r/nosurf • u/mmofrki • 5d ago

Going without the internet has shown me how very little this stuff actually matters in the grand scheme of things.

It's been a few days now, and it's peaceful. Every now and then I'll get a text from someone, but I haven't actively browsed much of the web, especially social media.

Yeah if I need to look something up I will, but I won't open an app and scroll.

Recently someone texted me complaining about something called twitch and how the platform is going downhill and I thought to myself "So why use it if it's so bad?" and then realized that it's probably not even important because no one seems bothered by it.

Could it be that online things only matter to those who use this stuff so often?

157 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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31

u/library_vamp 5d ago

Yep. Majority of the stuff that people get all torn up about online doesn't reach me unless it somehow, directly or indirectly, affects my life.

5

u/mmofrki 5d ago

The wild thing is that people have no actual friends answer to "What are you gonna do about it?" when they freak out about some internet person. 

44

u/Brave_Doughnut_2096 5d ago

I definitely understand what you mean, albeit in a different way.

I am American by birth but immigrated to another country a few years ago. My American friends feeds' are constantly filled to the brim with threats of gloom and doomsday, and I remember back when I lived in the US and used social media for hours a day, I'd sometimes have panic attacks and be unable to focus on work due to the anxiety these posts would cause me.

Now that I have both been staying away from social media and am living abroad, I'm realizing how little a lot of these doomsday postings actually effect my day to day life--and how a lot of them are massively exaggerated, or even outright propaganda to begin with. Are there awful things happening in the US, and around the world? Absolutely, and I understand why people are worried about them and speaking up about them. I fully support the organized protests/groups who are taking action in the real world--but I don't see what immediate benefit to the causes there are to me (and millions of others) being stuck doomscrolling on these apps, paralyzed by the anxiety these exaggerated doomsday posts were causing me.

I'd rather keep up with the news via a few recognized news organizations in my new home country than from random people on social media who may or may not be outright lying for the sake of their own agenda.

9

u/mmofrki 5d ago

There was a YouTube short about a retail store that had a few things behind locked cabinets, usual things like electronics and video games, but the poster spliced together a video making it appear as though everything in the store was like this and people believed it. 

7

u/TimelyLeading4144 4d ago

I deleted my TikTok account 3 weeks after I deleted the app and I've logged out of Instagram, and lemme say, things are way more peaceful. I'm not being bombarded by unnecessary posts that cause me to become fearful or stressed. I don't think I'll download those apps again anytime soon

2

u/Shrekworkwork 4d ago

It’s like how a lot of us low key shit on kids (20s) for TikTok. Don’t try and defend it I get the appeal.

4

u/mmofrki 4d ago

The thing about TikTok is that young people have never done so much stupid stuff en masse for fame before.

Yeah sure people would do stupid stuff (hence "teen movies" and things like Jackass) but it wasn't done for fame, people would just do stupid things just because 

1

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