on overcoming social media addiction

The damage that being on the internet eight hours a day caused to my teen brain cannot be resolved. I really wish social media was forbidden to minors because it would sincerely reduce cyberbullying and allow kids to develop critical thinking on their own, without being preyed on by ill-intentioned internet microcelebrities who just look for weak minds to influence.

Fucking despise this influencer term. Then again, it's probably just me being a bitter 22 year-old again. I am now a dinosaur in social media terms. Time flew too fast, I kinda want it back.

From the moment I entered high school, I found a irl community that made everyday life bearable, though my connection with them was only shallow. For two years, I've become somewhat of a social butterfly, spending cracking time with a shitload of amazing, fascinating, diverse individuals.

Yet, once I have a moment for unwinding, I hop on my phone and log back in Hell, The Bird App, of whom I've been an avid user since 2012. Twitter is the worst drug ever. Fills your brain with hatred, chewed-up theory, and negativity. As if the education system did not spent enough time molding their students' thinking skills, Twitter picks up the torch, turning lost teens into childish adults, stuck in a void of nihilism and cynicism, who hope for upcoming doom instead of facing their inner vacuity.

Twitter is addictive. It should be advertised as crack. I've tried everything. Therapy. Blocking the site. Timers. Nothing works. Then, it became evident that switching for a smaller, more regulated platform, less focused on the invective and more on sharing was what I looked for.

And this is how I arrived on the copycat of a website I was too young to know at its peak. I will overcome my addiction, as promised. Being radically hopeful is a revolution in itself ; I will practise being radically hopeful of my own abilities.