Taking a Break

This post comes as I realize the disastrous state social media is in. While it is forever farewell on some sites and platforms (Facebook, SnapChat), it is a brief break on other sites like Instagram and Twitter.

The chaos of social media is something worth noting in a growing unstable world. Looking at the political and social landscape, the polarization of global society is translating to the polarization of communities on social media platforms, which is very noticeable on Twitter. Without a doubt, the stay at home order, lockdowns, and the growing fear caused by the incessant news of coronavirus taking casualties globally is fueling frustration and mental health instabilities among people, which is being poured into social media.

Seeing this evolve, I have grown frustrated and angry at social media. Social media has become uncontrollable and it is spiraling out of control. That is why I have decided to look at myself, heal, and reorganize the next chapter of my life.

I have said good-bye to Facebook, a platform that has for a long time been on the ropes and has finally lost all hope. Recently, I experienced a scam that still aches my heart. While I reported the scam to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and consumer protection agencies in the US, I doubt I will receive an answer from them. I mainly contacted those federal organizations in the hopes that my report could potentially prevent further scams from happening to others. I have also reported the person and situation to Facebook and I haven't received anything from them either, which is a much more worrying sign about the platform. As I realized that I was not the only one experiencing such malicious acts on Facebook, I grew further frustrated with the Facebook organization. There are many YouTube videos warning about Facebook scams and after watching recent videos about how scammers operate within the legal umbrella outlined by Facebook, I am absolutely furious with the lack of interest of the platform in improving their security for customers. While Mr. Mark Zuckerberg promises improved security, the fact that his platform still allows so many criminals to operate and that the organization refuses to beef up their security and take the scam incidents seriously to help customers is baffling and frustrating. Therefore, I have deleted my Facebook account and don't plan on going on there again. (Who uses Facebook anyway, right?)

In a similar vein, I have decided to take a break from other social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. I can only describe those two platforms as EXTREMELY TOXIC, where people are just shunning and insulting each other instead of having effective and constructive debates. To sum up the experience, Twitter has become the battlefield for gang wars between "Trumpers / Trumpites" and "Liberal Snowflakes" and Instagram has become the platform of hate, where numerous comments suggest other people to "KYS (kill yourself)" or experience a horrific incident. Yes, these social media platforms have always had such negative comments, but recently, the number of those comments have exponentially increased. I believe this follows the recent divided debate on the Black Lives Matter Movement and the controversial decisions made by governments on how to combat the coronavirus effectively. This led the social media world to spiral out of control and has fueled this toxic community online. To see the impact of this toxicity, recently, many internet influencers, content creators, and streamers have taken their lives due to growing hate, and many other celebrities and athletes have been the victims of greater racial hate crimes and general verbal abuse, which have led to arrests. It is just painful to see how disgusting humanity has become and I realized that my growing frustration has led me to be more angry than usual at posts on these platforms. That's why I decided to take a break.

It has been a long while since I stopped using SnapChat and I have recently added Facebook to that list. I will wait for the toxicity of social media to subside and then return to Instagram and Twitter. I will continue to post on my blog when an idea strikes.

I urge everyone to take care of their mental well-being, be it staying away from your phone for a while, meditating, going outside for a walk, or exercising. The stress we are under may not seem like much, but subconsciously, our body is trying very hard to stabilize itself from numerous stresses. I encourage others to try it out and stay away from social media for a while. Please stay safe and I hope you are well. Much love.

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