[18] decentering social media
It's been a few months since I deleted my main IG and Twitter. I learn to decenter social media to address my addiction. I still use my phone a lot since I play games and write on it, so my screen time is not the concern as long as it's not coming from social media. These are some thoughts coming from my own observation:
My shopping appetite dropped significantly.
I think it's because I see a lot of non-commercial ads, see people buy trinkets, skincare, makeup, clothes, or even work on new hobbies. I mean, there's nothing wrong with trying new hobbies, but probably because of my need to make everything perfect, I have to buy a lot of things to help me enjoy the hobbies. It feels wasteful since I have to keep the clutter away. I'm glad that I realise the problem somehow. Deep down I have to talk to myself about the needs of keeping my mind running all the time. Being distracted and unproductive is bad, so thus working on something 24/7. Basically, my body is running a never-ending marathon of a to-do list. It's exhausting when I can't find a way to balance things.Live with less.
I want to live with less stuff that I only use once or twice. Although I do have to address my book-buying issue, I think that's the only thing I don't mind having. Keeping a budget has been a huge help for me to fix my finances. I have been quite diligent with recording expenses ever since. Decentering social media helps with intentional living because I see fewer things now.Materials vs. experiences.
We won't live that long. Not in a pessimistic way to think about it. I mean, can you imagine being immortal? That sounds more miserable than being given a set time to appreciate life. Something I learn is the abundance of materials will make us less appreciative, but experiencing a lot of events usually will humble us. Material won't give me an experience of going to Japan at 25 or watching the aftermath of a tsunami in Indonesia at 26. I learnt a lot from my short trips and appreciate every single moment I was there.
There are a lot of good things that happen after I stay away from social media. These are just some of them. Probably just in my algorithm that I see more and more people embrace this kind of living. It makes me happy to share these thoughts with a few people that might read this.
It's finally over,
reesa