different way.
And that's about it folks. I know some facts are rather biased to my own personal opinion but who are you to judge? It's something I write from what I had actually experienced.
Until then, toodles love.
I left Social Media for a Week.This is what happened. by Kate Arends
Some time my encounter with the article, I was in a serious and constant stress with everything in my life. Life was not treating me right and I felt like everyone is just watching by and not doing anything to help me out from my depression. Not that I am suggesting anything nor am I blaming anyone in this case but at the point, that's how I felt. I woke up one day thinking I had enough of the world and everyone in it. I need to be alone.
And that folks, is how I deactivated my Twitter, Instagram and Swarm all in one day. I kept my Facebook on tho, since I was still in my AIESEC term and I need Facebook to be connected with other AIESECers + the group assignments discussions that are all done virtually. But still, losing a bunch of sites that stops you from updating your life to 'friends' kinda hurts. ALOT.
For the first few days, nobody took notice of it and I am perfectly fine with it since I was in the phase where I hate you, you and everyone else in the world period. On the other hand, I had tough time coping with the absence of few icons from my list of phone application.I had few occasions where I reached out for my hand phone while thinking I have to tweet this just to realize that I no longer have the blue bird icon on my phone. Or the days when I had my on lipstick ,my hijab looks nice and I feel like I have to update this selfie before realizing there's no more Instagram. I thought I could have some peace of mind as what the article had suggested but instead I felt empty, disconnected and the feel of needing to update someone out there of what colour is my top today.
Now, it has been almost been a year since I've tweeted or Insta. Looking back I have learned so much, improved on a lot of things and achieved on things I never knew I could.
So , here are the
5 things I have learned from deleting my social accounts.
1. You dont feel the pressure/ stress of posting EVERYTHING. From what you wear, what you ate, and where you went who cares? Even if your eyebrows were on fleek on that day, wouldn't it be better if noticed it in real life instead from a heavy edited photo and a short comment on your insta comment box?
2. You begin to notice more details in your life. When you are not longer looking at the screen on your gadgets, you begin to notice the laugh lines on your SO's face, the grey hair on your mother's hair, the beggars at the road side and how fluffy the clouds are today. So, no more #cloudporn :)
3. When there's no Twitter, there will not be some random un-thoughtful rants and thoughts. It would save you from soo many online drama. Before I deleted my Twitter account, I was facing a really bad post-break up. So there's a lot of self pity tweets and haywire comments on my account. And I get mad when people asked me " what happened? ". After deleting it, it kinda restrain me from saying things I shouldn't have and exposed information that people should not know. So yeah, I am glad that people can no longer read what I runs in my mind every single time. I do admit, sometimes I still do draft out tweets in my mind or I write it down somewhere haha. But yeah, privacy is the way to go man.
4. You spend more time having quality conversations. Seriously people, put that phone down when you're at a restaurant or just chatting with a group of friends. What I noticed when we are not *again* facing our gadgets we are connecting ourselves with the people around us. Personally, I have had more quality conversations in real life than virtually. So please, engage with real humans when you have to.
5. Yes, not having social media means you would be missing the current trends/topics worldwide. But why are we obsessed in taking part of the current #swag #twerklikemiley and other weird trends? I don't know maybe its just me, but I think it's a waste of time and energy. And in the end, you gain nothing but some online drama between you and another stranger at the other side of the world. Hmm, I would rather be a Global Citizen in a different way.
And that's about it folks. I know some facts are rather biased to my own personal opinion but who are you to judge? It's something I write from what I had actually experienced.
Until then, toodles love.
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