You’re Wasting Your Life on Social Media

and it’s not worth the cost

Last year I decided to quit most of my social media accounts. I left Instagram, Facebook and deleted Twitter entirely.

I lasted nine months before I started missing bookstagram accounts, so I decided to make a new Instagram dedicated solely to writing and book discussions. I never returned to Twitter or Facebook.

When I returned to Instagram, it was tempting to check up on people. Like many, curiosity got the better of me. After a few days back on Instagram, I searched for the accounts of old acquaintances or influencers I used to follow.

I remember how I used to feel when I saw their photos. I felt a rush of shame and embarrassment; I felt so lonely and exiled from their lives. They were everything I aspired to be at the time, and more. They had friends, social lives and high-paying careers — and then there was me.

But nine months later, when I looked them up, I felt nothing but boredom. Nothing about their lives inspired me, the endless selfies and life updates seemed vapid and vain, and I realised at that moment that my time off social media had given me clarity.

Social media has a way of shrinking down the world and making everything feel, oxymoronically, unattainably intimate. Every life, goal…