Wednesday: Day 2

    Social media has been a time filler and coping mechanism for me. Whether it was waiting in line at the grocery store or during severe anxiety episodes, I have turned to social media to distract myself. I personally think that I use it to remind myself of what life “could” be. When I see photos of influencers boasting their wealth on materialistic things or of friends and family traveling to nice places, it reminds me that with hard work I could one day be like them. I typically tend to post more positively on platforms because I would not want to showcase personal struggles whether due to privacy or because I do not want to ruin another person’s day by speaking of something bad. Additionally, in my opinion, those who post of their minor inconveniences are seeking attention and pity whereas those who post a more serious struggle, like of a lost one, would be to spread the word. In either case, I prefer to keep that type of information to myself. I like to use social media as a way to post for memory purposes which is why I shy away from platforms like Twitter which are typically more opinion based. I use Instagram and treat it like a photo album to mark significant memories of events. I think that I prefer it more than a physical photo album since it is digital and of course there is an actual album built for photos on our phones but, for the social sense I guess I like to share it with those who I may not see face-to-face on a daily basis (long distance friends and family).

    I do not think that I am necessarily addicted to social media since I have successfully gone about these past two days without a problem at all. It would definitely be a bad habit if I were addicted and I think at some point I was more so as a coping mechanism for my anxiety; however, with proper medical help I have strayed away from always using social media to escape the feeling. Based on the Screen Time app on my phone, I average about 30 minutes to an hour of activity on my phone when it comes to my social media activity (prior to this cleanse of course) and more of my screen time is more on the general Messenger app which I use as a main source of communication. I definitely use social media platforms the least on busier days where I may have both work and school back to back because the thought of it escapes my mind when I have so many other things to do. By the time that I am done with the day, my only thought is to just lay in bed and drift to sleep.