As someone who’s strongly considering just this, could you describe the changes you felt? And — if you again returned to social media for a prolonged period — whether and how quickly those positive changes reverted?
My poison of choice was Twitter. I doomscroll, RT stuff which I "identified with", shit post etc. I can't completely describe the feelings since they were subtle but I'll try.
1. I used to have a fear of missing out on what's happening if I didn't stay upto date on Twitter. That went away. I was pretty upto date using HN and Google news. That fear went away. I announced before I went offline so when someone tagged me, some friends actually told them that I'd be away.
2. I used to take out my phone when I was bored or waiting for something and then scroll through making me jittery and anxious. That went away. I did it automatically but finding the site logged out of during that time just made me go back to being bored.
3. There was a state of mind. I'd say it was similar to the stereotypical "drooling in front of a TV" stereotype when I'm doom scrolling. Shortening temper, needless urgency, snapping when people interrupt my "flow". I get back into it every time I opened the site. I slipped out of this and when I then logged back in after a month, I could feel it pulling me back into that state of mind. I didn't explicitly track things but I quickly fell back into my old habits.
My platform of choice was YouTube until they introduced shorts and took a more aggressive stance against ad-blockers. I quit initially because I was against the direction the platform was heading, but realized quickly that I didn't miss it. It dawned on me that I had been investing 8 - 12 hours of my life weekly to passively consume content that I couldn't even remember. I noticed that at any slight moment of down-time I'd impulsively reach for YouTube, it's almost like I was conditioned to do so.
At the end of the day that's what Google wants. They want you to spend as much of your time as possible watching as many advertisements as possible. Most social media platforms are adversarial. Once I saw this I could not unsee it. Warning others is pointless. They'll be annoyed or just think you're weird. Not one person I know has taken my advice, so I've stopped giving it.
Tangent aside, for me the benefit of not using social media has been that I can invest the time into what I find fulfilling. The quality of the entertainment I consume has gone way up. The downside is that it's isolating. No I can't follow you on platform X, no I cannot view the link you've sent me to platform Y. Everyone, especially in my age group, considers it strange.
I have pretty much quit Reddit. It didn’t completely change my life, but it was a good thing.
Not getting involved in internet drama is great. I have completely lost the appetite for it. I haven’t heard about American politics for a while. I read and sketch more. My phone is easier to put down and less tempting to pick up; it gets boring quickly. I noticed that I’ll often be the last one to look at my phone when I am around others.
I spend a lot more time in the real world, touching grass. I’d say that this is the cause of my departure, not the effect. Online interactions are not nearly as satisfying.
Being out of it and staying out of it means that you don’t know about the local internet drama, and that you don’t get any notifications from that site. With each visit, the website gets less interesting because nothing interesting is waiting for you there.
