“My friends literally live on my phone.” This was a statement I so proudly said each time I rummaged through my things in search of my phone, or when I stay on the phone for hours, my fingers dancing on the keypads in chatting. So, times when I was asked why I was always in need of my phone throughout the day, I would reply with the above statement, or
something like, “My phone is where everyone in my life lives.”
I guess I never knew the impact of “visiting” my friends only on my phone until times came when I needed to physically interact with the world. I didn’t know what to make of the constant need to escape physical humaning and run to the comfort of the four walls of my room, safe behind the screens. I guess that was when I knew, sort of like an awakening that I needed to stop Whatsapp-ing, Twitter-ing, Facebook-ing, all the social media-ing, when the need for connection became more of a challenging problem I didn’t want to add to my anxiety.
But then, does it get easy? Limiting all these and trying to connect more with the real world? Well, in simple, truthful terms; No. I remember gisting one day with my sister about whatever girls gist about and whatnot, and then she began to talk about this Instagram post I missed, or that YouTube video that went viral about Will Smith and Jada Pickett, which I have to confess I haven’t seen till now, or that tweet that trended for days about Erica or whichever celebrity that surges in fame in a matter on clicking fingers. I remember sitting there and having that overwhelming FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out, especially when she asked the question; but how don’t you know these things?
It’s easy to browse on what exactly are the effects social media is having on people these days and finding out tons of disadvantages upon disadvantages. I remember the first time I came across “cancel culture” and thought that was the meanest thing a human can do to another on the net, till I saw the rate at which people are being cyber bullied. I mean, just a few hours ago, my favourite Instagram poet, Nikita Gill, just shared the death threats she gets on a regular basis. To be frank, I have come to know that these are platforms in which humanity is lost. Also, I could remember another favourite celebrity of mine posting her birthday pictures and being insulted for her weight gain.
Speaking about birthday pictures, or pictures generally, the last time I dressed up and looked nice for a birthday shoot and posted it online, I had the feeling that I was not as pretty as my pictures, that if people should get to see me in real life, they’d figure I am this imposter sitting on my throne of “beautiful” lies. And then there are so many pictures of so many more pretty people, younger and more successful and I sit there in the mess of my quarter life crisis and wonder what exactly am I celebrating in myself. The depression that swept in afterwards took me off my feet; literally, I was holed up in my room for days.
But then, there is a saying that too much of something becomes toxic. Too much of eating causes health problems, too much of sleeping causes memory loss, too much of this or that will just end up making you miserable. The same goes for social media and the impact it has on mental health. My friends live on my phone, true, but I have pushed myself to meet more people most days in real life and formed connections with strangers on social media, something I would never have done without social media. I learnt I cannot learn everything that’s happening in the world no matter how bad my FOMO can be, so I take in what I can to keep in touch with this fast-moving world. I throw in my likes and pour the love of my compliments in comment sections, perhaps which will cheer you up and motivate you to create more content.
To me, social media does have both risks and benefits, and one outweighs the other depending on how you decide to use it, and I choose to make a change with it.
Sarah YousuphBio
Sarah Yousuph is a novelist, poet and medical physiologist. She is passionate about talks on mental health, writing and women rights. Her first published novel is titled, No Escape from You, and has been published on Wattpad.
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