This Massive Upgrade of Consciousness Happened When I Deleted Social Media For An Entire Year

If even a tiny part of you is considering it, LISTEN.

After the most extensive travelling I’d ever done, I decided to delete it all. Instagram, Twitter, even my phone number.

No one except my immediate family had any idea of how to get in contact with me.

Obviously, this needs some explaining — I was being hunted by a pack of feral, bloodthirsty social justice warriors who transformed suddenly from my closest friends into bloodcurdling demons.

Alright; maybe that’s an exaggeration. But I certainly did notice that during the pandemic, the online sphere was getting less intimate and too performative.

And it’s only gotten worse.

It was genuinely terrifying; sharing my unconventional thoughts about the state of the world rubbing someone the wrong way, and then they’d begin their attacks as if they hadn’t even known me as a real person.

I realized even the slightest political argument carried out over a screen was destroying the friendships I had.

We weren’t listening to an actual human voice with cadence and emotion. We were reading letters and dots, interpreting them according to our own experiences. Not the other person’s.

Absorbing a truly new perspective was impossible.

Yet this was only the beginning.

Anti-Social Media

Tumblr had a mass exodus back in 2015, when they announced Yahoo would ban all adult content.

This coincided with an influx of angry millennial users, who didn’t exactly have the maturity to conduct themselves as if they were speaking to other humans.

It was high season for cancel culture. And if you weren’t traumatized enough to weaponize your oppressions, you were easy pickings.

I realized, then, that the core value of that platform was putting my own aesthetic imprint onto one corner of the internet.

That’s kind of the reason I’ve been so active here on Medium; there is an opportunity to connect in a deep and nuanced way with likeminded folk, which goes so beyond merely ‘keeping in touch.’

The truth is, we can’t really be accurately known through a screen.

Expressing ourselves certainly helps. But trying to use social media sites for genuinely connection can be downright damaging.

It makes us expect certain things from the internet, such as finding meaning through algorithmic dating apps, or understanding someone’s life experiences through a wall of messages.

The thing is that none of these technologies have the humanizing touch of being engineered specifically to make our lives better or to make us feel better; they’re engineered to make us more addicted to them.

That’s not social media. That’s heroin media, and the CEOs are heads of literal digital drug cartels.

This Is What Happens When You Deactivate

If you don’t want to go all out & do a 180 degree shift, I implore you: deactivate for a set time, but just get off the internet.

Make a list of habits you want to build up, plan a project you want to start, and use this time to invest in yourself. Build the discipline that the mediocre masses only dream of.

You will find it incredibly difficult at first.

I felt as if my life had collapsed; not having access to any of my friends was like being put into an existential jail cell.

But in time, I found newer sources of joy (like productivity, and the confidence of independence) to fulfill me.

Most importantly of all, I was able to notice more in my inner world: triggers that usually sent me spiraling, energy flows connected to thought patterns.

With the sensitivity I gained, I was able to do what most people only dream of. I found inner peace, by learning how to shut off my endless conceptualization.

When you no longer tell stories about reality, and accept it as it is, how can you ever suffer due to it? You simply embrace it as it comes, aligning your action to its currents.

Upgrading Your Awareness > Stimulation

My crazy inner growth in that one offline year will ironically make it easier to return.

• I know how to depend on myself, and not on social media to rant and have my feelings either validated or “cancelled.”
• I know how to use the internet as a tool, and not have it use me as its attentional-profit machine.

Your gut feeling that the online sphere is not a great place to hang out for too long is your conscience silently screaming at you.

Seriously, there’s literally nothing exciting going on compared to the excitement of all the incredible ways your life will change when you learn the skill of inner sovereignty.

I am now able to do my own thing without looking for any kind of social media approval; and I’m happier, mentally stabler, richer, and more productive because of it.

I wish you exactly the same. All you need to do is take the plunge.