The phrase “I quit social media, here’s what I learned,” produces more than 22 million results on Google and thousands of videos on YouTube.
While quitting social media has its benefits, going cold-turkey on technology is not as easy as it sounds.
Kate Tilleczek, a professor of education at York University and scientific director of young lives laboratory research shows that young people find it hard to disconnect from technology because when they do, they cannot connect with other people.
She also said in an email that social media affects “all domains of wellbeing (physical, spiritual, emotional and social).”
Social media is addictive because the social media companies designed it that way, she added.
“There are a number of reasons why they are reliant,” she said. “First, the designers wanted them to become so and went out of their way to use behavioural and psychological tactics to compel them. Then, once they were on and all of their friends and family and maps and social media were there, they went down the rabbit hole, as we all did.”
This “rabbit hole” propagated by big tech companies draws young adults in and makes it difficult to extract themselves from with feeling as if they have “completely disappeared,” according to Tilleczek.
According to SproutSocial statistics, there are 2.5 million monthly active Instagram users, and Instagram’s total ad revenue for 2019 was $28.52 billion.
Students stuck on social
For her, technology is like a double-edged sword, because it is an easy way to connect with people, but those connections can be superficial.
“I want to stay in contact with everyone and the easiest way to do it nowadays is just fucking scrolling through everyone’s finsta posts. And they’re posting everything that’s going on,” she said.
“ It took me realizing that that’s a very shallow form of trying to stay in touch with people. By just viewing their posts, I’m not even interacting with them and if I am, it’s in the most shallow way possible.”
“when you have friends and family you don’t see everyday it’s kind of cool to get a little bit of their life through Instagram or whatever. But if you actually want to talk to them, just text them, call them.”
-Veronica Carvalho, First year journalism student
The journey of cutting back on social media has also been taken by Sash Mahara, a second-year industrial design student. For Mahara, using social media as a distraction sometimes leads to negative emotions.
“I think the way it affects me is, it just eats my time and then I’ll only realize how [much] time I’ve been using,” he said. “And then I’ll get a cycle of, ‘Ugh I’m so unproductive’ and just like ‘Oh my god, you’re so unfocused, you’re a bad student’ and it spirals into me, and just thinking bad about myself.”
Veronica Carvalho, a first-year journalism student said social media helps her stay in touch with her friends and family.
“I use Facebook mostly for university stuff, Snapchat is just for my friends and I guess Instagram is just like to just check up on people that I don’t see that often” she said.
For her, the ability to see snippets of close friends’ lives keeps her on social media.
“I think social media is really cool and important. Personally, I have family that doesn’t live in Canada and when you have friends and family you don’t see every day it’s kind of cool to get a little bit of their life through Instagram or whatever. But if you actually want to talk to them, just text them, call them.”
Is cutting back the solution?
Shana MacDonald, an assistant professor of communication and researcher at Waterloo University said that taking breaks from social media can be helpful–but not quitting completely.
“I don’t think that necessarily quitting is the answer because social media is also good for community building. And so you may find that you have these other experiences of empowerment where you realize you can grow, you have community, you can mobilize your politics to hashtags,” she said.
“So it’s not necessarily that quitting is the key, but maybe being very selective about how you spend your time online, and who you engage with online,” she added.
Mahara shares how he uses social media to stay in touch with friends.
“We don’t have time to really FaceTime or call each other, so just seeing photos and sharing memes together keeps us on the same page and that turns into like, another conversation.”
“I have kept them all because they’re so useful in terms of contacting people and staying in touch with friends, especially because I live so far from home,” she said.
“It’s important for me to contact my friends and send them photos of the life that I have here.”
“Personally, for me as a university student living away from home, three provinces away, I’m from Halifax, it’s really important for me to have that understanding of what’s going on at home,” she said. “I think I’m too busy here to have constant, direct communication with my friends from home.”
Linders said this allows her to stay connected to home but isn’t “taking away” from her university experience.
“If I’m in a good mental space it’s really good for me cause I can connect with friends and everything. I think in that way, as long as I’m doing well and taking care of myself and watching how I’m using it, it’s always been good for me,” she said.
But, it does have an impact on her mental health, she added.
“It’s a distraction, so it’s an easy waste of time. I think that’s a negative impact that it’s had in the past. It’s just an excuse to not go out and do things.”
Mahara decided to take a break from social media because he found it distracting and time-wasting.
“I used to use Instagram daily and it would eat up an hour or two hours of my day. So, I logged out of Instagram and I only log back in on the weekends now,” he said. “It’s really effective and helped me stick to a schedule.”
“I started doing it in finals in December and I’ve been doing it ever since. I think I’ll keep doing it … It’s actually rewiring my habits a little bit.”
Blanchette also quit social media during exam period because she found it distracting. She described her use as “too much.”
“I’ve gone through waves of it being really impactful and then waves of it being perfectly fine,” she said. “When I am happy with my own life, I am happier on social media and less affected by it all.”
“Ever since I’ve been off social media it’s like I’m doing a lot more of the things I actually find valuable, hobby-wise … I’m more focused on goals, and my life,”
– Ava St.Germain, first year english student
MacDonald, who also runs an Instagram account called Feminists Do Media to explore community-building potential for practice-based research, said that breaks from social media can be useful.
St. Germain, who quit social media this year, found that she had a good experience going offline.
“Ever since I’ve been off social media it’s like I’m doing a lot more of the things I actually find valuable, hobby-wise … I’m more focused on goals, and my life,” she said. “I’m just trying to spend more time with myself, get to know myself through something other than posting all of my feelings and thoughts online.”
Doing what works for you
Students realize social media is a highlight reel for everyone else.
St. Germain points out the stereotype or “ideals for young girls to live up to,” social media portrays can be damaging.
“It’s like, what are we looking up to at this point? And what we’re looking up to is like the contour and the beautiful eyebrows, and everything being on point, on fleek. I can’t be on fleek all the time!” she says.
“It definitely gives you a weird version of reality,”
Micheal Kanter, first year PAPUM student
Carravalho puts it simply: “You’re just looking at the pictures, and no one puts themselves all the time! You just put the best picture,” she said.
For Kanter, he is not convinced that quitting social media works.
“You know that very large argument depending on what circumstances you go into that people need to every once in awhile delete social media and get off of it. I don’t necessarily buy that, I don’t think that works for everyone,” he said. “Know that social media only gives you a tiny, tiny picture of what’s actually happening. Don’t take everything at face value”
However, some students found otherwise.
“It was such a weight off my shoulders! I didn’t realize how [much] it was to have to check it hourly every day. I didn’t realize how much time I was wasting on something,” Linders said after cutting back.
For students looking to completely eradicate social media use like St. Germain, the solution is simple.
“If I can make this easy change to make my life easier, then why not?” she says. “If you feel like it’s not benefiting you, why are you still on it?”
Feature image by Marieta-rita Osezua.
