The world of Social Media is without any doubt part of our everyday world. As soon as we open our eyes in the morning, we need to check how many likes we got in the selfie posted the night before on Instagram or who went out the night before on Snapchat. Somehow we control what everyone does.

Have you ever thought, at least once in your life: “I’m going to quit Facebook for a week, or I’m taking a break from Instagram;”? I bet you have.

But what I am interested in is why. Why do we feel the need of having a break from Social Media?

“The less you know, the better”, right?

Why are we so obsessed?

The constant obsession of looking into everyone’s life and depicting yours through a false Social identity is becoming a major issue to my generation but also to the whole society. Sometimes we forget that what we see on Social Media is what other people want us to see and It can make us feel insecure or ‘uncool’ if, for example, we don’t have that many ‘party’ photos in our feed as everyone else.

Why is it so hard to quit it then?

The fear of missing out or being ‘out of the loop’ if deleting from Social Media is probably what’s keeping us from doing it. We live in a world where we are used to know exactly what’s going on in everyone’s lives. Everything happen through it. How will people invite you to that event? How will that cute guy text you if he can’t find you on Facebook. What if..? How…?

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter.  We define each other through our often false online profiles. But why are we so obsessed? Why do we keep checking our Social Media as first and last thing of the day?

Does quitting social media make you happier? Check out this article published by The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/21/does-quitting-social-media-make-you-happier-yes-say-young-people-doing-it.

Being alone together

Psychologist Sherry Turkle says that “we are getting used to a new way of being alone together, we sacrifice conversation for mere connection as Social Media are becoming automatic listeners”.  In the world of Social Media we share, comment and like posts, feeling close to people, connected.

All of my friends always say they prefer talking to texting. Why is it so hard then, especially for my generation, to call instead of text? To ring the bell instead of messaging “I’m here”?  To actually enjoy a concert or a night out instead of just taking photos or snapchats to share the next day? We constantly need to tell everyone how much fun we are having, or what we are eating or even prove that we went to the gym just for the excitement of having a ‘cool’ photo to share. Even when we meet with our friends we spend most of the time sending each other funny snapchats or tagging ourselves in funny memes. Yes, it is fun, but are the real laughs and the real conversations just vanishing?

Are we then becoming lonelier, even when together?

How to be happier

The majority of us try to hide our true feelings behind a screen, and, even if we know it, somehow we can’t do otherwise.

There is no need of cutting out your virtual life to be happy… but you can choose to give it a different importance.

So try put your phone down a bit more and focus on yourself in real life. Use it to actually CONNECT instead of COMPARE. Take advantage of the good things it can offer focusing on your life and being yourself. Try and enjoy each moment without the need of capturing it with your phone… use your mind instead. Don’t forget to actually live and experience!

Let me know your thoughts and opinions on the matter.

Check out Sherry Turkle TED talk ‘Connected but alone’.

https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together