Permanently On Do Not Disturb –– Strike Magazine Issue 07

It can be safe to say that posting has gone from casual to curated. As so many people are trying to romanticize the everyday, everyone has turned their feeds and profiles into mini museums of their lives. Photo dumps are swipe-able art galleries of the right picture at the right time. Everything and everyone is fulfilling an aesthetic or "-core" of some kind– and if they aren't, they've become their own. This obsession with categorizing, labeling, and boxing in one's own life, or even others, is so limiting and takes away the fun of posting about your life altogether. There is nothing wrong with taking a break from the performance of performing for others online and just living for yourself.

Life isn't meant to be lived in a 1080 by 1920 pixelated frame. It's meant to be experienced. Let's be honest; trying to live behind a screen is not living at all. Don't be an overgrown iPad kid. Phones aren't even designed around people; they're designed around the habits of people. Apps like Tiktok and Instagram are meant to keep you scrolling, swiping, comparing, and consuming. In a study done in 2019 by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, researchers looked into the psychology of social media addiction. A term that comes up is "Freemium," which refers to social media and gaming platforms that are free to download but have ads constantly being shown in-app. But this Freemium isn't just in the ads these apps put out. It's also in the content so many people watch: a stay-at-home wife restocking her fridge that has an excessive amount of plastic containers that you can find linked on her Amazon storefront, the fifteen-year-old making a "what's in my (designer) bag," and an influencer doing a "what I spend in a day" –and conveniently it's during a day that's packed with events and eating out. 

This kind of consumption eventually catches up with people as they psychologically start equating material items to a lifestyle they want to replicate for themselves. Playing the comparison game is only going to hurt when you realize you're the only one playing. 

To avoid this and the minding numbing act of tapping your life away, go outside and touch some grass. Switching between apps until you realize it's two in the morning is not doing you any good. You can do so many things with your time and energy instead of just comparing your life with the highlight reel of other people's lives. Try working through that list of books, or the ones already sitting on your shelf, that you said you were planning on reading. To romanticize that experience for yourself, take that book and yourself to a local coffee shop you've been meaning to check out. Meditate and do some yoga without making sure your yoga mat and water bottle follow the rule of thirds when trying to make it aesthetic enough to post. Plan a themed dinner party with friends just because you feel like it, and keep that night to yourselves. If you're out with friends, there are still so many things you can do: go to an open mic night, watch a local band play at a bar, go bar hopping, paint in the park, have a beach picnic– and do all of this without posting a single photo of your night out.

If you're sentimental and want to hold on to these memories, get a camera of any kind and record them there. When you're doing this, refrain from even thinking about downloading it on your phone just to post it. Let yourself live and use technology that gives you no option to share it. Force yourself to remain present because the time you have now is the time you'll never get back.

So stop worrying about posting and trying to make sure every moment of your life is picture-perfect. Romanticize your everyday life for yourself and no one else. Post the cute photos you take every once in a while, and remember that not every picture needs to, or has to be, post-ready. Photo dumps are swipe-able art galleries of the right picture at the right time. Exist in the moments you find yourself in wholly. Turn off that phone and live permanently on do not disturb.