My Life Without Social Media
What Students Have Sacrificed
By: Jessica Pinasco
Editor in Chief
Editor in Chief
Senior Jessica Pinasco is aware of the outside world as her friends are trapped in Cyberspace.
Photo by: Tim Ericksen
Photo by: Tim Ericksen
I can’t say my life without social media has been perfect, but I also can’t say it’s been dreadful. The absence of social media has deprived me from being up to date on certain trends, politics, girl drama or what have you. But having social media has deprived you all of so much more. It has deprived you from life altogether. Living life as it should be, at your leisure. Aware of the outside world, aware of the real living, breathing people around you. Feeling connections with people face-to-face and not through Instagram or Twitter when you make friends based off of who gives you the most likes or comments. It’s amazing what a simple comment of the heart eyed emoji can do for someone, especially young teenage-tech-savvy kids like us.
Many of you may think that I am completely restricted from having any social media, and many of you may believe it's because of my parents. But the way I see social media brainwashing all of you, it's by my own choice that I remain an outlier of the digital world. I like waking up every morning and being able to tell the time by the sunlight pouring through my window and the clock on the wall. I like getting up in the morning right away and getting ready, rather than being distracted by my media notifications for 20 extra minutes in bed. I like going outside just to sit and enjoy the day, because nobody else is appreciating it enough.
My seventh grade year, I had an Instagram. It wasn’t made with my parents’ permission, but eventually―after getting in trouble of course― my parents let me keep it. I was active on my Instagram account for 3 and a half years, and as more drama crawled its way into my life, I was fed up with it. All it ever did was make me worry and worry. Worrying about who I’ll see or what I’ll see and when I’ll see it, I hated feeling stressed about dumb media drama, so I deleted my account. That was the beginning of junior year, I am now getting ready to leave high school and I am still social media free. I have enjoyed life a lot more without my account, and I really can’t emphasize it enough. I just felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders, I had nothing to worry about anymore. Who knew excluding (or in this case deleting) yourself from an online world would make you love the real one so much more?
The first thing I see every day when I walk onto campus? I see students on their phones. Just scrolling through, walking with their noses pressed against their touch screens. Half of them run into me, and not one of them notices. It's crazy to me to think that people like operating that way, that they like being so absorbed by social apps that they can’t put it down for 5 minutes to walk to their next class. That's one thing I'm glad I will always live without, the urge to secure myself from others behind a glass screen.
When I get home every day, I don't go to my room and marinate in drama-infused Twitter posts or get caught up in the DM’s of Instagram. You know what I do? I go into my parents’ room. I give them hugs and sit down and we talk about our day. My mom discusses her issues in her business company and my dad tells me about all the guys that made him laugh in the weight room. It seems like we lack that nowadays… laughter with family and connections with people. You have become so worried about making people and ghost accounts happy through social media that you've almost gone blind to the real people that want to make you happy. The ones not behind a touch screen, but the ones right in front of you. When you have become more interested in soaking in all of what's happened on social media that you begin ignoring family, say at a family reunion, you are not appreciating the moments that matter. The ones that count. Social media is always there, but it's causing you to miss things that won’t be.
One thing I really noticed by observing my friends and classmates is that on top of being stressed about academics and school, they then stress themselves more by dwelling on things that you see on social media, which is anything but your business or problem. When “beef” takes a toll on Twitter, everybody is locked in. And then that's all you worry about. It eats at you and consumes you, yet you don't realize at all the effects you've endured. You've become addicted, and you just keep craving more. I would hate to live like that. To constantly worry about what's happening through the digital world, to worry about the argument going on about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, to worry about who broke up with who, it's all pointless. In the end, you can't change anything that happens anywhere, but you can chose to remove yourself from it. I did, and let me tell you, life is great.
What do I substitute for social media? I write. A lot. Writing about anything is highly therapeutical and it also enhances your ability to articulate. I know a lot of people hate to do this, because it is said to be time consuming. Trust me, the amount of time you spend on Twitter is most likely 50 times more than what you would spend writing a little. It is the only thing that keeps me content in this world of chaos, a world that revolves around texts and posts and pictures. I don't want everyone to know when I'm hungry or when I'm sad or when I go out to eat or sleep. I write for myself. I don't write to please anybody. My life belongs to me, and I don't prefer to share out every little detail simply because of boredom. You know what I do when I'm bored or lonely? I talk to my mom. She's been there for me a lot more than social media could ever be, and that matters more to me.
Life without social media is definitely different, especially in today's society. But I'm here to tell you that it’s okay. It's okay to not have a social media or even take a break from it. You have been brainwashed into thinking that media is a must, but the things you notice and experience without any of it interfering is pretty spectacular. You should try a day without it sometime! That’s my challenge, can you take it?
Many of you may think that I am completely restricted from having any social media, and many of you may believe it's because of my parents. But the way I see social media brainwashing all of you, it's by my own choice that I remain an outlier of the digital world. I like waking up every morning and being able to tell the time by the sunlight pouring through my window and the clock on the wall. I like getting up in the morning right away and getting ready, rather than being distracted by my media notifications for 20 extra minutes in bed. I like going outside just to sit and enjoy the day, because nobody else is appreciating it enough.
My seventh grade year, I had an Instagram. It wasn’t made with my parents’ permission, but eventually―after getting in trouble of course― my parents let me keep it. I was active on my Instagram account for 3 and a half years, and as more drama crawled its way into my life, I was fed up with it. All it ever did was make me worry and worry. Worrying about who I’ll see or what I’ll see and when I’ll see it, I hated feeling stressed about dumb media drama, so I deleted my account. That was the beginning of junior year, I am now getting ready to leave high school and I am still social media free. I have enjoyed life a lot more without my account, and I really can’t emphasize it enough. I just felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders, I had nothing to worry about anymore. Who knew excluding (or in this case deleting) yourself from an online world would make you love the real one so much more?
The first thing I see every day when I walk onto campus? I see students on their phones. Just scrolling through, walking with their noses pressed against their touch screens. Half of them run into me, and not one of them notices. It's crazy to me to think that people like operating that way, that they like being so absorbed by social apps that they can’t put it down for 5 minutes to walk to their next class. That's one thing I'm glad I will always live without, the urge to secure myself from others behind a glass screen.
When I get home every day, I don't go to my room and marinate in drama-infused Twitter posts or get caught up in the DM’s of Instagram. You know what I do? I go into my parents’ room. I give them hugs and sit down and we talk about our day. My mom discusses her issues in her business company and my dad tells me about all the guys that made him laugh in the weight room. It seems like we lack that nowadays… laughter with family and connections with people. You have become so worried about making people and ghost accounts happy through social media that you've almost gone blind to the real people that want to make you happy. The ones not behind a touch screen, but the ones right in front of you. When you have become more interested in soaking in all of what's happened on social media that you begin ignoring family, say at a family reunion, you are not appreciating the moments that matter. The ones that count. Social media is always there, but it's causing you to miss things that won’t be.
One thing I really noticed by observing my friends and classmates is that on top of being stressed about academics and school, they then stress themselves more by dwelling on things that you see on social media, which is anything but your business or problem. When “beef” takes a toll on Twitter, everybody is locked in. And then that's all you worry about. It eats at you and consumes you, yet you don't realize at all the effects you've endured. You've become addicted, and you just keep craving more. I would hate to live like that. To constantly worry about what's happening through the digital world, to worry about the argument going on about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, to worry about who broke up with who, it's all pointless. In the end, you can't change anything that happens anywhere, but you can chose to remove yourself from it. I did, and let me tell you, life is great.
What do I substitute for social media? I write. A lot. Writing about anything is highly therapeutical and it also enhances your ability to articulate. I know a lot of people hate to do this, because it is said to be time consuming. Trust me, the amount of time you spend on Twitter is most likely 50 times more than what you would spend writing a little. It is the only thing that keeps me content in this world of chaos, a world that revolves around texts and posts and pictures. I don't want everyone to know when I'm hungry or when I'm sad or when I go out to eat or sleep. I write for myself. I don't write to please anybody. My life belongs to me, and I don't prefer to share out every little detail simply because of boredom. You know what I do when I'm bored or lonely? I talk to my mom. She's been there for me a lot more than social media could ever be, and that matters more to me.
Life without social media is definitely different, especially in today's society. But I'm here to tell you that it’s okay. It's okay to not have a social media or even take a break from it. You have been brainwashed into thinking that media is a must, but the things you notice and experience without any of it interfering is pretty spectacular. You should try a day without it sometime! That’s my challenge, can you take it?