I deleted what was left of my social media back in May. I never understood the point of it and only had my account up for a few days at a time before I'd deactivate it again. It's just filled with pervasive advertising and news stories manipulated to invoke negative emotional responses.

For me, deleting my social media was not a social death. I hardly used it to communicate with friends. If anything, it actually eased some of my anxiety and was a death of some narcissism I was holding. It made me realize how irrelevant my viewpoints are. You'd figure I'd feel depressed about that: that the internet and my "friends" go on without me, but I realized that's true for everyone.

I used to think I had to justify my views all the time through the internet, and all the while felt jealous of my friends who posted pics of their cool trips and had WAY more likes than me. Now I realize those people are no different than me. I had a shift in mentality right before I deleted my accounts: I noticed that my friends were going online longer than me, while I was starting to cut back on my usage.

My friends, to this day, are posting bitter political comments all day, trying to prove a point to a small audience who will never change their opinion anyway. I notice their posts get more angry and incoherent over time. I used to feel jealous of these people, now I realize my perception was really skewed. I thought they went out all the time while I was stuck inside on the internet all day. Turns out it was the opposite.