In 2019 I decided to take a break from social media. For the duration of 8 months starting in November 2019, I abandoned Instagram, the primary platform I had used. As far as I can recall, social media had been integrated into my life and the society around me since 2007. For reference, I was just a teenager starting high school back then. For me, social media had started with Facebook, and it eventually led me to Twitter, Instagram, Vine and Snap Chat. At the time, social media felt relatively harmless. On Facebook I could add friends and accept requests, share images and participate in this way of socializing with others outside of image and forum boards. It was similar on Twitter. I would tweet about some of the most useless things happening in the world around me at 16. There was never this pressure to have thousands of followers. Truth be told, I think I had like 8 followers on Twitter in 2010… Social media was an after school novelty. It was something that was in the background, but it was never an important part of my life and identity.
Somewhere down the road, social media began to change. In my opinion this happened between 2011-2013. Facebook began to integrate a new algorithm and feed on their platform where some user generated content was shown while other content was not based on user engagement. This replaced the original chronological feed that a user would see. It later translated to both Instagram and Twitter, and even to YouTube. In just the blink of an eye, tech companies globally were adopting and creating algorithms that were designed to retain your attention. Pretty soon there was this explosion of marketing and search engine optimization that was used to manufacture content in order to sell something, rather than encouraging socialization. To add to this growing trend, social media platforms were now in our hands via mobile cellphones rather than on a desktop/laptop computer alone, increasing ease of accessibility. In just a short period of time the social landscape had completely changed.
In 2018 I began to grow fatigued of social media. For years I had used numerous platforms to promote my businesses and projects. Most notably, the release of my book, The Habits That Define Us. During this time, I obsessed over analytics and metrics. I designed content so that more people would like it, in the hopes that this would then funnel their attention to more of my content. Was it deceptive? Yes. While I stand by all the content I created, it would be disingenuous to suggest that some content was not used to help market my book or other projects. In short, to retain the attention of my customers to further sell my goods. It’s not something new. Marketing and sales techniques have been around forever. However, when I truly look at it, it was all a big waste of time. I was not focusing on the content that I really wanted to create on the grounds that most of it would not be looked at. We have been living in the Vine generation since 2013, where if your content does not catch the eyes of others in 3-4 seconds, it’s going to suffer and never be looked at again. The stress and anxiety of spending hours on your work, only to have it not looked at was always in the back of my mind. And so, I employed the same deceptive technique as other content creators out there.
At the beginning of 2019, and after the release of The Habits That Define Us, I decided to just take a step back from it all. While promoting my book, I was being pulled in all different directions by those that consumed the content I created. On one end I was being pulled into supporting mental health initiatives. At another end, I was being asked to make social commentaries about subjects that I was not well informed or educated on. There was always the looming stress of what the next project would be, along with the ongoing stress of how well sales would be for my book. All of this brought the realization that the platforms that I had used to promote my projects were doing more harm than good. I could not just simply write a book or put out content. I always had do more. I was engaged the whole time with social media, and despite having used these platforms for years, this was the first time that I was really glued to it.
You know how there is always one job that you hate and begrudgingly go to just because you have to embrace it for the time being because it’s all you can get? That’s what social media felt like at this time. It was this huge black hole that was consuming my time, energy, and focus. And that’s the straw that broke that camels back. So starting in November of 2019, I took a break. I deactivated my Instagram account and just went about my business. I hadn’t used Twitter or Facebook since 2015 so there was not any problems there either. And what did I experience? Nothing substantially amazing. I had more free time. I was not looking at my phone as often, and I felt myself enjoying socialization more in person rather than behind a screen. And funny enough, no one reached out to me when I deactivated Instagram. People who could always reach my by phone did. But the one platform that was meant to increase socialization, actually did that when I removed it from my life. Ironic.
So now I’m here in 2021 after reactivating both Instagram and Twitter in late 2020. I find that I still rarely use the platforms, and this time around I use it to generate and promote content that is meaningful to me. It has become a novelty again, one that I can look at from time to time. I have no more pressure to post or promote content that is not worth my time or energy.
Until next time,
~ Sandeep