An honest review of (metaphorically) living under a rock
What does living under a rock feels like in today’s hyperconnected age?
For the better or the worse it seems like social media has become an integral part of our lives, more so than ever since the pandemic began, and it became kind of the only way we could interact with society. It has become such a central part of our day to day interaction with people, that it is frightening to think about living without it, isn’t it? Well, maybe it isn’t lol
Now while I can’t claim to be completely free of using social media myself, I don’t really use much of it. I only use WhatsApp and Slack ( does Medium also count? ), with WhatsApp being the place for personal conversations with close friends and family and people that I actually know, and Slack for professional or semi-professional conversations with some groups I am associated with. Given the digital era we live in, and the pandemic, I find it very difficult to get away with these two. I have been slowly reducing my social media consumption since 2019, and have been out of mainstream apps like Facebook, Insta, Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat etc since near the end of 2019, with the most recent reduction being quitting LinkedIn.
Anyway, given all this, I thought it might be interesting to comment on how is my experience “living under the rock” since people always give funny reactions when I mention that I don’t use social media, and how most people think it’s impossible to live without it. I’ll be completely honest, and it’s not my intention to convince anybody to quit social media or stuff, it’s a personal choice ( although, I would like to remind people, that it’s still a choice and not a necessity )
One of the first responses I usually get is about how I make connections without social media, how do I make friends and get to meet new people? Well honestly speaking, it’s hard alright. I have very few connections compared to “normal” standards, and yes not being on social media is one of the major causes of that. I am a college student, in my 3rd year, and I hardly know any of my juniors or seniors or hardly have any friends outside a small circle, which does make me a bit sad from time to time and is usually the only reason that makes me sometimes reconsider my choice, since I am conversationalist, who loves talking to people more than anything.
That being said, however, I feel that the few connections I do have are usually sufficient for me. In the current hyperconnected world, we are used to thinking that the more connections you have, the better it is, and maybe it is, but I don’t really have enough mental energy to maintain a large number of connections and so I like the idea of having a few good connections. I have a very very weak memory and with very few connections, I find it easy to remember stuff about people and have meaningful conversations with them, and just really remember them. I might have to trade off being known by many people, but I am fine with that and instead try to be loved by a few….
Now when I say the above to people, they come up with another counterpoint, what do I do about professional networking? Don’t I miss professional opportunities from being absent on social media? Well this one, I am sure I don’t mind at all. Now it is true that platforms like LinkedIn do make it easier for you to keep updated about the professional world, and build up “connections”, I have used these platforms for a while, and honestly, I never found any actually good opportunity there. Most people on these platforms are too busy pushing themselves forward, to be of any help to you. And since it’s open for all, it’s very hard for you to be notices amongst all the other people anyway. Also, there’s the fact that if you are really good at something, people will automatically find you, and you’ll end up making a network anyway.
Now another problem that occurs is that of well “living under the rock”. Ever since I have quit social media, I am no longer able to keep updated with the latest memes and social media fads, and this often makes for some very weird moments in conversations, when I end up having no idea about what the other person is referring to, and then the painful process of explaining to them why I don’t know it, followed by some low-key judging and then them having to explain the fad to me.
Honestly speaking I consider this a positive point really, the internet is full of so much shit content, that the less you trash you feed to your mind, the better it is. Most people are so trapped by the constant stream of content being fed to them, that they don’t even realize that they are trapped. It is when you try to reduce the consumption, that you realize how addicted you are to content. Your brain gets used to abnormally high dopamine levels, gained from those byte-sized awesome content, and when you remove that input, your brain still wants to maintain those high dopamine levels and you feel abnormally bored from normal day to day stuff, and rush to your phone, the first moment you can get your hand on it. I have started to become very conscious of what and how much content I consume, ever since I reduced my social media consumption, and actually, you know what is better than consuming content, creating content.
Talking about happiness levels, I strongly believe that social media causes depression, and your mental wellbeing and happiness levels are way better without it. 5 mins of success stories on LinkedIn are enough to depress me for the entire day, a recent enough example of this is that since our college campuses have reopened, and some lucky students are able to get back, social media feeds are full of pictures by these guys, flaunting their return, and making guys like me who are still at their house feel really really sad. It is good that I am not present on social media, I wasn’t even aware of all this until some of my friends told me about it, and I was glad that I didn’t know about it lol.
Quitting social media allows you to escape the constant surveillance and judgement of society, and gives you the power to do whatever the hell you want. You can do anything, and no one would judge you, because people are busy judging people online lol. You can work hard in silence, in peace, and hone your skills. Social media really takes up a lot of our free time, and you won’t realize how much time you spend on it until you actually cut yourself off. I have so much time on my hand without social media that I don’t what to do with it lol. I am sure I wouldn’t have been able to spend time learning so many new things, and reading so many books, if I had kept on scrolling through my social media feed, watching memes, and short videos, battling hate speech and whatnot. And it’s not as if these things are wrong in moderation, but I do think they are wrong in excess, and well, with infinite scrolling, usually stuff is in excess ( nowadays I run away from an app whenever I see infinite scrolling in it 🙈)
Personally quitting social media has made me more “social”, I know this is a bit contradictory, but I find myself being more responsive to people’s emotions ever since I quit social media. Social media makes it so easy to bitch about people, that people get used to trolling others, and there is so much hate on it, that it makes me sad. So I like to be away from all of it, and be kind to people around me, and not indulge in useless bitching and rumour spreading and stuff, cause honestly I don’t have enough mental energy for all that. Being aware of the fact that I have limited mental energy in a day, is one of the main reasons I avoid social media because it really drains you up pretty quick. Instead, I try to use that extra time to replenish that mental energy by doing stuff like taking a power nap ( I love power naps ) or reading a book or a research paper, or talking to a close friend, or even my family members ( I have started talking more to my family than ever since I reduced my social media consumption ).
All in all, I do personally think that it's possible to survive living under a rock even in 2021. Social media is a choice and not a rule, and it should really be your personal choice if you want to use it. My only aim was to provide a perspective about the fact that it is possible to live without it, and most of the doubts we have while quitting are really not all that important actually. Now I don’t aim to convince you to quit it right away, but maybe just try to be a bit more aware of how it affects you, and you’ll probably figure out the balance that works the best for you anyway.
Anyway, I guess that’s it for the post, I realised that I always end up my posts saying that if we haven’t talked in a while, then feel free to hit me up, but as it so happens, I can be a bit hard to find, given that I am not on social media, but well, maybe that’s the way it should be, anyway I don’t think anyone reads this stuff anymore anyway lol.
So well, that’s that, until the next one — Stay Safe!
