It wasn’t like I had an addiction or a major problem with social media. I seldom used my phone in bed or was scrolling on the screen while being with friends. I used to take pictures, make videos and I did spend some time editing and creating content for my Instagram. It wasn’t just for private, my Instagram was public and with a strong emphasis on my passion for personal development, travel and sustainability. However, I didn’t make a living on it and I would guess most of my followers were there since I followed them back.
Things started to change this winter. I decided to stay in Sweden, face the cold and darkness and my normal spirit for inspiring others and creating a better world went down. I started to see some of the things on Instagram which I have observed on Facebook. Things that made me delete the Facebook app two years ago. Things that made me stop watching and listening to the news years ago. What happened was that things started to get negative even within sustainability, like a battle between two fields then a collaborative team-work. I also started to feel sick by the amount of data Facebook and Google is collecting about me. People say they can’t quit social media due to the friends they have there and because of work. Have we come to the point that Facebook and Google is not only collecting our data? They are actually in charge of what we’re doing with our lives?
So I quit. Easy as that I just deactivated my Facebook account which was not very active and I deleted the app Instagram but kept my account. I didn’t visit Twitter or any news paper online. I watch documentaries, get e-mails with reports and news for some of the organisations I’m supporting and I let Pocket collect articles for me to read. My largest intake of news of the global world this winter was the magazine Economics. During this time I had some insights about my use of social media.
Watch the video of my experience and some of the latest research in Sweden about how social media are impacting our lives.