so you deleted social media... now what_

You probably feel like social media has taken over your entire life. It's sucking dry your childlike joy and creative spark. It's infiltrated into every crevice of your mind. At what point did I pick up my phone and never put it back down again? So you do it. You do the thing. You finally delete social media. And, well, now what? Here are five obstacles you can expect after quitting social media and why it's worth it. Well, expect to reach for your phone. A lot. Just because you deleted the apps doesn't mean that your brain magically stopped being addicted to your phone. It's still there, you just lost access to it. When I first got off of social media, I found myself reaching for my phone just as much as I did before. I'd just end up scrolling through my photos or my email. But I realized that I used my phone as a crutch for any kind of boredom or difficulty. For example, when I get stuck on something at work, my instinct would be to reach for my phone and start scrolling. Also expect that you most likely will relapse. As with any addiction, relapsing is a part of the journey. I've relapsed and redownloaded the app so many times before and I noticed that for me a lot of the common triggers would be special events or trips that I'd go on. I used to use TikTok to search up restaurants and cool places to go. Of course, I would end up getting sucked back into the apps and stay on it for much longer than I intended to. That's what these apps are designed to do. They're designed to capture your attention at a psychological level. It doesn't mean you're broken, it literally just means that the platforms are working as they're intended to. Hey guys, Editing Zia here. I just want to interject real quick and say that I'm not trying to imply that I'm somehow better than anyone else for not being on social media. I genuinely just had a really bad social media addiction to the point where I would spend 8 to 12 hours a day on social media and I realized that was really stopping me from doing literally anything else with my life. So for me personally, I've seen a lot of benefits from getting off of social media but that's not for everyone and some people can have very healthy relationships with it. Yeah, that's all. The apps are not pre-installed on my phone. It adds a little bit of friction and makes me think twice about whether or not I really want to use the app because I'm not going to redownload a whole app just to scroll on my phone for five minutes. I think for me that's a healthier balance for staying off of social media because it's not about complete restriction but if I need it for some sort of research purpose, I do allow myself to do that. Another thing that you can expect to feel is FOMO. When you're off of social media, sometimes you quite literally have no idea what's going on in other people's lives and because of that, it can feel very disconnecting and kind of make it feel like you don't have friends anymore. While I did struggle with FOMO in the beginning, over time I've kind of learned to see it as a good thing because now the people that I talk to and hang out with are people that I see in real life, people who have my phone number and can contact me directly. I think social media made me feel like I had a lot of friends because I would like and comment on other people's posts from college or high school but I wouldn't actually interact with these people in real life so when I was no longer having these types of interactions, it definitely made me feel like my circle shrunk a lot. You're also going to find that you don't understand pop culture, internet culture, or memes as much anymore which again used to make me feel a lot of FOMO because when my friends in real life would bring up some internet trend, I would have no idea what they're talking about and every single time it's always just like, oh have you seen this trend, have you heard of this blah blah and the answer is always no. I never know what's going on and it definitely made me feel like I was missing out but when I consider how much more clarity and control I feel over my life by getting off of social media, I feel like not understanding some internet memes is a small price to pay for that. One thing that I really struggled with when I got off of social media was that I felt so uninformed. I used to be someone that pretty much got all of my news off of social media and so when I wasn't on it anymore, I felt like I just had no idea what was going on in the world or in politics and that was honestly something that made me feel rather conflicted about getting off of social media because there's a lot happening in the world right now. It's very chaotic out there and I didn't want to feel like I was being complacent to all the injustices that were happening around me. A lot of times social media would be the first place that you would hear about something and so when I wasn't on it anymore, it would just take me a lot longer because I would only find things out when other people would tell me about something that happened and I would do my own research. I think I also began to see that as a good thing. It has allowed me to create my opinions separate from the opinions of other people and I think when you are on social media, a lot of times it can be difficult to distinguish whether something is a belief that you formed yourself or if it was formed by the millions of other opinions that were on your feed. It's very hard to distinguish that because a lot of times what you passively consume can subconsciously affect your beliefs without you really knowing it and so that was one thing that I was also struggling with when I was using social media. I felt like I kind of became an echo chamber of all the opinions that I heard online. So now even though the trade-off is that I don't hear my news as quickly anymore and it takes a bit more effort to gain information, I do think that's an overall good thing that I'm learning things through my own research rather than through the lens of someone else. I do think that social media can be a contributing factor to why our political landscape is so divisive these days. We do listen to opinions online and end up regurgitating them in our real lives without noticing and when your TikTok algorithm sees that you engage with a lot of emotionally charged political content is going to give you more of that and a lot of times it really makes it seem like the world is ending and even though in some ways that is kind of true, I don't think it's healthy for the average person to be in taking a constant feed of negativity every day. Not even being uninformed but being slowly informed is a small price to pay. I did not have to consume all that negativity. The next thing that you can expect is of course you are going to be bored. We all know that our brains are fried. It's called brain rot for a reason. Our dopamine receptors are fried. Our attention spans are cooked. We quite literally don't know how to be bored as a society anymore and I think that there's a lot of damage in not allowing a society to be bored because I think that in allowing yourself to be bored, creativity is born. Inspiration is born. It's really hard to create. It's really hard to do anything meaningful when you're constantly numbing your brain with a constant stream of fast dopamine. It's hard to do hard things when easy things are so insanely gratifying and that was another reason that I originally got off of social media to begin with because I felt like I couldn't do challenging things anymore. I couldn't sit down and focus on a project that I really wanted to do because it was just easier and more fun for me to go scroll on TikTok instead. Sometimes it takes you being bored, staring at the wall, staring at a blank canvas and I felt like for me, I lost the skill of being bored. I couldn't go up the elevator for 10 seconds without pulling out my phone. I can't even go to the bathroom without going on my phone. I got so used to filling every single gap of time with entertainment that I didn't have time to just think anymore. So for me, when I first deleted social media, I felt like an uncomfortable silence. My brain wasn't used to being so understimulated but I think once you get over those initial feelings of discomfort, it becomes a lot easier for you to sit down and read or sit down and draw or do something creative to lean into your hobbies because yes, it is extremely hard to create when all you do is consume and consumption is not a hobby. Getting off of social media is just insanely understimulating and you're gonna be bored but I think that there are great things on the other side of boredom. So yes, I just told you all these reasons why you're going to struggle getting off of social media, why it's going to suck. So why is it worth it to do it anyways? The silver lining here, getting off of social media gave me three noticeable improvements to my quality of life. One, your friendships and your relationships will be few but they will be deeper and more meaningful. Yeah, it's gonna feel like you're losing friends but it also gives you so much more time and energy to really nourish the ones that you care about. Social media gives us the illusion that we're surrounded by people and yet we still feel so alone. Shutting out that noise allows you to focus on the people who really matter. Number two, you will find inspiration. Like I said, great things are bred out of boredom. You have to allow yourself to be bored. You have to allow yourself to be understimulated for any creativity to flow. I've personally started passion projects such as this YouTube channel and last but not least, number three, you will develop your personal style, taste, opinions, and beliefs. When there's no longer the noise of everyone else, it becomes a lot easier for you to understand what you truly like. Our generation is going through an identity crisis. We so deeply fear the loss of individuality but the only way to truly know yourself, understand yourself, is by giving yourself time to be alone and that means cutting out the noise. Do you really like that thing? Do you really want to buy it? Do you really believe in this cause? Or have you just been influenced? Alright guys, that's all I have for you today. Thank you for joining me again. If you like this video, please make sure to like and subscribe and I will see you guys next time. Bye bye!