The Life We Gave Away

How the way we consume social media consumes us every day.

What are you doing tomorrow? You probably have an idea of what you're going to do, what you're going to focus on.

But before you even wake up, there's going to be a message waiting for you from a friend who was awake at 4am. The message will contain a link to a clip from the Joe Rogan podcast, where someone you've never seen before is saying something controversial about Donald Trump.

You're going to be so outraged by what you see, that you immediately send the clip to your Dad, your friend Bill, and to your random internet friend who shares the same political views as you.

Then you're going to share it with a group on WhatsApp and they're going to have a two hour debate about whether the clip was offensive or not.

During all of this, you see JK Rowling on X, talking about women's bathrooms again. You're outraged, either because you think she's transphobic, or because you think she's speaking sense and needs to be heard.

But there's something about Rowling's claim that bugged you, so you go on a Googling spree, trying to do some independent research.

At some point, early-evening, you remember that you wanted to read a book and then watch a movie.

You go to start the book, but before you do you take a look on Instagram and you see your worst enemy from back in your school days; and it turns out he's now working in your precise industry and he's just been given an award. You hate him. You're outraged and you text your sister about it, she's outraged too.

Photo by Usman Yousaf on Unsplash

So you go on Facebook to leave a status about life and how you've matured since your school days.

Your post is inspiring and fascinating.

But it only has ONE like. No comments. No nothing.

You delete it, because your self esteem is low.

You were going to watch a movie tonight. You were going to have a glass of wine and sit out in the garden.

But another day has passed by.

You tell yourself that tomorrow morning, you’ll begin by meditating. Then you'll call your best friend for a catch up. Then you'll focus for two hours on a project you've been thinking of doing.

That was the plan at least.

But a new podcast is out. It's offensive.

Someone somewhere has written a tweet, and it's crazy.

Meanwhile, on a continent far away from you, somebody committed a crime and there's footage of it all over TikTok.

You didn't plan to consume any of these things, because when you went to bed the night before, none of them existed.

But here you are. Another day, completely out of your control.

You watch what you watch because the algorithm gave it to you.

You read what you read because the guys won't stop fuming about it in the WhatsApp group.

You're exhausted.

You can't focus on the projects you wanted to focus on. You can't even focus on your family as you sit at the dinner table, because what you just saw on your phone is absolutely outrageous and demands your attention!

Tomorrow will be better. Right?