I haven’t used social media in 5 months. I made the change to delete all my apps (excluding Snapchat and YouTube), almost entirely eradicating my exposure to short-form content. I find my speech, both online and in person, has been formalised against my textbooks, articles I read, or conversations with offline people. To say I do not use slang anymore. ‘Ur’ became ‘your’, I text in paragraphs and proper grammar, with vocabulary that to my age - sits like a poorly fitting shirt. I talk more now, as if my brain has adapted to the lack of stimulation with vocal export. All trends I find out about are through video essays, and my interests are captivated by long videos and deep dives into films, politics, science, and literature. I understand the other side of the tall building is short form media, with credits given to a larger audience viewing out of boredom for instant gratification.

Social media has become a tool more than a sink, and even though I cannot relate as indirectly to my friends and classmates as I could online, but how long has it been since that started to matter? When conversations were based on in-person interactions, hobbies and inside jokes were completely personal. When brainrot wasn’t the standby for conversational piquancy. Why should I want to relate to a meme that is relevant for two weeks? Especially when our influence will last for so much longer? My screen time has dramatised down from 5 hours a day to just under 40 minutes. In reflection, this could indicate productivity or a loss of desire to socialise. That's the other thing - the person I was, with social media, wanted to interact more than the person I am now. The current me spends most of her time doing things outside of a screen. She doesn’t have the hour or want to answer someone's text or call. My phone hibernates on ‘do not disturb’ for 18 hours a day.

Do we need social media? Currently, when working through projects, I only categorise algorithms as the ‘disease vector’ for the issue we now have to solve. Misogyny, racism, ableism, homophobia - are being joked about in Reddit forums. Harmful media shrouds its way into every conversation like a lingering foul musky scent you cannot wash out. Media platforms are designed to keep us online, to maintain a constant IV of unskippable, unscrollable, unspeakable content. So much so, you feel the obligation to interact, and interact, and interact.

My attention span has increased from 20 seconds being too long to things not being long enough. People aren’t talking enough, I want to hear more, I want to see more, I want it to last forever. Is this better? Should I want to see more of the modern, real and raw world? To hear more about the atrocious things happening across borders I will never see? Be blissfully unaware and strategically ignorant. In that case, is social media democracies' number one dimmer? Utilising different versions of the same drama to quiet foreseeable actions that prevent the public.

There are two sides of the coin: to scroll or not to scroll. That’s the thing about coins: a middle ground is hard or impossible to come by. I could pick up my phone, download TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and X. Or live the rest of my year and probably my youth without the constant noise because I cannot find a balance. Does that mean my connections will be real? If I influence other people who are willing to talk about the philosophy of trends, and be the ones viewing, the viewers view the influencers. Will I then be watching a mirror of myself? As someone writing to persuade, does that make me a narcissist? Maybe it isn't a coin; both sides are either being elapsed in someone else's life or obsessed with your own, then the middle ground isn’t more paradise than sinking in your desk chair.

Nothing we see online is real, so why not see it all repeated in person? We live in the generation of misguidance, fake news, bad governance, a coin that's nothing but mobius strips¹, all the same side. And that is speaking of sadism; you can bedrot watching brainrot, or you can sit down and do your homework. Out of the terms of inflation, people would rather you comfort the bottom of the income bell curve, keep the reflexive balance flat. Or aspire to means of exceeding, enjoy the hardship and challenge, and overcome the feeling of missing out. But don’t forget to miss out on people's comments to shut up, rage is often the best coal for labour. Keep talking, keep scrolling; either way, Trump is president. 

Maxine Steel

¹ Mobius strip: A one-sided 3D shape