How to Quit Social Media
I Lost My Phone and Had to Survive Without Social Media — It Was the Best Day of My Life
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I no longer want to be the person who always wins out when I compare screen time stats with my friends. I want to be able to put down the phone for hours, not minutes. I want to hold my boyfriend's gaze for more than 0.5 seconds from across the dinner table. I want to watch the sunset from start to finish, instead of just glancing at it, snapping it, and posting it somewhere.
I like to remind myself that work is not my whole life, and I really do associate my phone with constantly being "on" for the job. But when it comes down to it, my loved ones and the way I see the world are what define me. If I'm not really looking at those people and those things, or there's a screen between us, won't I lose sight of who I am?
Social media is no bad thing, because I do believe it connects the population in new ways that can be beneficial. But maybe we should all consider what life was like before, when no one felt so obligated to keep up appearances or keep up with other people's appearances. A time when everyone was a little more loose — maybe a time like Freddie Mercury's. I feel like I experienced it that night out on the boardwalk with Joey. I felt free, like "any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me."