October 14, 2026
This post may ruffle some feathers, which I generally don’t like to do, so apologies in advance. And I don’t mean to invalidate anyone else’s lived experience or look at things from an overly simple, easy, black-and-white perspective. But this is something that has lingered in the depths of my mind for years, so I figured I’d better write about it now, especially as I see at least 3 or 4 posts per day about people finally leaving Instagram, deleting Twitter from their phone, or nuking their TikTok account completely.
Don’t get me wrong; I love to see it. More power to anyone doing those things for the sake of their mental health, and I’m glad that finally working up the courage to get rid of the apps that bring toxicity into their lives is such a transformative moment for a lot of people.
But I must admit, every time I see this kind of post, I struggle to understand it.
I genuinely wish I didn’t because it’s such a common experience, but I’ve never felt that my real life, mindset, or insecurities were deeply affected by anything I’ve seen on any social media platform. And I’ve never felt like I needed to come off one for the sake of my mental health – at least not in the sense that I feel bad about myself or get triggered when I see what others are posting about their lives.
I do take social media breaks occasionally – maybe even consistently – but only because I think it’s good to come offline and spend more time doing things aside from scrolling, like reading or engaging in hobbies.
Sometimes, I naturally drift away from socials without meaning to, realize I did 1 to 3 months later, and then return to them out of curiosity, too. But that’s the extent of it.
Meanwhile, coming off social media – particularly, Instagram, I’ve noticed – seems like a necessary and life-changing experience for what is starting to feel like everyone else. As always, I’m wondering why I’m the odd one out, and also, why social media affects some people so deeply, while it isn’t taken as seriously by other people at all.
One conclusion I’ve come to over the years, through noticing the way people talk about their social media usage habits, is that many people are miserable online because they are not curating their social media spaces at all. Of course, this isn’t the only reason – there are many other ones – but seriously…This is a big reason.
So, think of this post as me shaking your shoulders wildly and slapping you across the face to snap you out of the illusion that you must tolerate nonsense on social media when, actually, you absolutely do not.
And I realize not everyone’s sour relationship with social media is just because of a lack of TL curation, so if the shoe fits, wear it; if it doesn’t, don’t.
Now…
For starters, people aren’t utilizing the block button.
Have you ever seen one of those videos of someone talking about how they got blocked by a celebrity, influencer, or even just a fellow user? They act shocked, sometimes even appalled, as they point to the screenshot evidence of them having been blocked by that person, and they make a big deal of asking, “What did I even do? I don’t even think I did anything!” Oftentimes, they laugh sheepishly as they act like it’s weird that the person blocked them for “no reason” and ask their audience to go over to the other person’s comment section and harass them ask them about why they were blocked. Other times, they say things like, “We’ve never even interacted before,” or “The thing I said or did that made them block me wasn’t even that deep, and they took it the complete wrong way! Let me explain the situation…”
I can tell by the way people are absolutely aghast at being blocked that they aren’t using their own block button either.
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