On Social Media

Greetings, internet peoples!

As I was in my 5:00 am meeting today I was, well, multitasking, as you do, and somewhat browsing around and stumble upon this article by Mister Davis Sparks, THE GROWING TIDE AGAINST SOCIAL MEDIA.

As I was reading, there was a lot of noting and "yepping". And there was one piece of it that kind of stuck out and had me thinking for a bit.

One of my daughters is a high school teacher, and it only took her a few days of teaching to declare that the “biggest problem is TikTok. “ Her kids were addicted, and I don’t use that term lightly. Some could not stop watching videos during class until she took away their phones.

This touches or relates to a few things I think about often. I have two girls, 5 and 7yo. Although they aren't quite into the social media trap, yet, I often think about how the status of social media will be when, inevitably, they'd get to it. The only thing that I can say they are into, is Youtube. Yes, we are terrible parents, some may say, though, I don't think I'd say they're addicted to it, they do play and do many other things with their time but they do spend quite some time watching things. They use my account so I am well aware of the stuff they watch.

Anyhow, the state of social media as it stands currently scares me a little bit, and worries me, as a parent but again, I don't know how all this will be in 5 to 7 years from now. So, in a way, I have time not to worry but I do worry.

The second thing is the TikTok addiction. I am proud to say that I have never downloaded this app and I plan to, for as long as I can manage, never download it. As I have might said somewhere one time, I do not need another let's-get-high-on-dopamine kind of app.

Here is where I confess, for me, Instagram is my TikTok. I can spend so much time in that app just watching reels, Steve Harvey's Family Feud clips, workout videos, dancing chickens, and very, very inappropriate jokes clips. And I hate myself for it, I know I have a problem, I have lost so many hours of sleep to Insta. I have deleted the app from my phone, I have deactivated my account, and still, I crawl back to it like an addict.

I just wish I could at least get rid of the damned explore tab and just have my regular feed but of course, that's how they get your attention, in the explorer tab. I also wish I had the self control to ignore it, or better yet, close the damn thing for sure.