Redefining My Relationship with Social Media
One of our mind’s biggest flaws is that it tends to harbor repetitive thoughts; “ninety-five percent of our thoughts are the same as the ones we have the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that (Miracle Morning).” In her memoir, Elizabeth Gilbert also noticed how repetitive her mind was during her stay in an Indian Ashram as she began her spiritual journey filled with prayer, meditation, and faith (Eat Pray Love). This mental clutter makes it extremely difficult when we’re trying to make changes in our life that go against previous patterns that are known and comfortable to the devious devices of the human mind.
One of the biggest relationships I changed was with social media. In college, I fell deep into the trap of Instagram and didn’t realize everything that went into curating the dream feed. After learning lessons from my IG-savvy college friends, I began putting in the work to take my IG to the next level. I did it ALL – edit my pictures using a purchased filter on VSCO, post based on the best time for active followers, check how the picture would look using a ‘FLOW’ account, track who would unfollow me with an Unfollowers app, etc. It was exhausting. For so long I fully gave into the ‘highlight-reel’ aspect of the app. So many of my experiences were for the ‘gram’ and looking back really shows me how much it took away from me being present.
The Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, shed light on the designers behind some of the biggest Tech companies (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) who are responsible for harming our lives through digital means. It also showed Harvard and NYU professors who studied drug addiction, spread of fake news, and virtual reality describe how harmful these companies have been for our wellbeing. It led me to begin actively practicing differently with social media and realize there was just SO much more to my life than the highlights I was posting. I didn’t want to contribute to this expansive problem if I was going to continue to use the tool.
Make Instagram Real Again
Where I landed was with the intent to really shed light on what happens in my life outside of just the highlights. If I post, I want to post about how I feel, not just what I’m doing and where I’m going. Recently, I’ve been sharing a lot of my goal-setting journey that has transformed my life but I try to not just post the final result once the goal is reached but the process of achieving it with the hope to celebrate the journey and find happiness in the process versus aspiring for happiness. My feed went from highlight reel to digital diary and the biggest takeaway is that my goal isn’t for validation anymore. It’s for me to share something that I think is important – the honesty behind humanity.
Sources:
Elrod, Hal. The Miracle Morning: The Not-so-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life before 8AM. Hal Elrod International, 2019.
Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia. Penguin, 2006.
