Is it time to step away from social media? | The Triangle
Opinion

Is it time to step away from social media?

Jan. 31, 2025
Photo by Evie Touring | The Triangle

Growing up in this age of technology, I have been confronted many times by well-meaning adults, motivated by some intrinsic desire to instill common sense in me during the formative years of my early education, to be told about the dangers of social media and an online presence. At the time, I am sure I did not appreciate suggestions about Internet safety from people I wholly believed did not understand it on the same level that my peers and I could. I did, however, often appreciate the chance to cut math class short for a school-wide assembly on how to come up with a good password. 

I am not sure if they were necessarily right at the time about social media being the uncontrolled inferno of misinformation and hate that they said it was, but these presenters were unknowingly  predicting the conditions of the modern social media landscape that would be uniquely formed through a very specific cascade of changes. Things have evolved in such a steady and subtle manner that many of us did not realize what was happening until, all of a sudden, we found ourselves losing hours of the day to short-form video-sharing platforms. Aided by a pandemic-related trend of decreased socialization and increased access to machine learning models, social media feeds over the past few years seem to have become less about popular, trending content and more of a stream of posts catered to the user’s interests. The outcome? Users are now constantly fighting for control over their own attention.

Over the past few years, social media websites have all adjusted their algorithms, the set of rules that determine what content the user is exposed to, in significant ways. The employment of sophisticated algorithms was once a mainstay but with a constant stream of unlimited, unfiltered content, users would be incredibly overwhelmed and soon become uninterested. By only showing users things they would be interested in, algorithms now maximize the time they spend on the app and their enjoyment of that time, but it almost seems as if a balance has recently shifted. Social media is no longer overwhelmingly this marvel of technology that forms bridges of connection between family, friends, even strangers – now, it seems as if there is a fatigue associated with it, and it seems the opinion toward social media has shifted along with the technology. 

There was once a time, when many of us were reaching the age of allowed Internet access, that websites like Facebook and Instagram were revered to a point where they had cultivated their own aesthetic. Being constantly logged-on was a quirky trait of the modern teenager, but now we chastise ourselves for reaching for TikTok or Instagram Reels as a way to pass time. People often talk now about dopamine purges and digital minimalism. I spoke to some students on campus about this topic, and the overwhelming opinion was that it is time to look toward other avenues for entertainment. So, what has changed to make young adults, who grew up along with these websites, feel such a strong urge to turn away?

“It seems as though the outlet I turn to during breaks is becoming more and more time-consuming. I do not pride myself on a meticulously crafted internet presence, but I do want to try to step away and disconnect,” says Aneeka Phadnis, a third-year biology major. “When I can point to exactly why a certain post has come up in my feed, I know it is time to put the phone down.” 

Social media feeds also appeal to many emotions at once in order to maximize engagement: happy videos, blatant misinformation and heart-wrenching stories all exist together in the same 10-minute scroll. The strain that this back-and-forth puts on our well-being is really significant and hard to ignore, a sentiment shared by third-year nursing major April Sandner. 

“I think it’s a mix of things to keep you happy and angry. You’ll see a video or two in a row that you don’t like, but then your feed will be full of videos you love for a while, and the cycle repeats, keeping you on longer,” she says. “I have felt insecure many times after scrolling through social media, comparing myself to the other people I see on the screen.”

Jealousy is another major consequence of social media that inflames negative emotions and also fuels a lot of harmful standards which in turn encourage cruel words. Third-year public health major Shailly Verma says she finds herself guessing what mean comments are going to be on a video before she even sees them: “Nobody who is outside the ideal body type is allowed to make a video without hundreds of comments telling them to lose weight. I would love to see those people say it to someone’s face.”

Isabella Cuares, a third-year Product Design student, brings up another important point in that modern social media “perpetuates systemic oppression, and reinforces pre-existing biases. We are training [machine learning AI] to make judgements based on our biases.” At the same time, though, she believes, “It provides connection in a lot of beautiful ways. So much information is accessible, and we have the ability to educate so many people. I know that I’ve grown into a person who is more conscious and critical of our current systems, because of social media.”

This final point is why it is so hard to truly sever ties with our online presence – at no other point in history has it been normal for someone to have instant access to a stranger on the other side of the world. So many of us have expanded our knowledge of current events and been exposed to information that helps us confront our internal biases through the Internet. It is truly a magnificent tool for communication, education, and building a better world. Maybe we do not need to step away from social media entirely, but we should certainly keep an eye on the ways it is regulated and, perhaps more importantly, the time we so willingly give up.