I want you all to know that I've quit social media, and my life has gotten so much better. I mean, it's only been 15 minutes but I can already tell I'm a different person. Fifteen minutes ago, I stopped using Facebook and Twitter. Within seconds, I noticed I am happier, less irritable, more contemplative(深思熟虑的) and balanced. I'm spending more time on activities that matter. Just in the past two minutes, I've looked at a book on my bookshelf and briefly pondered opening it.
I'm truly changing. This is going to sound crazy, but since quitting social media—now, let's see, 16 minutes ago—all of my senses are enhanced. My eyesight is clearer. Food tastes better. I just smelled the first tulips of spring. I am jolted by a burst of energy. Every morning I am going to meditate or at least lie in my bed and consider meditating.
What purpose does social media serve, anyhow? The academics tell us it's making us miserable—the constant updates from friends with their expensive vacations and gossips about celebrities. If you think about it, the Internet was really only supposed to be for one thing: ordering socks from J. Crew. Then people started posting photographs of their dogs in Halloween costumes, and we all began sending Happy Birthday wishes to classmates we'd lost touch with since fifth grade, and the whole thing became the nightmare.
Social media ruins perfectly good human beings. There are people I love in real life and hate on social media. Worst still, social media stifles(抑制) creativity. They've studied this in rats, you know. Scientists made rats quit using Facebook, and when they came back in a few hours, all of the rats were writing really solid debut novels.
It's been 17 minutes. I have a feeling that my quitting social media is having a physical effect. All I did was quit looking at my phone 900 times a day. I'll tell them the secret. Quit social media. All of life's annoying problems will be over. Your relationships will improve. You'll never feel down. You'll never get stuck in traffic.
Do I miss it? Thanks for asking. I don't even know why I thought it was so important. I do not need to see the 800th photo from my co-worker's trip. I have no idea how a hot topic is going on. And it's OK. I can't imagine going back. I've quit social media. It's only been 18 minutes, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it a full twenty.
