Picture this: you begin scrolling on your phone after a long day of classes. You skim through stories on Snapchat, posts on Instagram, rants and dialogues on Twitter and miscellaneous videos on TikTok. Then, you look up and realize it’s dark outside.
It seems like you’ve been mindlessly scrolling for minutes when in reality, you’ve been scrolling for hours. In those hours, you’ve scrolled past Kylie Jenner’s baby bump selfie, Rami Malek hosting Saturday Night Live, the Taliban’s rise to power and updated vaccine information.
If this sounds like something you’ve experienced, don’t be alarmed. Many people are doing the same thing at this very moment.
In fact, I used to be one of those people, until one day all of that information started to get a little overwhelming. Those fun pictures posted by friends, celebrities and people who I don’t even know started to make me feel inadequate about my lifestyle and who I was as a person. I paid less attention to daily news and put a magnifying glass on what specific people were doing, and how they looked doing it. That’s when I decided to take the scary leap.
Yes, I currently don’t have social media juggernauts like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, VSCO and Facebook, except for the BU Class of 2025 group. I do have Snapchat to keep in touch with friends and family. But even still I know I’m an outlier in this contemporary age of likes, selfies and gossipy headlines.
At the beginning of this no social media journey, I was worried about not being in the know-how with everything. But after five years of no social media, I’ve found that there’s a multitude of ways to stay updated on things like critical breaking news or silly trends. No social media doesn’t mean you have to be any less ignorant in terms of digital worldliness than the next person. Here’s how I do it:
- Choose what’s important to you and subscribe to your interests.
What are your interests? What news do you believe will quench your thirst and inform you properly and factually on that topic?
If you are a sports enthusiast, try subscribing to ESPN. Love pop culture and current fashion trends? Subscribe to People, Elle or In-Style. No matter your interests, there is something there for you.
See that pre-installed app on your phone called ‘News’? Don’t shy away from it and use it. Anytime you are scrolling through a news site such as The New York Times or Cosmopolitan, the link that pops up asking you for your email is there for a reason. Why not give it a shot? At least you know that these sources are refined and reliable. Social media sometimes seeps conspiracy and nonsense into the news, so the line between factual and fictitious information can be blurry.
- Ask yourself if you need to know and see what some people are doing.
With an instantaneous click, swipe and scroll you can see what your ex-best friend is up to or who’s hanging out with your crush at that party. But do you really need to know those things? Is it healthy to know them or care so much?
I’ve found that there’s no legitimate loophole around Insta-stalking or any kind of social media stalking for that matter. But sometimes blissful ignorance is a good thing, and adding a little ambiguity to your life by not seeing your sister’s friend’s brother’s story is totally okay.
You’d be surprised by how good it feels to not have such noxious temptation at your fingertips. If you want to see what your friends are up to, I get that looking at their posts is the first go-to — that’s why I’ve kept Snapchat. But if these people are truly important to you, then a text, email or phone call shouldn’t be difficult.
- Look up from your phone.
I am not claiming that I do not look at my phone for hours on end until my screen time reads five hours. But if you look around you, the most significant information to you is what you have surrounded yourself with.
Your family, friends, school, clubs, academics and overall environment is tailored to you specifically because your choices brought you there. There is no news without present-day action, so look up, down, right and left because there is most definitely a flyer with some piece of literature on it somewhere or a friend waiting to talk your ear off.
Not having social media doesn’t make you a clueless outsider. Being culturally savvy and up-to-date with circulating information doesn’t have to involve likes and followers. You can be informed in other ways, just like how you can see how your friends or acquaintances are doing in other ways too.
Social media can be a breeding ground for entertainment, amusement, inspiration and knowledge, but it doesn’t have to be our first among numerous choices.
