Yes, I believe spending too much time on social media triggers depression.. I never feel ok unless I get busy doing something outside, so I never
yes i realize the irony of posting this on an internet forum on a social media account but like... you get what i'm saying.
in august, following a pretty bad stunt with my mental health, i made the sudden decision to delete my social media presence and wipe it out of my life entirely. i went totally cold turkey and deactivated my twitter and discord accounts (which i ended up ultimately deleting) and removed any and all forms of social interaction aside from imessage from my phone and computer.
there was a big buildup to this breakdown in which i was constantly unhappy and under a lot of stress from doomscrolling and reading hundreds of tweets, comments, responses, quotes, etc. every hour of the day. i realized that the good that social media brought to my life was pretty much entirely limited to seeing updates from my friends and keeping up with the news. otherwise, i was drowning in negativity, self-conscious feelings, paranoia, fear of being called out/made fun of for literally nothing, and being dragged into others' drama. i didn't do anything wrong - hell, i pretty much did nothing other than post about my day or tweet photos of my cat, but that feeling of dread was always bubbling up inside of me. it became so clear to me that i spent nearly all of my screentime (and there was a lot of it) feeling like garbage before it dawned on me - why am i wasting so much time on feeling bad when i could be doing things i love? when i could be spending time with people i love? when i could be bettering my life, my friendships, my relationship, and my community? and so i deleted it all.
at first, it took a really long time to get over feelings of guilt and anxiety that i had over vanishing so suddenly and without a trace. i felt bad for my online acquaintances for suddenly breaking mutuals with no explanation, but then it set in that i was making a larger decision for my own mental health. i suddenly had to fill my time off work with something other than looking at my phone or my computer screen, and that was a stressful endeavor at the start.
i started trying to draw again, but it felt like it was directionless without the motivation of online attention to bolster my self-esteem. i started reading more, but felt like i had nowhere to post about my book opinions and updates on my reading challenges and ratings. i wanted to watch movies but found myself wanting to reach for twitter to see what others had to say about new films. it was so much harder than i ever anticipated to distance myself from a social media dependency, but i'll never regret doing so.
about a month in, i switched to journaling when i wanted to express myself. when it came to conversation, i began reaching out directly to my friends who i wanted to actually keep up with as opposed to hundreds of internet strangers. i found my art improving without the impulse of making things palatable for a twitter feed or brainstorming how to generate lots of likes/follows. i was able to spend more time with my girlfriend and friends and get closer to my loved ones offline. i've gone out dancing, gone on road trips, gone to lots of local restaurants, practiced cooking, read dozens of books, and had parties and get-togethers. i've met new friends and gone aimlessly walking and driving with no end-goal in sight and no particular motivation to capture an instagram or twitter-worthy picture to document the occasion. i've learned to live in the moment and have my screen time stay below 1-2 hours each day.
slowly, i have started to reintroduce instagram, tumblr, tiktok, and discord back into my life, but i've been engaging with those apps in complete moderation. i try to keep tabs on how long i spend on social media each day, and if i'm online for too long, i pause and think about something else i'd rather be doing. some days i rely on it more than others, especially when things offline are bad and i need a distraction, but i feel that my overall relationship to it is so much healthier. i feel so much more in touch with my life and myself as a person without the constant nagging urges to check twitter.
in retrospect: all of the twitter discourse i engaged with that seemed so big and so important has vanished into absolute nothingness in my time offline. all of the petty drama and callouts and everything has pretty much crumbled into dust. the things i spent so much time fighting about online actually turned out to have little to no bearing in my life outside of the internet, and in retrospect i feel really stupid for wasting so much energy on it all. it's become clear to me that quitting cold turkey was the absolute best thing i could have done for my health, and if you feel that you're becoming overly dependent on social media beyond simply using it, i encourage you to do something to keep your screentime in check. it doesn't have to be quite so drastic :-)
if you read this whole essay i congratulate you and hope you have a great day! take care!
Yes, I believe spending too much time on social media triggers depression.. I never feel ok unless I get busy doing something outside, so I never like to be "free" or doing nothing since it triggers my depression, I've also been constantly deleting my social media accounts, th and WhatsApp are the only apps I'm using now in and I don't even have mentioned ppl to chat with Leave the platform that seems toxic, create an acc in a better one, and don't spend too much time in that acc, if u hated it, just log out and take ur time to rest Part of u will feel better knowing u still have something left, entirely disappearing will make u feel empty smh
Nothing will feels better unless u set yourself a goal, and give the most of ur time building it. Being down will lead u to be lost in thoughts which leads to self hate and emptiness.. It'll be better if u set urself some small and short term goals first to not feel uselessness.. Oh, and the best goals r those which r useful for ur health and future! :) good luck!