Life is really awesome without social media

I've basically never had a need for Instagram or Tiktok in my life. The closest thing I have to social media is YouTube and Pinterest. A lot of people fear that without social media they will be "behind" in cultural things, or miss out on everything. I think I've just curated only friends who don't rely on trends or memes to keep a conversation going. 

I still pick up a lot of what's happening through YouTube, if its even notable to be covered by the 10 YouTubers I do watch, but all those memes/trends that last a week on TikTok? I'm completely unaware of. "Did you hear about that TikTok drama?" What the hell are you talking about. I don't care about some random woman's drama with another random woman. You guys will just forget about this in a week. 

I've realized that the time period where I did have Instagram, briefly in 8th grade, I was constantly checking on my classmates lives and getting that sick feeling of FOMO. "Wow everyone just has it so figured out, they live such aesthetically pleasing lives". Then I realized I felt that way and just deleted it with no notice. And suddenly all those problems disappeared. 

Its a bit easier for me, since I don't have a lot of friends, long distance or close. I don't need to know or follow every single classmate because I only talk to the few people I like. And I don't care about you people's lives that much anyways, sorry to be harsh.

I mean those apps are just curated to make you feel like you're miserable and missing out. And they are curated to make you waste all your time scrolling and consuming brainless content. I don't like any short form content, I've specifically have my shorts turned off on YouTube ever since the feature was introduced. Whenever I feel myself scrolling too much on Pinterest, I just decided to lock the app for a while.

Should say that just because something is "long form content" doesn't make it immediately better (there's a lot of shitty video essays in the world trust me), I'm just saying I prefer watching people who make longer videos about things they enjoy, people who spend weeks researching a topic then present it to me, rather than random TikToker #293922 narrating the same video everyone else saw that week. There's probably a lot of great TikTokers out there, but I still usually prefer to sit down and watch some guy explain the random thing he's been researching for weeks, rather than the person who could summarize it in 40 seconds.

I'm not saying everyone should achieve this, or that it's easy, I'm just really used to doing this since I've never really had social media ever. I don't like feeling addicted or dependent to things, so I get good at cutting myself off early. I don't drink because it tastes bad, even if that's something that is supposed to "make you feel better" or allows you to have fun. I can be crazy and have fun without alcohol. I don't smoke, it just seems gross. Maybe it's also because some addiction runs in my family so I avoid it, but I'm really good at battling them before they begin. 

I feel like more and more people feel disconnected from social media as well. A few years ago when I would tell people "No, I don't have Snapchat or TikTok or whatever" they would be shocked and tell me I'm living under a rock. The reaction has changed within the last few years, because now a lot people are like "Damn, I wish I could disconnect."

I join fandoms even when they are "outdated" or "toxic" (aka there's just fandom discourse, which happens wherever on the Internet). I love getting into media when the entire fandom is already moved on. I don't care about a trendy new fandom, I go at things my own pace. The fandom already moved on? Well they left all this cool content for me to look at, so who cares if its a few years old? 

Same thing with music. "That music is so 2020." I liked it in 2020, and I like it now, what difference does that make? For a while I felt embarrassed for still enjoying artists like Mother Mother, Tally Hall, Will Wood, that sort of "cringe" animation meme music. But its my guilty pleasure and I enjoy it. No matter what new music is trending, or what is outdated, I'm just gonna enjoy listening to it because I like it. 

...

I don't know, I felt like ranting. I feel really opposite from a lot of people sometimes when they do like social media. Admittedly, I do feel left out sometimes. But I'm really proud of myself for having boundaries like this. Its easy steps to keep myself disconnected enough, to have that healthier balance. I don't want to feel terrible about my looks, about how I act, what I'm into. Not engaging with mainstream social media is really helping this. If you struggle with the same thing, consider maybe just cutting it all off and see how you feel.

- KB☆