Thoughts on Social Media
Nothing but full of brainrot and doomscrolling in Social Media in the public view. I absolutely despire every single proprietary Social Media places. There is no benefits from it other than consuming any "trends" content to worse your brain! Yes, I do admit that I used to be NPC, doomscrolling my Social Media applications from my smartphone (I like to create a term for smartphone as "gollum"). But, I was starting to become aware on my hours on my "gollum" and, I felt disgusting at myself (I was like a tech priest who view their own flesh as weakness). Last year, I decided to delete any accounts that link to Social Media such as Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, and, Discord. Man, I never felt this refreshing feeling when I made a choice. I will explain the advantages of this action later on. For now, I would like to explain each Social Media application to give my thoughts (plot twist: there isn't a single application that is good, by the way!).
Boy, this platform is literally a copy of TikTok (don't even get me started on the worst platform out there!) application. Based on my experience, it has a scrolling feature which is called "reels" which is basically a short video just like YouTube. Personally, it shouldn't even exist in the first place as it make our attention span much worse and, consuming ton of completely useless information that doesn't even apply to your life. Moreover, there is always ads on reels whenever you swipe up with your fat sausage thumb finger. Annoying "bug". So, Instagram is TikTok with a disguise. I broke out of the Instagram Matrix when I realised that when during my lunch time from my summer work, I noticed ton of NPCs use their "gollum" to doomscrolling whatever they consume. Not a single word for a long time. I felt sorry for them and, that's how I break free from glowies in Instagram/Facebook. Actually, the only reason I used Instagram was that I can keep myself up-to-date on football and cyber security. Same goes to my best friend to message him. Now, we uses Signal Messenger which is very relaxing. Of course, I also delete my Instagram account as well as I had enough with it. I was surprised that it was bit tricky to find "Delete" button on my account. Hmmm... It is like they don't want me to delete mine... Anyway, that's my views on Instagram.
No, I don't want to create my networking within da ABSOLUTELY TRASH PLATFORM. I only want to know what's up with cyber security companies or any news about technology. I spoke too soon as mine is filled with absolutely pointless posts about other fields such as politics or construction. What? I didn't ask for this? I JUST WANT TO READ POSTS THAT RELATES TO CYBER SECURITY NEWS. These posts doesn't feel right to me... Perhaps, they used AI chatbot to generate their posts... How sad is that in Linkedin? I literally don't get many people that I should use it to look for jobs or make networking with online people when I can just use either job websites (even these aren't great at all which I will talk about it soon) or use my email to apply people I actually meet before. The fact that NPCs from Linkedin post their "quotes" on it is what make me to delete my account. They even dare to create their made-up stories and then, promote their products on it... Bro, it is a jobs platform, NOT A SOCIAL MEDIA TRASH PLACE. Anyway, I'd recommend you to delete your Linkedin account and just use your professional email to make connect with other people you know from your networking events or current job. Also, one of my best friends recently told me that he can't delete his Linkedin account due to them that requires his action is actually himself. Wow, the audacity they had... Linkedin, I hope you burn in Hell and, torture you slowly..
Discord
Technically, Discord isn't really Social Media application but, I want to talk about it here anyway. Discord act as a messaging application among gamers, creating nonexistance servers from a few buttons and, chatting each other on these servers. I hate it. I absolutely hate it so much that I want to snap my "gollum" in half. Why? Because, Discord literally support servers that fill with stalkers, pedophilia, and, scammers as you can see some public servers with such people. Firstly, here is a news about kids that is being exposing to naked figures from their Roblox users (News). Of course, you can check other news similar to Discord situation but, they can be tricky to collect. Sure, previous news is about Roblox (another pedo video game) but, if you still use Discord account, check the "Public Servers" and, you will realise that there is a few disgusting public servers right in front of you. I assume Discord make it difficult for you to find them which is even more disgusting from them. That's why I no longer use it after I learned of their actions. Even without this, I couldn't stand the interface on it, it look shockingly rubbish over time. BRING THE CLASSIC UI BACK. Actually, I'd rather see Discord being burned. Discord, May God bring the judgement on you.
Recommendations
Move on to my own Recommendations to counter against Social Media and "gollum" device. Firstly, I'd recommend you to read this book called "The Anxious Generation" by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. He provide lot of important insights on children in our current generation (Gen Z) about Social Media. How can technology affect children's mental health when they use them at young ages, surrounding with technology devices. He also create recommendations for parents to take care of technology to ensure their children grow well and become independent adults. Though, I'm still reading this book but, I can guarantee you that it may change your view on Social Media and Technology when you read this book.
For "gollum" smartphone, if you can't get rid of it like me due to parents who doesn't want to use third option (such as Signal) or couldn't get rid of their Social Media accounts, that is no issue. I have no problems with my parents when I delete my Social Media accounts as I still use WhatsApp (I hate it so much... Please switch to Signal, I beg you...) but, I didn't like this application so, I hope they can switch to Signal in the future. At least, I use Signal to chat with my good friends, even my cousin (my best friend) too! :) So, you see that there is no point to keep using these trash applications on your "gollum" as not only it drain your battery while it is running in background, but also collect information about your online activity, habits, and, tastes on certain fields (sports, video games, books etc). I will talk about it more in Privacy soon.
This solution isn't 100% guarantee. I apply black and white colours on each application icon on my "gollum" to discourage myself to spend less on it and spend more on my hobbies. It is working for me personally so, it is 50-50 for you. This can be done by go to Settings -> Wallpaper and Style (just use a Search tool) -> Colour Palette and, select your desired colours.
However, I still use "gollum" purely for reading my manwha and manga and, message my people via Signal and that junk one. So, it isn't perfect one for getting rid of such device... yet... I would like to switch to dumbphone as I already possess it but, my parents still doesn't want to switch yet. Yes, you read it right. I will convince them to switch to either Signal or SMS messaging. Additionally, it would be nice to buy Google Pixel smartphone to get rid of Android/Google operating system by using a boot unlocker to install GrapheneOS. I'll talk more about it in my other pages as well. :)
Conclusion
Now, you understand why I absolutely couldn't stand against any Social Media applications. It has been more than a year since I decided to delete all of my Social Media accounts. I noticed that my focus on a single task has been improving. I believe that multi-tasking isn't great way to take on more than a task at once as our brains couldn't handle two tasks at the time according to search results I found on the Internet. They are reliable sources since I uses StartPage as my search engine. Therefore, it is not good for us to lose our focus on a task and look at our "gollum" device which could cause some damage to human brain's health. Moreover, I noticed my social skills is getting better, same goes to my speech language too, when I talk to strangers or my friends/family. Basically, I gain more confidence in myself to speak a bit more complicated words to people. Though, my speech language isn't perfect but, at least, it is getting better. Also, I can tell that I now can talk to people while looking at their eyes the whole time unlike before I would just speak to them with my eyes look at them and then, avoid their eyes too often. One more advantage, I am starting to embrace the nature whenever I walk out of my house. No tech, no distractions, no notifications, just peace. Can you imagine that it actually does improve your mental health? All you need to do is leave your "gollum" and go out for walk that has plenty of green trees and grass, really any place you know that has nature. You will notice that you simply gaze at any tree, grass blade, flower, bugs, butterfiles, river, stones, lake, and many more. You will notice that it literally help your brain to slow down and embrace everything you see. Try it out at least once! There is many many more positive benefits for myself. So, in conclusion, there is so much good benefits to overtake disadvantages of not using Social Media accounts. Sure, you may miss out many things that happen on it but, you can just use either news or other more text-based places (Reddit in this case but, I don't recommend it) to know what's up in our world.