Day 023. Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL
A Millennial's Digital Detox Diaries: A mirror to the human condition.
Today marks the end to this digital detox series.
If you’re new here or just dropping by you can start receiving my newsletters directly in your inbox by subscribing today. Or, if you’re not ready to commit yet, you can leave a one-off thank you here to show your support. You can also tweak your email settings here, once you’re subscribed.
After thirty days of daily reflections, I’ve reached an unexpected conclusion: resistance is pointless—and maybe that’s totally OK.
For the past month, I’ve been exploring my relationship with Instagram, sharing personal insights and thinking deeply on what social media is and what it’s doing to us.
What began as an experiment of disconnection and an effort to reclaim my headspace, evolved into a critique, which has then materialised into an unexpected sense of surrender; an acceptance of social media’s role in modern life today.
One thing is clear, social media is here to stay.
The question to ask is not whether to accept it, but instead how can we embrace and coexist with it in a way that enhances our lives and society as a whole.
Meta’s greatest triumph isn’t in creating a social media platform; it’s in weaving a digital connectivity so profound, that it’s become the social fabric of global modern society today.
No one needs Instagram to survive, yet life without it feels increasingly unimaginable —and outright impossible. We’ve crossed a threshold, where opting out means more than just missing photos—it means we’re also stepping outside an entire layer of modern human connection. On top of that, we would also be cutting ourselves our from a critical channel of information.
Here’s the insight: these platforms are neutral.
Instagram is indifferent. Instagram isn’t acting on its own merits and producing content. We are the ones creating the content. Social media isn’t an autonomous architect of content—they’re mirrors, reflecting back our collective condition.
What we see on social media is simply a reflection of our choices, desires, and the values we uphold. It doesn’t create these values, but it does reflect and amplify them, which also makes our collective fixation more visible and pervasive than ever before.
Think about the widely publicised issue of teenage body image, which is often blamed on social media, particularly on platforms like Instagram. But, this oversimplifies a very human truth and a complex problem. Body image issues predate the digital age; before social media, magazines and television had already established unrealistic standards of beauty.
Before, magazines, there were corsets. Before corsets, there were glorified sculptures of gods and goddesses, expressing unrealistic standards. Social media didn’t invent our obsession with unattainable ideals; rather, social media simply amplified an existing human narcissism, that’s exited for millennia.
What these platforms provide is a broader stage with more sophisticated tools for distribution, which consequently also reinforces these standards. While social media exacerbated the pursuit for perfection by offering constant access and comparison, the underlying preference for idealised beauty is deeply rooted in human nature.
Social media is simply a magnifying glass which intensifies the values we already uphold as a society. But now, these values and unrealistic expectations have also been energised through superhuman God-like algorithms.
The true power—and responsibility—is in our hands.
We can continue to place blame on Big Social. We can act as passive consumers. But we can also switch gears to become active curators of this digital gallery instead.
Every like, share, and comment is a nudge to influence these advanced algorithms. Social media is simply a mirror to humanity’s collective condition. The algorithms that shape our feeds aren’t acting on their own initiative; they’re responding to the signals we give it, and amplifying whatever we choose to engage with.
If we want more meaningful content, we must also then take it upon ourselves to engage more mindfully. If we seek truth and positivity, then we must proactively direct our attention—and our engagement—toward content that promote these values.
Instagram is a platform; it’s neutral.
Maybe what makes social media so uncomfortable—so confronting— isn’t the technology itself, but how clearly it reflects back to us who we really are.
When we look at our feeds and feel that creeping sense of discomfort, perhaps what we’re really witnessing is the unfiltered truth about our values. The algorithms aren’t creating the content we consume, they’re merely paying close attention to how we behave and feeding us more of what we choose.
These algorithms learn from us, they’re trained to adapt to our preferences and to amplify our experience with more of what we engage with most frequently.
This is both sobering and empowering. Maybe, the problem isn’t Big Social or social media, but with how we’re choosing to use it?
Looking ahead, perhaps the solution isn’t to abandon these platforms but to approach them with greater intension.
If social media is today’s social fabric, then we each have a responsibility to treat it with care.
Imagine if billions of us, using social media worldwide, start to consciously choose to exclusively create content that uplifts. What if we leverage its distribution and use the connectivity towards content that informs us with facts and truth. What if the focus goes into amplifying content that leads to positive change.
Perhaps, the same algorithmic power that got us to where we are today can be used to help amplify healing, kindness, compassion, collaboration, and unity instead.
What this month-long exploration has solidified in my mind is how the question of social media and it’s role isn’t about whether to use it or not, but to realise it’s power and potential as a channel for meaningful change.
The audience is global and the technology is God-like.
In an era where digital platforms are ingrained into the fabric of human experience, perhaps our focus should shift from resistance to coexistence.
The question is not how to escape these platforms, but how can we harness its immense power to proliferate facts, truth, and positive change in our world. How can we use it to help insight positivity into our lives?
We are the curators of this vast digital gallery. These platforms provide the space, but it is we who decide what to exhibit. The content we create, share, and engage with shapes the narratives.
In this light, our relationship with social media is not one of passive consumption, but of active curation and proactive advocacy.
How can we unlock the potential of Instagram and other platforms like it as a force for good? This realisation doesn’t diminish the challenges posed by social media, and our obvious addiction, but like exercise, can social media be transformed into a healthy addiction?
This series is accessible and open to all readers interested!
Feel free to share this with someone who might enjoy it. You can forward this or hit the ‘❤️’ button below so more people can find their way to this, too.
You can subscribe today if you want to receive these editions directly into your inbox or upgrade your subscription to access the full archives, the Members Only library, bitesize, poems with audio recordings—or simply upgrade to support my work.
Stay tuned for the next edition!
Thank you for spending some of your day with me.
Day 022. Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL
I started this series to pursue an inquiry; a quest to investigate my relationship with Instagram and how I can reclaim my headspace and autonomy against the algorithms.
Day 021. Breaking the Scroll: 91 Days Off Social Media & Rediscovering Life IRL
Let’s reflect on social media for a moment.
Access the full series here.