The New Cigarette

Social Media is the new cigarette. Our teenagers inhale TikTok and Instagram night and day, and millennial parents are no better. We are, collectively speaking, hooked. Social media addiction inflicts stress, aggression, anxiety, depression, interrupted sleep, and more, but nobody seems willing to do anything about it.

Since weaning myself off social media last year I’ve seen the parallels. Social media has such a pull, such a strong ability to evoke emotion and outrage and keep us coming back for more. It’s hard to break off, and part of the reason I couldn’t get away for more a few rare weeks at a time.

It took me reaching a breaking point to step away, benefits and all, and find time outside of social media apps for better things.

The result has been a reinvigoration into other areas of my life, connecting with slower forms of media that allow time to digest and consider without being spoonfed the thing I should feel.

I was watching a video recently, one shared with me by a friend, and was so disgusted with every element of the video. It was created with the assumption that I wouldn’t pay attention for more than a second or two, and didn’t treat me like an adult at any time. Instead of allowing me to build into something, like a good television show, it told me what I should feel at any given moment.

That’s not what I want for myself, and I definitely don’t think it’s helpful for the next generation.

Via Digging for Fire.