should we all just be adapting to social media?

what if we’re all just the old man yelling at a cloud refusing to leave the good old days of dial-up internet behind

The other week, I was called a conservative purist for reminiscing about the use of house phones. “Get off YOUR phone,” they said, and something about how people’s relationships with their phones are complex and I shouldn’t be judging them for it. I showed my boyfriend this remark, we both laughed and I blocked the user.

But maybe they had a point. Am I being too harsh when I talk about how we should all just delete the apps and keep it moving? Is it too harsh to assume everyone can simply uninstall TikTok and never look back? Am I being judgemental when I tell people to put their phones down and pick up a crochet needle instead?

No, not really.

Or perhaps I am just being a stubborn mule that doesn’t like change. Because, yes, I do think the world was a little better, a little easier to manage when we didn’t all walk around with mini computers in our pockets that kept telling us we’re not good enough or pretty enough or up to date enough. I think the ability to speak to our friends and families should have stopped at after-school MSN chats and text messages with a number keypad. Okay, maybe the Blackberry QWERTY keyboard.

I’m all for adaptation and technological advancements. I love my dishwasher. But my dishwasher hasn’t been programmed to keep me staring at it all day, opening and closing it and waiting for something new to pop out, to throw dishes out of itself so my attention is constantly ripped from what I was doing prior.

I don’t think I’m a conservative purist for saying it’s them damn phones. And I don’t think the relationship between a human and their phone is all that complex. At least it shouldn’t be anyway. Sure it’s hard to go cold turkey or stick to your guns when you tell yourself okay just five more TikToks and then I’m closing the app; these apps have been designed to keep our eyes glued to them after all. But unless your livelihood depends on these apps because you’re a content creator or it’s a requirement for your job, do we really have to be there?

Is social media the place where you go to be social and find joy or is it the place you go to grow a following, build a brand and make some money, or consume mostly mindless content that doesn’t really make all that much of a difference to your life at the end of the day.

When we do decide to go on social media breaks and deactivation vacations, it can seem like we’ve cut ourselves off from the entire world. Our friends make references we don’t understand. People look at us like we’ve got a second head for not knowing the latest trending song on TikTok. Your mum thinks you’re completely clueless about the world because you missed a news story that was probably trending on Twitter. So what’s the answer? Make do? Play the survival game? Adapt or perish?

It’s just like the internet and smartphones. You need an app for everything nowadays, soon you’ll need one just to leave the house. And what about the people who don’t know how to use or even own a smartphone? Are they coping? Are they alright?

I can tell you that those people are doing just fine. They pay their bills by dropping off a letter at the post office (yes you can still do that). They walk up to the counter to order their food at a restaurant instead of scanning the QR code. They walk a little further to the other Tesco that isn’t the dystopian one with no cashiers and sensors (debatable) that track which items you pick up. Just think of all the steps they’re getting in if anything. This may seem like a life that is unnecessarily difficult to you, in the same way that it may take a little longer to read an entire article rather than swiping through infographics on Instagram, but I think you gain a little bit more out of life when you stop wading through the garbage to find little pieces of gold.

Personally, I don’t think we need to adapt. I don’t think we’ll perish without social media or excessive screen time. Yes, we might be a little out of the loop at times (or is it perfectly normal to not know everything that’s going on ever?) and we may feel a little left out of a joke or we won’t be the first to know about the latest shooting or stabbing or genocide but maybe that’s a good thing. Our brains can only handle so much.

Do we really need to know what our friends are doing every second of the day? Or can we just meet them for coffee every so often and talk to them or, dare I say it, call them on the (house) phone? Are we really missing out on important news by not having a Twitter account? Or can we, you know, just read the news, listen to the radio, subscribe to an informative newsletter, etc.?

There are other options, slower options. And I think we could all do with a bit of slowing down. Let’s face it, there will be an AI summarising everything for us soon enough anyway.

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hello lovely readers, i hope you’re having a good week so far. i’ve had to start waking up at 5am to travel into the office before peak travel times just to save a bit of money. it’s a good thing i like early mornings! but seeing stars in the sky on my way to work was a little wild.

was i a bit too ranty in this one? i wanted to write this piece because i was watching a youtuber i like a month or so ago doing a livestream and one of her chatters said something about deleting twitter because it’s a mess or whatever and she yelled (not in a malicious way) ADAPT! as in social media is just something we have to use in order to keep up with everything in the world now. and i just thought that wasn’t right at all. you can absolutely live a fine life without social media and still know what’s going on in the world and how your friends are doing. right? let me know your thoughts on this, i’d love to know what you think.

here is my latest post on preparing for an intentional year if you missed it.

thank you so much for reading and i’ll see you next week <3

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