30 Day Writing Challenge: One

I've had this writing challenge saved in my phone since 10/21/2015. Almost four whole years it's sat collecting tech dust. I was recently cleaning out my photos, like a real deep clean. I mean deleting photos  and screenshots of shit that I don't need. And the stuff I wanted to keep, I kept, but on my hard drive.  I always feel lighter with less. I mean, that sentence makes sense but a lot of people like to hold on tight to everything all the time. I do here and there but letting go of shit is so nice. I wanted to let go of this writing prompt but I figured before I do I'd actually do it. That was the whole point of me saving it all of those years ago, right? So here we go, every day for the next 30 days I'll post my answer to random topics. I haven't done a month long challenge in awhile so I'm excited to start this.

Day One
Five Problems With Social Media

1. Privacy - Remember when no one knew what you were up to on a Tuesday night unless they called you to ask or even stopped by unannounced because they were in the neighborhood?! Those days weren't so long ago but they sure seem like it. Most of us choose the level of privacy we want to have when it comes to social media. Some of us only post a couple times a month and others share their day to day. Sure, we all get to be curators for our own feeds but how many times to you have to tell a friend to specifically not post a certain photo or maybe you have a drunken night and it all seems fine in the moment but afterwards you wish it could've been a more private night out. Someone somewhere is always filming and posting something. 
2. Pressure - I know a lot of people feel pressure when it comes to their bodies and I've certainly had my moments where I see a celebrity post a gorgeous shot of themselves and think "man, I wish my insert body part here looked like hers" but I've always felt more pressure with the kinds of things I'm posting. I used to overthink if anyone even cares what I have to say in my social media "voice". Is this photo worthy to pop up in my friend's feed? Is the lighting ok? Is it clear enough? Is it interesting enough? Am I enough? How ridiculous is that? Finally I started to not give a shit and now I post things that either bring ME joy (even if they aren't necessary a instagram worthy shot) or something I care deeply about. 
3. Time - This is my biggest problem with social media. I do the insta scroll, then the twitter scroll, then the FB scroll and start all over again until I actually get up and do something productive with my time. I think everyone is guilty of having time sucked away by "the endless scroll". I've gotten better but I'm still a scrollaholic. It takes a lot of effort and reminders to myself to actually put my phone down. I've made huge strides but I'm still a work in progress.  Less screen time and more living life time is always the goal. Some days are easier than others.
4. Mental Health - I've read article after article about how much social media can affect your mental health. It can lead to anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and social isolation or contribute to some of these health issues. It can be hard when you see a constant stream of the people you follow accomplishing their goals or going on vacations or having "perfect" family interactions - not because you aren't happy for them but because maybe something has happened in your own life so when you see a post it triggers you in a way you can't help. 
5. Bullying - Social media makes it so much easier for people to be dicks to one another. I just heard of the term "finsta" aka a fake instagram account. I mean, this is nothing new. We've all created random screen names for various inter web activities but a lot of time these finsta accounts are so people can hide under yet another layer of anonymity so they can spew their hate that much more.