If I were to ask every single student at High Point University what the first thing they do in the morning is, an astounding majority of people would answer that they check their phones. It seems reasonable, does it not? I mean, how else would you know what time it is? It is just convenient to check our phones for the time. Of course you would check your phone first. You need to make sure no one is trying to get in contact with you, in other words, you need to be available all the time. I find myself wondering about the person who when cell phones first came around, did not want one, because maybe they did not want the burden of always being reachable. For privacy reasons, that makes a lot of sense. However in today's society, that is simply unacceptable. That is just one of the many downsides to our relationship with not just our phones, but modern technology as a whole.
When I think of my relationship with modern technology, I would describe it as a love-hate relationship. I love being able to keep in contact with my friends back home in New Hampshire and I do enjoy seeing the fun things they are doing while I am away at school. I love the funny memes I come across on a daily basis, and I love the new music I am able to find from aspiring artists trying to get their name out there. What I hate is the culture surrounding our main method of communication, that being social media.
Back in December, I had decided I had had enough. I had thought about it for a long time, how toxic I thought social media was, specifically Instagram. Leading up to early December, I had done exactly what I said I would not; I got caught up. There was a pattern that was starting to form every day and night. Scroll through my Instagram feed, see someone who was clearly doing better than me, looking better than me, and having more fun than me. By that time, I had decided to call it quits. I finally pulled the plug on the Instagram account I had had since eighth grade because my mind needed a cleanse. I really only felt that way towards Instagram because I used it the most, and was starting to notice what everyone was trying to do. I hardly ever use Facebook, only really use Snapchat as a substitute for IMessage, and thought Twitter and TikTok housed the funniest stuff on the internet (I still think that, by the way).
I have said numerous times to friends, family, and colleagues that in today's world, your Instagram page was your first impression. For instance, let us say that you start a new class and you have eyes for the person who sits across the room. Why would you go up and talk to them to try and get to know them if you could just look up their name on Instagram and make all the assumptions you want? It saves you time, and potential embarrassment. That being said, everyone wants to make it look like they live a fun life, definitely more fun than yours, so they will be sure to make their Instagram feed look as cool as possible. Edited pictures, tagging all the people they hang around with making sure that you know you are being left out. When I got to the point that that was getting to be too much, I had to call it quits.
According to McLean Hospital, 69% of adults and 81% of teenagers are users of some form of social media, and because of that are at risk for things like depression and anxiety. I would not say that social media made me so depressed that I could no longer go about my daily life, but I definitely noticed that it was bringing down my mood. I would ask myself why someone would want to associate with me, who only gets sixty to seventy likes on my posts, and only has around two hundred and fifty followers, when they could associate themselves with the likes of seemingly everyone else who got hundreds of likes and who have thousands of followers.
I have even noticed that technology today has had an interesting effect on my family dynamic back home. Seemingly every night at dinner, my dad has his phone or tablet out at the table and is watching some kind of YouTube video, usually on something political or whatever is the biggest news story. He does this, much to my mother's dismay, every night and it started happening sort of out of nowhere. While it is not like he is so encapsulated with his video he is not present with us at the dinner table, but there are a few extra moments of repeating his name until he looks away so you can speak to him. My family is a very loving one, so there are no issues with us there, but I could imagine what someone else's household might look like (Check out this PSA about phones at the dinner table, starring the legend himself, Will Ferrell).
When I think of that, I think of the family who does not say a word at the table, the only noises being little scoffs and giggles warranted from the funny cat video they just scrolled past. That thought almost makes me sick. Even worse, the family who does not eat together, where everyone is in a separate room completely fixed on their screen. While I am glad that does not describe my family, I truly feel bad for the person who's family it does describe.
Back to my experience with Instagram, many of my friends asked me what happened to my account. They would say they tried to send me something or tag me in a post, but my name never popped up. "Cam, did you block me? Did you unfollow me?", they would ask. When I would tell them that I had gotten rid of my account entirely, I would receive one of two responses, either "I respect that", or "Why did you?". I would tell them the exact reasoning I wrote above, and many people would say that they see where I am coming from, but they just did not think of it that way. This is another reason why I hate Instagram being used as a first impression, because some people view it as fun, and others as toxic. In early March, I decided I wanted back in. I swallowed my pride and made a new account, but this time it is different. I do not find myself mindlessly scrolling anymore, nor do I find myself getting jealous of others. This is because it took me all that time away from that fake world to see how much better the real world is. After coming to that realization, I could finally make a healthy return to Instagram, because I now know that it is not the same world that I am physically living in and experiencing.
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