My pastor actually had a great sermon about this topic this past Sunday, and although I won't do an in-depth bible analysis of everything like how he did, I think there could be a few things to take away from the sermon that can relate to this generation's fanatics with social media. I've spoken about social media time and time again in my blogs and I always talk about the problems with it, but I never really talk about the solutions. It's hard to get away from the thrill of it all, but it's honestly worth it sometimes, especially when you're considering your own self-growth.
My addition to social media
I'm thinking about myself last summer, and I was much like everyone else: social media crazed. Whenever I was in a cute outfit with my makeup done, I'd take a photo for Instagram. Whenever I woke up in the morning, I immediately grabbed my phone and logged into Snapchat to do my daily streaks. Whenever someone said something funny on the Rutgers buses, I'd immediately tweet it. It was actually insane how much social media took over my life. And it was insane how much time I was putting into something that wasn't even really tangible; something that was all digital.
How I came to the realization
I first got really fed up with Snapchat at the beginning of this year. I remember my friends texting me, "save the streak!!!!" and started to realize that the streaks were just a method for you to open the app every single day. It's human instinct to see how long you can go at doing something, and the Snapchat creators really utilized this well in marketing. It also upset me how people didn't feel the need to have real conversations with people anymore because they were "streaking." And I don't mean over the phone conversations, because I honestly hate talking on the phone. I mean just regular, texting conversations that normal friends would usually have. But instead, people were using Snapchat streaks as a way to have these conversations, and they ended up being really surface level and lacking depth. Don't even get me started on the fact that people automatically thought they were friends with someone because they had a streak, even though y'all just send a black screen saying, "strk" every morning. Yeah, that's true friendship right there.
Then came the deactivation of my Twitter account. In all honestly, I thought it was just getting annoying because everyone had an issue with everything and these days it had become a "roast fest." Basically, people will reply comment to other people's photos and say ridiculous things, just for clout. It got annoying to a certain degree because no one felt genuine to me. It was honestly the easiest for me to delete because I already wasn't that much into it when I started using it.
The hardest to delete, in my opinion, was Instagram. I've had my Instagram longer than I had my Twitter and Snapchat, so it was precious to me. But I started to realize that it was only really precious to me because I cared about however many likes I was getting on each of my photos. I remember scrolling through my feed one night and seeing a whole bunch of people posing like models and the one photo I saw of my friend, with a wide genuine smile, it made me smile too. Just like Twitter, I felt like people on Instagram were just doing things for clout and likes. No one really put up photos just to have up there for memories.
The outcome
Because of the disingenuousness of it, I just decided to delete them all. Do I believe there were other solutions to the problems? Sure, most definitely. I could have just not sent streaks back or tried to limit my time on social media or unfollow the clout-leechers. But I felt like someway, somehow, I would have ended up in the same predicament I was in. And plus, I feel like I have so much more time on my hands now. I'm not constantly checking my phone for updates or to see whoever liked my latest picture. And I'm no longer taking photos just to post them anymore. I'm taking them to keep as memories.
The conclusion
A lot of my friends have asked why I've done it and it's simply so I can dedicate more of my time to the things that really matter to me. A lot of them have also asked how I'm going to keep connected with everybody and everything.
Honestly, if anyone wants to know what I'm up to, they don't need to check my latest post to see. It's simpler just to ask.
