Revisiting the past
A round-up of 7 Break Free essays worth revisiting.
I first launched this Substack last October, and since then, we’ve grown to a community of nearly 5000 members. It’s a pretty special feeling, and I am so glad each and every one of you is here.
I was reflecting on the 50+ essays I’ve written in the past six months, and I realized that there are a lot of essays I’m proud of that most of you have likely never seen.
Today, I’m sharing 7 oldies, but goodies — a few essays that might be worth revisiting, wherever you are on your journey.
What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
My second essay ever, it’s actually one that I revisit quite often. This explains a bit of my why.
“Somehow, then, my relationship with my phone worsened. If the algorithm change of 2016 ramped up my addiction and the addition of new accounts to my feed in 2018 fueled it, then having nothing to do on my phone but scroll, in 2021, brought me to my knees. I would open Instagram and within five minutes think “why am I here?” only to get stuck there for an hour. I downloaded Libby and read endless books (65 that first year at home with my kids), yet still, my time spent mindlessly scrolling on social media was staggering. Home alone with two tiny humans, my loneliness grew, but my source to the adult world – my phone – only added to my anxiety and depression.”
I wrote this towards the beginning of my journey — after I had quit Instagram, but before I had made any other real changes (quitting one app does not solve all your problems dear reader). It’s a reflective look-back, but it’s also a story of hope.
Are feelings contagious?
I wrote Are Feelings Contagious? after spending a lot of time thinking about our collective consciousness during the 2020 pandemic. Of course, what we were experiencing was unprecedented and tragic. However, it was interesting to see how, because we all spent so much time online, we seemed to take on a lot more emotions than what we were necessarily feeling in real life.
“What I’m saying is this – we are consuming a ridiculous amount of content on the Internet, and inherently, the Internet has become a negative place. So maybe, if I’m catching feelings, it’s better for them to be positive, from real world experiences.”
Is multitasking destroying my brain?
As a young adult in the “girlboss era,” I was frequently proud of my ability to multitask in a way that actually left my parents in awe. It wasn’t until I experienced intense burnout that I discovered the true negative effects of this “life hack.”
“Multitasking is one of those ‘life hacks’ my generation glorified before discovering it’s more detrimental than beneficial. From Stanford University: ‘When we take on a task, several brain networks dealing with attention and cognitive control are involved…Attempts to multitask can create interference among these networks, and this can lead to slower processing as well as mistakes.’”
Will your relationships change if you leave social media?
While the movement of people reshaping their tech habits is growing (even moreso than when I first penned this essay), you still might be the only one in your circle who is ready to make a change. So will your relationships change? The answer is yes, but I detail why this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“It seems inevitable that as you reshape your relationship with technology, and specifically social media, your relationships will change. So is it avoidable? No.”
How can we reconcile the good and the bad of the Internet?
My brand name is Break Free from the Internet, but I’m not naive to all the good that the Internet has brought to the world. In this essay, I reckon with the two sides of the coin and whether or not the good outweighs the bad.
“Maybe instead of trying to argue ‘is the Internet good or evil,’ we instead have to accept - what is done is done, and only we have the power to move forward in a positive light.”
Why do we hate follow?
One of my most shared essays from my first few months, Why Do We Hate Follow explores the strange, but addictive phenomenon of following people on social media who we don’t even like.
“Now that we have access to billions of people and what they are doing, it’s harder to feel like you’re the best at anything. We chase this feeling of superiority, but it’s impossible to attain because when you’re on the Internet, nearly everyone will be better than you at something.
So, we take it where we can get it…”
The Fear Of Missing Out fallacy
I find this to be an important read. People are often afraid of all that they will miss out on when they cut out social media, but the fact of the matter is, they are only missing out on their own life by remaining chronically online.
“The real irony of engaging with this feeling of missing out, is that you actually start to miss out on your real life. I was never missing out on something, I was living the life that I was meant to live. Everything I really valued was right in front of my eyes – that is if I would put my phone down and see it there. I had a group of friends, family, and a partner who all loved and appreciated me, but I was seeking affirmation from empty gestures.”
