While almost everyone uses social media today, there have also been numerous studies that link social media usage with an increased risk of anxiety and depression due to the constant comparison to unrealistic portrayals of people’s lives. That, however, is not going to stop me from using it every minute of every day.
Let’s look at the facts: Does looking at my Instagram feed for more than two minutes make me physically nauseous? Yes. Does scrolling through Twitter/X terrify me about the current state of the world we live in? Also yes. Does watching TikTok for hours send me into a spiral about the future of human autonomy? Absolutely. Am I going to stop using any of those apps for even one second? Hell to the no!
When I, like many others, learned that the executives at Instagram knew their app had an overwhelmingly negative effect on teenage mental health and unsuccessfully tried to cover it up, I thought that was really terrible — but terrible in the same way that I think cigarettes are terrible, and I still smoke a pack a day!
Sure, posting something on any of these platforms does require a ten-minute period of prayer beforehand and an undetermined amount of time wallowing in regret afterwards, but that won’t keep me from uploading my thoughts and images to a worldwide platform where people can say anything about them. I may hate social media, what else am I supposed to do? Be productive? Go outside? Read? Get real.
It’s also clear that the ability to quantify and compare your following to other people’s is a recipe for disaster, and that this also benefits social media companies because users increase their usage in the hopes they get more personal engagement. However, even though I fully recognize and understand this fact, that doesn’t mean I won’t stop trying to get more followers on multiple platforms anyway. It’s a constant, embarrassing cycle of self-aggrandizement, and I just can’t get enough!
Using social media may make my skin crawl and send me into an anxious state almost immediately, but it’s still my favorite way to wake up in the morning! This is also the longest I’ve gone without looking at TikTok so… bye!
