Hayitbek Yusupov

We need social media just as much as we need air to breathe

Nowadays it is almost impossible to be even imagining our lives without social media. Just think about what happens to human beings when electricity goes off or when there is no access to Internet. You get bored, exhausted of life without social interactions. A few years ago, I watched a video on Youtube called 'Look Up'. I remember watching the video and tbh I felt nothing. Had I realized the importance of the words spoken in the video, my life would have been a lot better.

We don't have to cut off social media completely...

When I talk my skepticism about social media, most people say that it's impossible to completely abandon the usage of social media. Sometimes, we sign up for social media not for our own personal purposes but instead for our jobs or some other obligations. For example, I live in Uzbekistan. It sucks so bad that in my country, people rely heavily on Telegram. I think almost 8 out of 10 uzbeks you see on the streets have a Telegram account. If you ever get hired, there is a 95% chance that your company uses Telegram for communication. People even store their...well passwords, documents, images, videos on Telegram too. There is nothing wrong with social media unless you go out of way your way to deeply connect it to your life. The reason I am saying all these facts is, even if you want to cut out your social media usage, you will be forced into using it by other factors which you don't have power over, so you are screwed to be having to use social media. But there is still hope. There is still a way to get yourself out of the social media rabbit hole. We are explorers, pioneers, engineers. We were not born to scroll through reels or stories or whatever you call them for hours. We have to carefully look at our usage of social media, deeply analize it, and create a strategy for minimizing it's risks and dangers. Yes, we can't completely cut off social media, but we can cut off its effects on our personal lives. If you're still interested, keep reading. I will share somes strategies which I have been applying for more than half a year now.

Strategy 1: Analize your social media usage in a big picture

I want you to collect information about all social media accounts do you have. Once you have all of them, ask yourself why the heck you are signed up for them. If you use Instagram, ask yourself why, on what purpose. You got it aced? Great. Now once you've defined your purpose, ask yourself is this the best way to fulfill your purpose? Let's say you use Instagram for keeping in touch with your friends or for posting some inspirational content. Ask yourself if Instagram is the best way to communicate with your friends or the best way for content making. You will most likely end up with very few tiny little features that benefits you from each social media platform. That also means there are a number of "features that you are not signed up for" in there. Let's say you know for sure that Instagram is the only or the best way for you to communicate with your friends. That means, you do not benefit from other features of Instagram. So you have to make sure that you do not use those features. Social media should just be a single-purpose place for you. You should pick what's right for you and leave what's bad. There is an awesome tool called StayFree. I have been using for like a year now. Here's what I use it for:

• blocking the Explore page, Reels, Stories on Instagram
• blocking Youtube completely and only allowing certain channels & playlists which I find useful
• blocking any social media that I used to use only for treating boredom or loneliness such as Twitter, Reddit or even LinkedIn :)
• and there are a lot of cool things you can do, just check them out. They have an app for almost every type of device.

Strategy 2: Separate your social media accounts

As I said earlier, sometimes we have to use social media for specific purposes, like for our jobs, for our studies, etc. But most of the time, we mistakenly put everything in one place. I made this mistake too. I used to open my Telegram at work to send a message to some colleague and tadaaam. I would see tons of 'unread messages' from many groups, channels and private chats 'waiting for me' to go and check them out. Remember that I just wanted to send a message to someone and to my surprise, Telegram offers me a lot of features which I did not sign up for. So, what did I do? I opened separate accounts for my personal life & for my work. When I am at work, I open up my work account and I am not distracted any more. Once or twice a week, I will check my personal account to keep in touch with friends or family, or to read some news. Simple :) I do the same thing with Notion. I have like 3 accounts on Notion:

1. For pure personal notes, projects
2. For work related stuff
3. For university related stuff It has made my life significantly easier because the size of my context is really small when it comes to using social media.

Strategy 3: Cut down entertainment & replace it with something challenging

If you have analyzed your social media usage, you will definitely see yourself using some social media just for fun, maybe for celebrity gossip, I don't know. You will certainly find that it does not give you any benefit rather than feeding you with dopamine when you are stressed, bored or alone. You have to cut them down and replace them with something challening, such as:

• reading
• sports (football, baseball, basketball or whatever you like)
• chess
• crafting
• playing instruments (piano, guitar or whatever you like) The goal here is to replace social media with something that's like a hobby to you. Maybe you are good at drawing or maths or some other thing that does not require you to use social media. Whenever there is an urge to scroll through social media, go and play your guitar, or go and read a page or two from your favorite book. For example, I am practicing to read a book:
• when I am on a bus, subway, in a taxi
• when I am waiting in a line or waiting for someone at some place
• when eating something
• when I go shopping with my sister. It takes a lot of time for her to pick things, so I can read a page or two while she is buying all her stuff

Strategy 4: Be attentive to your close people

For over a year, I have also developed a habit of leaving my phone at home when I am going out with my family. When I sit down with them on the street, I do not grab my phone and get lost inside of it. I raise my head and talk to my family. Trust me it is a good feeling to be one of the few people who actually can raise their heads in public.

Conclusion

What I wrote today might not be in a perfect shape because I did not even plan to write this blog post. But, I found some unexpected strength in myself to jot down these words. Look up from social media, shut down those devices. I want to end with some quotes from Walt Whitman:

O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring, Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish, Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined, The question, O me! so sad, recurring — What good amid these, O me, O life?

The Answer:

That you are here — that life exists and identity, That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.