Social Media and the Feeling of Not Doing Enough
This post’s title seems to say everything I want to say and nothing at all. I am sure researchers are investigating this issue: social media and the feeling of not doing enough. I don’t want to go there because I don’t want to feel that this is an academic task and that I must craft a strong argument to cover my back. I just want to put some words in this digital space and invite you, if you want, to reflect on them and fill in the gaps based on your experiences.
In exploring the role of design in developing digital well-being, I learned that having a balanced information diet is crucial. I don’t know about you, but my car often drives to the same fast food (information) chains.
- How much of this situation is my responsibility, and how much is it because I have been induced to?
- Is it my fault that I cannot stop dumb scrolling after a long day or before going to bed?
- Why do I keep giving likes to other people’s content?
- Does liking content really help me gain agency over the content I consume?
- Is there something wrong with me for not being smarter and leaving social media?
At some point, I decided to browse LinkedIn more, and reduce my time on Facebook (yes, I am that old), use Instagram as my entertainment app, neglect my Twitter account (I’ve heard it’s called different nowadays; Is that true?), and avoid TikTok and Threads (because time is money and I already give enough time to the companies and free labor by posting and liking stuff; You know, there is only so much I can do after hours of watching reels of dumb and cute cats and dogs).
You may say that I have a certain control over my meal prep for the day. Alright, I’ll take it. You may say that I should consume useful information, something that helps me be more productive, a leader, or successful. Yeah, I can see that. Points like these are certainly valid. However, I don’t want my time on social media to become a task or chore. Moreover, given how social media is designed and the people and circumstances of my everyday life, I am also unsure how much space I have for serendipity, curiosity, exploration, failure, and recovery. Do I have the knowledge, skills, and power to pick a new information diet?
At this point, in this ramble of mine, you might be asking how all of this relates to the post’s title. I wonder if this happens to you: feeling bad and guilty about my information diet, and, consequently, insufficient as an individual because I don’t know better.
Browsing LinkedIn made me want to write this post. At some point, I believed that consuming information there is better as the content relates to professional stuff. I don’t know about you, but I have found myself overwhelmed and frustrated after browsing it. I admire and feel happy about the success of many people I follow on LinkedIn. However, I feel sometimes like a loser (this is a very 90s slang) for not constantly posting how productive and successful I am. Does this happen to you?
I must say that such a feeling is not because of my colleagues and friends posting their success stories. I do not think there is something wrong with that. I remember that one of my reasons for opening a Facebook account three hundred years ago was to share my life with my friends and family, especially those living in a different city.
The feeling of being insufficient (as a person, professional, and social media content creator) has to do with the excessive amount of posts, many of them making me feel I am walking into a market or carnival where people are yelling at me, asking me to buy the magical potions that will make my life brighter and more productive and successful. Being in between so many loud voices confuses and numbs my mind. At the same time, it seems I cannot walk into this market or carnival if I don’t bring the ultimate product to sell. Oh boy! I only had some time to prepare lemonade. Would you buy? Maybe if I add some edible flowers to your lemonade? No high-fructose corn syrup, I promise. The glitter in the lemonade I sell is edible, too. Ready to start yelling as well in three, two, one…
You may say, stop scrolling and do something productive. I hear you! But there I go, trying to get a good deal and a meal from a fast casual restaurant instead of eating at a fast food one. I don’t want to sound dramatic. This feeling is not there all the time. Sometimes, matters of the real world are more important or pressing and keep me away from consuming my usual dose of salty and greasy dopamine. At other times, and this is when I feel super thankful, such matters make me live the here and now (outside my smartphone or tablet screen).
Again, I am rambling. This post doesn’t aim to provide any answer. Perhaps, one point that is crucial for me, and I hope it works like this for you, is the following: those moments (many of them, brief) when I really notice that life is more about the (little or majestic) things happening in the real world make me feel and belief that whether I feel I am enough or not is irrelevant. I just become thankful for and delighted in having experienced such a moment.
But here I am, having this urge to write this down and make it public to feel I am doing something, that I am doing enough. I used to write blog posts two hundred years ago and loved it. I didn’t feel I had the pressure of being correct or perfect. Nevertheless, I believe that writing is thinking. Just today, I decided to do something more active before I go back into the scrolling universe, and saturate my mind with silly cats, polarized political viewpoints, the best practices to become more productive, and the various explanations of how AI will help human kind (sigh… but that’s another rambling post).
