Social Media Throughout My Life as a Millennial
Balancing real life with social media and facing addiction.
Ah yes, the life of a millennial. Often labelled as entitled, narcissistic and lazy and like many other lost millennials, it’s been difficult to escape these preconceived notions. Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a sob story where I blame my environment and blame failed societal/parenting techniques for life’s issues… Oh no, this is a piece dedicated to my journey with social media and a collection of my thoughts.
The Beginning of the End
Ever since my parents reluctantly saved enough money to buy me a small HTC (I’m not sure if HTC even exists anymore), I have been unknowingly attached and addicted to it. Many people describe addictions as feeling like a ‘ball & chain’ slowing them down — but see, being addicted to your mobile phone is quite the opposite.
Instead of feeling taken over by my mobile phone, I had freedom like never before. I could browse the internet, play games, send messages to my friends and post pictures on Instagram — the possibilities were endless! It felt great to have the privilege and the responsibility as a young teenager to even have a mobile phone, especially when many of my friends didn’t have one.
Although mobile phones were invented in the 70s and smartphones in the 90s, they were still a pretty recent phenomenon — to millennials growing up, at least. I never truly understood what harm could be done constantly being on your phone. We were never taught about those dangers and were often left to our own devices when it came to technology.
Addicted to Social Media
Only since seeing people openly discuss their addictions to their phones and to social media did I start to think if I, personally, had an addiction. There’s something about the word ‘addiction’ that holds deniability of the fact that it could actually be you. ‘Addiction’ feels like only the people we see on TV or in the movies have, not me.
I knew I was addicted when I wouldn’t realise how long I’d be using my phone each day for and when I could easily waste a whole day doing nothing at all on it. Some days I would spend upwards of 15 hours on my phone. Like many other people my age, and this is especially the case for younger generations, I would find myself mindlessly flicking through Instagram or Twitter when doing simple mundane tasks. Tasks like loading the dishwasher, standing in line and even as worse as eating dinner with my family I would be doing something on my phone.
Generation vs. Generation… vs. Generation?
At family events and gatherings, older generations would always moan about myself and the rest of the younger kids being on their phones all the time. However, that’s exactly how I saw it; cranky old people shouting at troublesome kids (or rather lazy kids in this case).
I’ve always argued that distractions like a mobile phone have always been there, like newspapers or books, and that the older people in my family never understood mobile phones or social media. However, seeing generations below me now using mobile phones, I can see it from a new perspective and I feel like the roles have been reversed — I’m the cranky old person moaning about said troublesome kids!
Experiencing Mental Health Issues
Though, I must be honest. I had noticed my obsessive use of social media and my addiction to my phone long before I write this blog, but I never took any action against it simply because I didn’t think there was *that* much wrong with it. I’ve only started to experience true mental health issues since the amplification of far-right fascist voices on social media through Trump’s presidential campaign and through the COVID-19 pandemic. The enabling of blatant racism and blind hatred has been accommodated and treated without punishment from platforms like Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
The feeling of injustice and privileged white eyes turning blind makes me truly sick and left with a sour taste in my mouth. I look at these people, many of which have been close family members, with pure resentment, anger and fear. I am glad I am aware now of these issues in the world and I can use my voice, no matter how small, to celebrate the good in the world but to also fight against injustices and to stand up for what is right.
Painfully Aware or Blissfully Ignorant?
I always think about the concept of being ‘painfully aware or blissfully ignorant’ and can never quite come up with the right answer. I guess there isn’t one. Unless we can live in an equal society that is aware and open to change.
I’ve now since deleted most social media apps off of my phone, keeping only Twitter to stay updated with sports and world news. A big change in my life has been utilising screen time restrictions to avoid distractions and to avoid seeing news and comments that will be mentally damaging. The biggest thing I can say about this if you want to reduce your online usage is to genuinely stay disciplined and you will begin to see the positive effects. Being offline really helps with clarity day-to-day and has improved factors in my life like real-life relationships, sleeping, my mental health and productivity.
If you’d like to read more about how you can make your phone work for you, not against you, I strongly suggest browsing through these 36 ways to use productivity features and tools to get the most out of your mobile phone.
Anyway, this blog feels very much like a large collection of scrambled thoughts and experiences and it might be all over the place, but it feels great to be able to get it out there (wherever there is).
It feels weird to promote this after talking about getting over my addiction to social media… but follow my Twitter here! I tweet and retweet loads of “great stuff” (said by many) and am not *that* annoying!
Follow me on here too to keep up to date with some more blogs about online journalism, streetwear & starting a business.
