January 30, 2025

Goodbye, social media

I have deleted my Instagram and Facebook accounts today. I gained some inspiration from my sister and a friend recently quitting the platforms. I wish it was a more meaningful act of protest, but it’s at least part of the preservation of my mental life. Social media is candy for our attention, rotting our abilities for sustained focus or―and more insidious―sustained boredom. Boredom is uncomfortable and distressing to minds that are habitually tethered to grabbing a device on the toilet or the Tube, creating “empty” time out of the daily tasks of life so that we can “fill” them with content.

I deliberated, hovering over the “Are you sure you want to delete Instagram?” message, opening another browser tab to check who’d I miss on my following list. And yes, I have been using Instagram in Firefox on my phone for the last several months. The quality of viewing is so horrendous―stutters and screen jumping, freezing and buffering forever―that it discouraged any sustained Reels scrolling activity. But even a quarter of an hour felt too long, too vacuous and emptying. I think that experience has characterized my time on social media the last few months, actually: “Why am I scrolling right now?”

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Facebook is arguably much worse in the quality of its content, making it more hilarious in a cynical way. For instance, I am part of a few groups for some local towns, counties, and hobbies. In a certain group, an entrepreneurial man posted a flyer for an off-brand secession movement in California. With the meet-up set for a local Mountain Mike’s, the flyer read: “What is the future of this country and also will discuss strategy.” I knew the comments were going to be caustic without even looking.

Beside the nutritional emptiness of social media content, I am quitting so to reevaluate my relationship with “the news.” Given that my wife and I don’t pay for cable or streaming services, I don’t watch more traditional forms of news. And I don’t think I ever will. Cable news coverage in the past few years, and especially during the pandemic, has reached a fever pitch of sensationalism. Yet it’s not as if online reporting is much better, and I passively absorbed news from social media. Limiting my exposure there will help me figure out “what truly matters,” if that phrase even makes sense anymore.

I used to believe that being informed was important, a civic duty, an extension of my belief that I’m a good person and care about what’s happening. I also used to believe that, while logging off for a time is good for “mental health,” it shouldn’t be a permanent solution; that it’s just a “privilege” to not be informed. I’m starting to think this entire line of reasoning is flawed in our current moment. Stay engaged in what you have control over; get involved where your contribution matters. But to wander aimlessly in media ecosystems that reward outrage and sensationalism does not seem a reliable road to “being informed.”

(Despite my high horse, this farewell to social media does not yet apply to Reddit and YouTube. Those are platforms that I am much less engaged with socially. Please withhold any hypocrisy accusations for the time-being while I adjust to the boredom and ennui of life without infinite scrolling.)

Life


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