What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Social Media Detox? Afiq Shofy Follow Apr 8 · 7 min read

(First Published on paras.id/blog)

Social media evolves immensely over the years. It used to be a social network to link one person to the other. It is undeniable that it turns into a go-to source of information and even source of income for a few. According to Kevin Werbach, social media has turned into an essential piece to get information for billions of people. Social media is also surprisingly adaptive and adjustable to preferences and behaviors. The changes are rapid to the point that it is difficult and predicts which way it will transform. A decade ago, it is just a social network, and now it turns into a parade of information, platform of conformation, and beauty gallery. Social media even morphs to political echo chambers during election years. It also gives a platform to those who would like to monetize their content through monetization which something unthinkable a few years back.

“I considered fleeing to a remote island for a few weeks but realized I wasn’t craving physical escape. I didn’t actually want to be alone. I just wanted to be mentally free of obligations, most of which asserted themselves in a digital fashion.”

The statement above is delivered by Baratunde Thurston after his 25-day digital detox. Even after his detox, he warned that the risk of choosing to excessively connected to social media will cause a person to not living in it. In a little over a decade, social media turns from one option for entertainment into an essential part of our lives. As if we are missing out on an important part of the world although social media is not even a fundamental technology. Social media detox — a phenomenon where people would need to take a break from a certain platform. This article would like to discuss the toxic side of social media that needed detox.

Damaging yet irreplaceable

Social media is irreplaceable. There is nothing that affects our personality and whim like social media. Jonah Berger once argued back in 2007 that Facebook might not be around in 15 years and he stated that he is wrong. A study conducted by the University of Maryland shows that most students from 10 countries failed to go 24 hours without media. They described their reaction to the study as fretful, confused, anxious, irritable, insecure, restless, addicted, angry, lonely, dependent, depressed, etc. They also find that social media affects us in a powerfully subconscious and hormonal way. People who are addicted to social media experience similar symptoms to those who suffer from substance addictions. In other words, social media is an addiction machine.

Social media is adaptable. Companies spend resources into research targeted at the best way to keep us in check with social media. While Features are great, staying relevant is what the user is looking for. The platform that has been used now will eventually be replaced and people will move away and look for its replacement since the platform says something about them. It is true because people will always look for the new hot thing. In the end, the social media platform is not going anywhere soon.

It brought up certain questions whether how social media would affect our lives since it will stay with us in our pocket 24/7. The important discourse to analyze is the negative impact that social media has brought upon us despite its great features. According to Ronal Deibert, digital technology has become pervasive and embedded in our lives.

“Unwinding them completely is neither possible nor desirable”

How is it possible? Social media changes the way we are thinking as it is made fame and attention more democratic. By definition, everyone can share anything that they desire (mostly) free of charge. The only thing that makes it free is because most of them run through advertisements. Practically, all the data from your favorite colors to your favorite person is calculated to give you the best ads that would fit your interest. When we combine that with the vanity metrics that produce dopamine as fast as playing slot machines in a casino, we truly have an addictive tool in our pockets. Whether or not that the social media companies would take action to reduce the damaging effect is still uncertain, but we should not ignore the fundamental problem that is unlikely to be addressed since it is central to this type of business model.

Tradeoffs — social media and real life

Every minute we put on social media is the time we spend on not living real life. One could argue that social media does not have any correlation to real life — it is a separate entity. Little is known about the specific concern users have about social media overuse. Trying to understand the tradeoffs and narrative around life online could guide us to healthier and more comfortable use of this platform. A study conducted by Sarita Yardi Schonebeck discusses how people giving up social media for lent. The subjects of this study are analyzed for the reasons why they take breaks from social media. One of the concerns that surface is that they believe they spend too much time living in “not a real-life”.

Although, there is a realization that social media is not “real life”, what we see in social media can transform our reality. On a personal level, the impact of social media can be severe on an individual’s self-esteem. Goffman’s norm theory states that identity standard is acquired by a stigmatized individual in our society. The problem lies when that person tries to apply the standard even though failing to conform to it which creates ambivalence regarding own self. This case also applies to social media that is filled with saturated content from #ootd to #goals.

“I wish I had more of real life. Sometimes I thought about deleting my [Facebook] account but I never do. I thought about deleting my friends but I never do that either. I wish my friends online were my friends in real life.”

On a grand scale, one post in a social media that can be shared effortlessly could shape its discourse regarding one topic. Hoax is massive because, in the digital world, reality can be bent at will and with a big audience turns into consensus reality.

“Just quit” is not as simple and easy as it sounds. Social media is secretly creating its social currency and it is apparent too in the case of teenagers. “Likes” radiates that they are more likable whereas “followers” means they are in the higher rank of social status. This phenomenon is reflected in Portwood-Stacer’s behavioral research. The participants share the concern that social media take away a lot of their real-life and describe it as “a waste of time”. Portwood-Stacer’s participant did not struggle with the temptation while disconnecting from social media, but instead the impact on their relationships and social status. Although Digital dualist believes that online worlds and offline worlds are two separated realities and say that real life is better than the online one, the extended-mind thesis says that the boundaries are becoming unclear. It implies that our digital devices are the extension of our identities and selves. Taking breaks from social media is cutting the tradeoffs we make between social media and our real life. We might take part in social media willingly but not wittingly.

What should we do then?

Talking about social media detox should just talking about the benefits that we achieve from it. We need to discuss why we need to take it in the first place. The “toxicity” behind social media should not be underestimated or even overlooked. Perhaps we cannot change the course of time to the point that we are turning back to not participate in a new social vehicle. It is clear that there several cases where even Jonah Berger would assume that Facebook would be gone by 2022, yet in 2019, despite all the attacks and the attempt to reduce social media usage during the previous year, people still spend the same amount of time surfing the social media.

Social media is still a tool. Even though people would argue that the technology is always neutral -it’s just how we utilize it, we could also argue that the design would play a huge role in determining what kind of social media it would be. Whether it is the grid, repost feature, the name of the site, it is apparent that it is not 100% neutral.

“The world is crying out for technological innovations that will open up other means of distributed communication beyond the highly centralized, intensely surveilled, and too easily abused platforms of the social-media giants.”

Donald Reibert stated that the goal should be to preserve the great strides we have made in connecting people and giving quick access to information for anyone. Social media is very helpful technology. During the pandemic, I could not count how many times I can get precautions, help, and news just by sitting and scrolling through one platform. We don’t need to go to the extreme to the point that we abolish social media. Perhaps. the wise thing to do is letting the technology flourish and hoping that the next generation of social media would learn from the mistake and improve the great virtue of the current platform.

-Afiq Shofy