Social media can be addictive..
In other news, Water is wet, the sun is hot, and the pope more than likely doesn't actually deficate in the woods.
However, this is nothing new. Since the upward craze of early social media pioneers such as Myspace and Bebo, the news outlets and professors of this, that and everything else, have been flashing that little red warning light that a major issue could be emerging.
As early as the mid 2000s, Psycholgists in china were demanding that internet addiction be recognised as a "Disease", something that worryingly enough was passed and resulted in the establishment of infamous and deadly internet addiction camp roughly a decade later. Over in the US of A, academics found that at least 1 in 8 showed signs of problematic internet use. This was slowly becoming a worldwide phenomenon.
Fast foward to today, it is estimated that roughly a quarter of a billion people are addicted to the internet, social media and online shopping.
I NEVER thought I might have been one of them.
I always dismissed the posibility of having my own internet/social media addictiction, as I would so rarely post anything to my own feed or even engage with anyone else. Little did I realise that might have been potentially the most toxic of traits that a internet/social media addict can have.
I would find myself scrolling mindlessly through an endless information river of irrelevant memes, updates from aquaintences who I met once (and never spoke to again), and influencers who flaunt lives only few of us can dream of. Although without interaction with these posts and people, I began to feel like a voyeur. Someone just looking in through a window for a fleeting moment, and walking away.
All in all it felt a bit pointless. But every day I would wake up and repeat the same cycle.
I knew what I was doing was massively unproductive, but I still didnt think of it an addiction.
In that half hour of lying in bed, scrolling through Instagram, I could have instead made myself breakfast, had a shower and boom, 30 minutes ahead in my day. Or even smash out a 20 minute workout with 10 minutes of meditation on the end for good measure and mindfullness.
I attempted putting a timer on the instagram app that would alert and prevent me using the app for more than one hour per day. I conveniently forgot that phone companies and app designers all make money off your screen time so when a little pop up says "App time limit reached, do you want to add 10 minutes" and you click it because hey, whats a little guilt free 10 minutes going to hurt. That 10 minutes would become 30 minutes which would become... etc etc.
I believe the most disgraceful social media binge I ever had saw me record over 8 and a half hours instagram screentime in a single day.
TO DO WHAT? 8 and a half hours with absolutely nothing to show for it.
For years I was an amateur photographer. A keen hobbyist who spent too much money on kit that I probably had little idea on how to use. Only since early 2020 did I begin to transition my career into professional photography, building clientele and curating portfolios. For almost two years I have been meaning to publish my own website. An online presence where clients can view my portfolios, I can write blogs, provide a point of contact for potential new clients, and most importantly for me, purely existing only as myself, with no irrelevance or distraction.
Its been three days since I was walking from my apartment to the tube station, when I stopped abruptly, took my phone out of my pocket, long pressed that moreish instagram icon and hit uninstall. It was an absolute spur of the moment thing, I knew it absolutely had to be done but for some reason, something had prevented me from doing it for years. The next day I sat down and finally published my website.
I will reinstall instagram again, thats for sure. As a photographer and content creater you simply can't ignore it, its too powerful as a business tool. But for a few weeks at least, Instagram will be something that I forget about. I already feel more productive, my mind already feels more focused.
I deleted instagram to creative this website and start this blog. Best decision i've made lately, thats for sure.
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