It can be very intimidating to find out what your peers are up to after high school. Like whether or not that popular girl in your class ever got pregnant.
We find it enticing to look into the ever-so-fascinating lives that are not our own dull and boring ones. It can even be hazardous to your health, physically and mentally, if you spend too much time seeing how "trendy" you aren't.
I found myself deep in my depression after I graduated from high school. I wasn't sure what I would make of the rest of my life, and I wasn't confident that I'd live up to the standards set upon me in high school.
Social media became my breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the longest time. I often found myself engaging with people more online than I did face-to-face. I wasn't sure what was the source of my ever prolonging sadness, but I knew I needed to find solace soon or I would have fallen into a deep spiral.
I'd scroll aimlessly through Twitter and Instagram, liking and retweeting everything that I wasn't, or that I had hoped to be.
I'm not sure what triggered it, but I ended up crying over a tweet that had appeared on my timeline for no reason at all. I knew something was wrong, and I was so unsure of where to start.
I paid attention to what was making me the most "hypersensitive." I quickly realized that social media had consumed every aspect of my life, and I needed a recharge. I needed to get away from the thing that was causing me the most pain.
I deleted all of my social media applications on my phone and made sure there was no sign of or access to any of the platforms. I wanted to remain out of the loop and back into my own headspace. I quickly turned my attention to downloading games on my phone, something to take away from that desperate need to see what everyone was up to by scoring innocent points in a figurative world.
I felt the freest in the 11 months I spent away from social media. I was less stressed, more engaged, and a bit happier. I wasn't worried about what people were doing, or saying, or wearing. For once I took the time to focus on myself, and I was all that mattered in the end.
