It's Those Damn Phones!

I'd like to assume that the majority of people reading this have a social media addiction to some degree.

It honestly took me awhile to realize, or, I guess, re-realize.

Some time around 2021 I deleted my TikTok account and the app from my phone, after my watch-time averaged a good 8 hours a day. Around the same time I had deleted my Twitter account as well, after a niche community I was in exploded with drama. I just didn't want to deal with the constant anxiety I gave myself, that all of these platforms fed me.

And it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

It was the first step towards this healing process I was trying to start at the time. And genuinely, it was the most important one. So much anxiety relieved. I gave myself a ton of room to become significantly more aware of my thoughts, feelings, perspectives and mindset.

The problem was thinking that that was it. That I solved it. That I was healed.

Such an unrealistic conclusion.

To this day, I constantly have these epiphany moments along the lines of, "Gosh, I was so stupid, I should have been looking at this way instead."

You never stop healing. So long as you're living, you will always be hurting in one way or another. There will always be healing.

The Bane of Content Creation

When I started my content creation journey, I still didn't have many problems with social media. The nice thing was, I didn't have any other accounts other than my YouTube.

But, everyone needs to grow. So, after some time, I needed to make more accounts.

I needed the apps on my phone.

I needed them to be convenient for me.

This was the best way for me to grow my platforms.

Many of the apps also just do not work if they're not on the phone.

So, would you guess, I got completely addicted again? Now, my daily hours on my phone aren't up to 8 hours again... but the habit of checking reels whenever I'm bored, watching them before bed, and the wretched act of being bored of Instagram and then closing out of the app only to open Instagram up again... it all returned.

Everything just slowly deteriorated.

I got stuck in the cycle of reading awful news about everything from Twitter. Watching brainrot and fear-mongering reels on Instagram to distract me from my pain. Watching YouTube videos instead of making my own videos.

This takes over my brain. It alters my sleep schedule. It alters my thought patterns. It alters my productivity.

And I needed to do something about it. I implore you to think about this, too.

Leaving Social Media

Would you believe me if I said I had 3 unpublished drafts about this topic?

I don't remember writing these. But it seems like I've been really adamant on leaving social media (not leaving content creation).

The problem with this is, mostly, that I'll miss opportunities.

I'll miss other content creators complimenting my work.

I'll miss companies reaching out to me to partner with me.

And unfortunately, these apps won't even let me consider leaving. I can't just delete Instagram off my phone; I need it to upload videos with the features I want. I need it to make collab posts with creators and companies like Makeship during our campaigns. And these features aren't available on desktop.

I don't need it to doomscroll reels for hours upon hours.

I don't need any app to do that.

Come to think of it, I don't need 90% of the apps that I have my on my phone right now. I really just need to text, call, and maybe have Discord. Otherwise... can't I just do that all on my computer?

Enter Dumb Phones

I've been thinking about dumb phones for a long, long time.

I've been wanting to switch away from my iPhone, but it just felt so wrong, since I already have several Apple products to pair with it.

But at this rate I'm willing to make the sacrifice.

My old iPhone will serve as a Wi-Fi only work phone, while my new dumb-ish phone will serve as my new daily driver. This way, I can keep all the evil apps, but not feel tempted to use them.

I say "dumb-ish" because I need a phone that's a good transition phone. I'm not ready to go full-dumb just yet. Unfortunately, many dumb phones lack certain features I want or need, and there is no perfect choice. Especially since many of them are still on 3G, which the US no longer supports.

So, after much research, my dumb-ish phone of choice is the Bluefox NX1.

It's still a smart phone, I fully recognize that. It's small and inconvenient for scrolling, and I'll set it up in a way that works for me. It will have no social media on it, maybe not even a browser. That will be all for my work phone.

I will make it my dumb phone.

It Was Always a Problem, It's Just Worse Now

I think these platforms are well aware that social media addiction is a problem, and are feeding into it as much as they can. It brings them more money, after all.

It's increasingly getting worse and more worrying. Australia just banned people under the age of 16 from social media. Honestly, not a bad direction, in my opinion.

I'm not going to stop uploading content, even though I recognize that, in a way, it's contributing to the problem. The amount of people I've been able to inspire through my art is the one benefit I see for these platforms, and I'll continue contributing to it in the best way that I can.

With as much evil as there is on social media, I hope I can be one of the few good ones.

I've met incredible people, I've seen incredible art that I've inspired, and I've supposedly calmed a lot of babies.

I'm not going anywhere.

I just need to take care of myself.