i don't think everyone should quit social media, but reevaluate its role in their life and adjust accordingly. you might want to read petra's and lisa's lists about this.

why i quit (most) social media

• i dislike how everything is controlled by algorithms. i want to have more control over the media i consume, and by extension, how i spend my time.
• i dislike the culture that comes with social media, that being one of comparison, criticism, cruelty, over-consumption, fleeting fanaticism, and polarization.
• i find social media distracting and detrimental to my discipline, focus, and reading comprehension.
• social media has the potential to distort your perception of reality, which is especially true because of how curated your own online sphere is based on your algorithmic profile.
• i realized that there is a very small part of the content i consume on social media that i would willingly choose to engage with. most content that comes across my feed is stuff i don't care about, comparable to a constant stream of on-demand, so-stimulating-it's-boring slop.
• social media is disruptive for my sleep habits and has a 50/50 chance of leading to an extended doomscrolling session that makes me feel terrible about my life. i have a naturally melancholic (i.e. perfectionistic, neurotic, depressive) personality and social media exacerbates that.
• social media disproportionately harms marginalized people such as disabled people, women, poc, lgbtq people, people of lower socioeconomic classes, and basically anyone that doesn't conform to society's ideals. they are faced with more harassment and judgment while being simultaneously indirectly pressured to conform by the images of communally adulated, lowest-common-denominator figures on social media, which by nature, tend to represent whatever society values (usually wealth and attractiveness).
• in the past several months, i have witnessed a lot of people's vindictive and honestly grotesque behaviour on social media, and aside from it making me feel worse about the state of the human race, i do not want to risk becoming a more angry, bitter person.

what now?

• i only use reddit when i have a specific query or subreddit i want to visit, e.g. catching up on formula 1 news, finding out how to fix something.
• i quit twitter / x entirely, because of the above reasons, and because elon is a hoser.
• i use pinterest to look at art, photography, and inspiration for outfits or home decor. i use tumblr to actively engage with writers, poets, and artists i like. i tried to use bluesky but it's too twitter-like and i'm not interested in most stuff on there.
• i use a few different chatting apps to talk to my friends and classmates, and i keep instagram on the off-chance someone wants to contact me or send me something, but i use it so little it might as well not be there.
• i detest how much the average quality of content on youtube has (seemingly?) declined, and only occasionally use it to watch content that i think has some substance such as (good) video essays, speeches, music reviews, documentaries, etc.
• i replaced my usual social media time with basically anything else: mostly reading and journalling, reviewing albums, and (all too infrequently) cleaning and doing art.