"Social media, I figured, was already kind of a problem for me. I was heavily hooked on Instagram, reaching for my phone and clicking into the app as soon as I woke up in the morning, and then continuing to scroll my feed and swipe through stories and check my D.M.s many times through the day in a kind of fugue state, even though, rationally, I knew that seeing everyone else's seemingly perfect, fulfilled, and happy lives often made me feel like shit about myself."
"As a longtime tweeter, I kept doggedly logging into the app even after Elon Musk bought it, despite its proliferation of racist, pornographic, and conspiratorial posts. So strong was the hold that these platforms exerted on my time and habits that the only way for me to refrain from using them was to fully deactivate them, which I'd occasionally resort to doing."
Personal experiences show refusal to join TikTok stemmed from existing struggles with Instagram and X addiction. Heavy Instagram use included immediate morning checking, constant scrolling, and compulsive DMs, which produced feelings of inadequacy. X continued to attract attention despite harmful content and platform changes. Deactivation became the only effective strategy as deleting apps led to immediate reinstallation. The platforms provided instant gratification through likes, replies, and numbing scrolling that prevented introspection. TikTok receives blame for phone addiction, disinformation, and superficiality. A gathering acknowledged candidly that everyday life is increasingly treated as material for content creation.
Read at The New Yorker
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