Living without Social Media.

Social media used to be a cool place. Before Facebook, there was a Friendster that I loved the most, and it was launched, year 2002. There's also myspace but I personally used Friendster. Uploading photos, sharing posts, giving testimonials to the user, and my favorite part was you can customize the theme, you can put background music in your profile too, and even upload your favorite songs. It's Friendster contents as far as I remember. I was once addicted to Friendster, which was during my college days. But not in a bad way, it's not that public compare to Facebook.

Then Facebook came,it was a platform for games at first, I remember playing Restaurant City, Pet Society, and Farmville. My circle of friends even knew each other's passwords coz whoever had an access to the internet first will open our accounts to harvest and play the game haha. Those were my good memories of social media, but then it slowly became a place that you cannot really feel safe and truly be yourself, it's just my personal opinion base on my experience.

I deactivated my personal FB account the same month last year, temporarily deactivate my personal and art account in Instagram around March this year. I only have dummy accounts for those two social media for business purposes. And I'm only talking to few people on a regular basis. 5 personal friends and my 3 virtual friends. My parents are in Bulacan since last year and we only talk on my sister and cousin's messenger via video call, and thru text.

Why did I choose to live without social media? Coz I want peace of mind and enjoy life without sharing and posting some of it online. During my younger years, when I was a little immature. I posted every mood, every emotion, even the bad ones. Someone even body-shamed me because I'm wearing a swimsuit on the beach. What should I wear, then? Pajama? lol. My account became a war zone too. I was once toxic in social media and use it as a tool to express my anger to specific people instead of telling them straight. If you said or posts something bad about me, gonna revenge with posts and I always make sure that it will hit their emotions. I was like "don't ever mess with me", when I survived those crying baby moments because of bullying when I was young. I've never let anyone bully me again and the art of deadma was not my thing. It's really a social media warzone, I experienced that. And thinking about it, why I did that? When there's no social media before I can tell people what I feel personal or even in letters, and sometimes parinigan in the classroom, unlike now, if you want to make parinig, you'll post it on social media and there's a lot of audience eating their popcorns while waiting for the next chismis hahaha. Sounds familiar? I remember so many people including my past self haha.

Before the pandemic, I deactivated my FB on and off. But when pandemic cases rises, there's a lot of trolls, memes, toxic people on social media. Negative news, government issues. We can't control people. It's their opinions, we have the freedom to express, it's their accounts as well, and the only thing that you can control is ourselves and how we react. In my case, it triggers my anxiety, so I've decided to live without social media for good.

Deleting social media has been a LIFE CHANGER for me. I realized most of my self-doubts and depressive thoughts came from society's opinions of happiness and success. Comparing my chapter one to someone else's chapter 10. Comparing my behind-the-scenes to their highlights. Life is not a competition, we all have different timelines. Happiness comes from within not from other's opinions. I learned to listen to my own voice and to do that, I have to walk away from the noises.

Social media consumed me without even noticing the time that passed while scrolling, and see other people's lives. Thinking about it. I was so busy scrolling and reading other's posts, replying to comments in my posts during my past time, I realized that I've wasted too much time and emotions in social media. I get caught in it without even noticing how much time I waste every day. I should have watched movie instead, read books, or even make some arts. They're are more fullfilling, given the fact that I was born in the generation with no internet.

My take on social media is if you can’t use it with moderation, delete it. If it negatively affects your mind, delete it. If you leverage it for your business or brand, then that’s okay. But in the end, you should be enjoying it but also not allowing it to take over your real life.

Living without social media makes me happier. Focusing only on myself and those people around me. I'm still thinking to activate my IG coz it's more private, but not now. Maybe after a year or two. I'm good without social media especially Facebook. I have a lot of time for what's important.

Thanks for dropping by. Stay safe 🌻