"... leave my own smart, witty comments on other influential accounts, re-share mentions of my work with just enough faux humility so as to not appear gross — all of it had become as reflexive as scratching an itch.... What was it specifically about Instagram that was so destructive for me? ... I was chasing a goal that was impossible to reach. When a post did well, or I got a bunch of followers, I felt great for a minute, but just as quickly I felt pressure to do it again. If something was negatively received, or I lost people, I was consumed by anxiety and felt compelled to 'fix' it. Over time, I made hundreds of tiny adjustments to how and what I shared, editing myself to get the best outcome. But there was no 'best' outcome. No matter what I did, there would never be enough followers, enough approval, enough success. The more I posted, the less I felt like my true self.... When I begin to think there might be a way for me to handle social media, I do what I did in my first days of sobriety from alcohol: I play the tape all the way through and force myself to viscerally... feel the buzz of fear in my stomach, the clutch of anxiety around my throat, the endless procession of negative thoughts and the fractured texture of my attention. When I do this, I remember it’s simply not worth it."
From "How I Knew I Needed to Quit Instagram/Just like with alcohol, social media left me feeling anxious and removed from myself" by Laura McKowen (NYT).
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22 comments:
"just like alcohol" Seriously? What in the hell is wrong with people? And yes, please get off of my lawn!
No phone...no social media accounts. No problems.
Tech-fueled mental illness.
I've never understood the appeal of social media. No offense to anyone, but I get the impression that it's mainly women, gays, and teenagers who get invested in it.
Switch to the self-help genre social media. It's so hard to get attention these days.
Just like with alcohol, social media left me feeling anxious and removed from myself"
The Problem IS: Y'all are using the Wrong Addiction!
Addiction to Opiates leaves you CALM and at One with your self: as long as you take some every 4 hrs
[This Message brought to you by OCA® the Opiates Corporation of America*]
The Opiates Corporation of America* is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party
An employee of a social platform, a marketplace, with progressive (i.e. [unqualified] monotonic) compensation and benefits. Perhaps a member of a community who is required to maintain their property, or a citizen of a nation conscripted for defense, a shared responsibility by choice or Choice. The profit model is analogous to an implicit tax scheme. The publications propaganda: information, misinformation, disinformation.
Now remember that these people vote.
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood is, I think, an excellent fictional treatment of what social media is like.
Indepentant of Instagram, the same feelings of power/need for recognition/appreciation take hold even responding to a blog post. And it could be just as addictive, perhaps.
(I hope you liked what I said and give me a big thumbs up. Oh shit, this isnt Marginal Revolution and we dont get to vote. Althouse should change that.)
Does everything coming from the Northeast have to be so very dramatic, or is it just that the NYT and WaPo tend to go for the highly dramatic, but substantially vacant stories?
I checked out Laura McKowen's website. She is all about herself, her journey, and you coming to her to find yourself, through her, Laura McKowen.
She sounds like someone who made the choice to become an influencer and has gotten run frazzled by trying to keep up with it and make any impact at all. It's hard when a planet of 7 billion people has 2.3 billion of them trying to be influencers at the same time. It's a crowded field. And there's only so much room for trite self-help affirmations.
Best try something else. Maybe open an aerial yoga studio. No one's thought of that yet. Heh.
Finally a sane comment.
The Houston Chronicle used to run a story on the bottom half of the front page every Sunday. That story would be an extensive report with pictures in color of the most lurid, sensational, gory, violent, and horrible murder, traffic accident, train wreck, bus plunge, or other violent death that the city had to offer. This unofficial but regular feature made for some unpleasant reading at Sunday brunches back then, but was also apparently popular as it continued over the half decade I had opportunity to see it.
But if you didn't read the paper every Sunday, the horror story had less effect than if you were a regular reader, who knew to expect to see a car wrapped around the front bumper of a cement truck, or a puddle of blood leaking from under an apartment door, when you flipped the paper over from the headlines. This was an odd bit of psychological trivia that surely has been studied. Anyone know more?
I’ve heard “play the tape” in the rooms. The problem with playing the tape without the assistance of the rooms for example, is that the tape has the good times interspersed with the problematic times. Without help, the allure of reliving the good times is that much more difficult to overcome. If it doesn’t work on your own, ask for help.
Ms McKowen has something to sell you if you are inspired by her story.
For a fee she and her associate spiritual guides will teach you to "fall in love with the mystery of life again," "find out who you really are," and "devote yourself to your soul’s deepest callings."
For an additional fee spiritual guides can be made available online at off hours.
Discounts are also available if you sign up for the weekly newsletter.
She is on a par with the sleaziest televangelist out there except that she has the support of the Times and hasn't yet personally met Jesus.
Like alcohol, social media makes a better servant than master.
Key to a complete life.
You quit an addiction when you realize it's not some else's fault.
Why be a person when you could be a persona?
Guess who this madwoman votes for?
No matter where you go, there you are.
Even the guy who invented the Like button renounced it.
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