WHY DOES EVERYONE WANT TO DELETE THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA?

by Emily Blake

Last week, I posted to my close friends Instagram story “why have I woken up everyday the last week and wanted to delete my social media. anyone else?” I had about ten people swipe up expressing similar sentiments. I jokingly made a late night addition to my close friends story saying “this app is making me braindead” and all my friends were just like…. yeah… no need for elaboration or clarification.

Lately I have been using my close friends story about a million times more frequently than my public story. I post to my public story things that I feel a certain sense of obligation (for lack of a better word) to; these include Wednesday Zine promo, supporting my friends and their brands, etc. Our Assistant Music Editor Cath told me my close friends is one of her “favorite subscriptions” and my friend Nicole said I should start a Patreon because of it. I think without me having my private close friends where I can post unhinged content and rough drafts of everything that goes through my smooth brain, I might have been fully unplugged already. I think it’s because close friends is actually fun. Want to know what does not feel carefree and fun? Scrolling through my IG feed and to a lesser extent even TikTok FYP lately.

It seems like everyday is a tug-of-war between the I hate social media. It’s not real and not contributing to my life. train of thought and the I literally use Instagram to talk to my friends, get visual inspiration, and do I really want to stop being gifted Parade underwear? train of thought. Really, it’s more of a tug-of-war between my pre-iPhone reliance self and late capitalist tuned-in self. Especially during the Pandemic, laughing at my silly little memes, scrolling on my silly little TikTok For You Page, and doing my silly little online shopping was one of my few forms of respite from a really dark and non-stimulating COVID-19 times. I think the times brought right before our eyes the absolute best that social media can offer and the absolutely worst— no in-between. If I had to give a prediction or analysis, it seems like we will continue to see more finstas, more photodumps, and more use of the close friends. Because overall, we may be too linked to social media, but the least we can do is make it fun.