A lot of ads, mindless memes and pointless posts

Written by Michael Owen July 14th, 2020

Technology

I took a break from social media for 2 months. When I finally reinstalled the apps, I realised that I actually had not missed out on much. But why?

The original intention of social media was to connect family and friends from far and wide. The ability to share and save pictures online was an unprecedented accomplishment in the digital world. For me, that was its core value. To connect. Now, however, that’s no longer its intended purpose.

Nothing annoys me more on social media than a spam load of ads, memes and random shared posts. I certainly hope that we are in agreement, at least to some extent. Surely there’s something better for that person to do?

So what were the first 3 things I saw when I logged on again? You guessed it! A lot of ads, mindless memes and pointless posts. It’s like I never left. Home sweet home.

What was once a thriving marketplace to share memories has now become a marketing platform – one which steals your personal data (yes, steals because who really reads those standard terms? but that’s our fault and a story for another day). They collect your data and profile you accordingly. What’s even more scary than them knowing all about you based on the data you freely give them (like your age, sex, gender, religious beliefs etc) is the fact that they can dig deeper into you (as a data subject) based purely on what you click on. So even if you did not want to give them the aforementioned personal data, they could still extrapolate it according to your online behaviour. Who knew your index finger could surrender so much of your personal detail at the click of a mouse. But let’s put the cyber-security aspect aside since most of us don’t actually care about it anyway. We’re more concerned with immediate consequences (and not the long-term, unseen potential consequences such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal).

Why do you want to feed that dopamine-induced addiction by reaching for your phone first thing in the morning? It’s shown to not be good for your health. Imagine that it’s Sunday evening, you’ve just had a great weekend, and you decide to post a picture to show the world. Monday morning comes and the first thing you do is rush to your phone for one single purpose – to see how many people have liked and commented on MY post. The truth is, no-one cares about how many likes and comments you got. I don’t. Even if others did, it’s a temporary thought that is soon gone with the wind. For example, when you posted something online, I think it’s safe to say that you chose that picture because you thought that was the golden shot. But now, how many times throughout the week did you come across someone else’s post and think: “Wow! That’s a great picture!”? You can drop your answer below.

As much as others like to repeat the idea that “technology is an extension of our hands”, it’s not true. You (we) have chosen that and allowed it to be so. It can easily be dismantled (to some degree). Let me make it clear at this point – I’m not advocating for no social media use. Social media has a vital role to play in today’s time. For example, the #BlackLivesMatter movement predated the tragic killing of George Floyd at the hands of cops, but would the movement have taken the effect it did had it not been for the recording of his final moments? Probably not. We are oblivious to the tragedies that we don’t see, yet yearn to see them before we act. That having been said, we are too hooked up on social media. You need to step back and use the platforms in a more mindful manner. Browse through your own timeline and ask yourself what you actually found was worth reading, sharing or commenting on. Again, this goes back to the idea that we should not completely remove our social media use because clearly there are many aspects that have value, but how often do you intellectually engage with it?

Having studied journalism, I’ve come to know how the media industry works in many respects; they want to keep you hooked all the time. Have a look at all the tv news channels – something is always splashed across your screen as “BREAKING NEWS” in either red, yellow, black or white bold font. You, as the viewer, do not always need to consume ‘breaking’ news first. Trust me, if you need to hear about it then you will. But you don’t have to trawl the net in an aimless time-consuming endeavour. Invest your time more wisely.

Covid-19 has not helped in this regard. With the forced lockdown and its inevitable longevity, households have found themselves retreat into the comfort of the internet, giving up their former hobbies that now lay dormant in a layer of dust. We need to learn how to invest our time. Become the Warren Buffet of your own clock. Spending hours upon hours each day going from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram back to Facebook is a formula that’s bound to result in you coming out empty. It’s like eating popcorn – you’re chewing, but there’s nothing nutritious about it – so you will come out hungry on the other end.

There are ways to cut down on social media use. Since the internet is increasingly being accessed via handheld devices (more so than pcs and laptops), perhaps you should think about deleting those respective apps from your phone, and limiting your social media usage to your laptop only. This is a very slight, but for some, necessary adjustment.

Or, you could decide to only use social media on certain days and or times. Much like how professionals with busy schedules only check emails at certain times of the week, you could employ a similar approach. Trust me, all those posts you got tagged in can wait.

You could try placing all your social media apps in a locked folder on your phone to prevent the temptation and make it more burdensome to browse.

Perhaps, you could employ the more drastic, but pleasing approach, like I did, and delete it altogether for some time.

Again, I’m not trying to turn you away from social media so that all you are left with is talking to the trees. I myself will continue to use it, but in a much more selective capacity. Even logging on a handful of times each day can be considered too much. After I came back from not using it for 2 months everything still seemed the same. X was still posting their usual selfies; Y was still trying to become an influencer (insert vomit emjo here); and Z was still posting too much. So if not much had changed in a couple months, then not much will change in a couple hours.

Do yourself a favour and avoid all the ads, mindless memes and pointless posts.

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