In 2018 I wrote this:
It’s so easy to begin to view the world through a lens, and become engrossed in the ideals of what a screen advertises as the “best” or the “right way”. In actual fact, the younger generation, of which I am a part of, are the guinea pig generation. Our life is now dictated by media and projections. We are captivated by image after image of perfection and popularity.
When do we start living for ourselves and not what social media demands from us?
“Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift that’s why we call it the present.” A.A.Milne
When do we start living for ourselves and not what social media demands from us?
So what have I learnt?
Well for one thing, I dedicated myself to cleaning my social media. I did this in several ways.
I deleted some social media accounts (snapchat)
I deleted social media apps completely from my phone (instagram)
I purged my friends list to people I actually know and have had a conversation with (facebook)
I deleted old photos, videos and posts I no longer wanted to be stranded in a liminal virtual profile space (facebook)
This spring-cleaning freed up a lot of space, both mentally and on my phone's storage. I felt lighter and I almost put myself in social media rehab. By not having a profile or an app, I was forced to live without it. I had no other choice. I starved my obsession dry, and it worked.
In the summer of 2019 I went on a months long volunteering trip to Fiji. I was told that no one takes their phones with them. So that's what I did. I bought a £7.50 Nokia brick from Argos a few days before I left, and turned up at the airport with nothing but some old earphones and an already chewed-up Red magazine for entertainment on the 28-hour round trip. Sure, the planes had on-flight entertainment so I didn't exactly suffer, but then when I arrived, it turned out that everyone had taken their phone with them anyway, and I was the odd one out with a brick!
When we arrived at Burelevu, the rural village that we were set to stay at for four weeks, it turned out that the majority of iPhone users (which was 90% of people) couldn't get any service. There was limited WiFi at the school we helped at, so between July and August 2019 the only pieces of news I got from the outside world was that Boris Johnson had been made PM and that Amber and Greg had won Love Island.
I kept a diary during my time there, as a memento of my spontaneous decision to spend a month on the other side of the world. Here's what I wrote at the end of the trip:
I've had no social media or any form of communication with anyone but my group and my parents (only after two and a half weeks though!) for a whole month! I honestly haven't missed it one bit. And I've hardly thought about it. You can live and survive without social media, but I am grateful for the amount of communication I can get at home.
But it's also so overwhelming. And fast. So fast. Life at home runs at 100mph and doesn't allow you to breathe. You choke on your own breathlessness. You are strangled by the wrath of perfection and having to be constantly aware of your own presence for others. A day doesn't go by where you do not think of your own presence being know and the price for popularity comes at the expense of the ability to move freely and take in what is going around you.
When I get back to the UK I will realise just how much I lived in the moment in Fiji. That is one thing I can certainly say with confidence. I took in everything around me and cherished every moment, even the bad parts.
The price for popularity comes at the expense of the ability to move freely and take in what is going around you.
Now in 2020 we have moved into a technology-driven life. The pandemic has shown us the best of technology, how it can bring us together, and how even in the loneliest and most isolated of times we can be together.
Ironically, life has slowed down. My Fijian musings of the 100 mph fast lane life of the UK have been turned on it's head. I don't know about you, but 2020 has taught me how to live at a slower pace. Weirdly, this slower pace has incorporated technology much more. My social life is almost entirely online-based. I've taken some days off technology. As I know some of my friends have.
But from the beginning of social media journey, I think I can finally say I've struck a balance. Of course, I'm not perfect and I will never pretend to be. But for now, I'm happy. Sure, I've got Instagram back. But instead of posting picture-perfect images, I don't care. Sometimes I intend on posting images, videos and stories that are far from looking perfect. But hey, so is my life. They say a picture paints a thousand words and so it doesn't matter how grainy the image, or how tired you look, what matters is the smile it brings when you look at it and the memory that comes with it.
I've released the anchor of my burdened past and cutting the strings of the uncertain future.
From the 2015 - 2017 obsessive days to 2018 complete purge and detox, from the 2019 sudden extreme and the 2020 happy medium. It's fair to say I've done it all. I've lived within the complexity and the tender intricacies of a social media presence. But for now, I will be living within my present. Taking each day as it comes. I've released the anchor of my burdened past and cutting the strings of the uncertain future. Right now, I'm just doing good where I am.
Stay safe and be kind to yourselves,
LVSCreations x
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