For the past five years, I’ve turned off social media in August. However, this year was different. It began like any other August afternoon, with me sipping a glass of rosé while reading a novel and daydreaming. But that tranquility quickly changed when a breaking news headline from the New York Times popped up on my phone.
As I clutched my wine, now more of a coping device than an afternoon treat, I scrolled through my Twitter feed. One person compared the number of “bronies” in Philadelphia to the number of Nazis in Virginia. Retweet. Another criticized the president’s response to the incident. I then checked my Instagram and Facebook for updates.
I knew I should turn off my phone, but I couldn’t look away. This is not how August usually goes – at least not my August. For the past five years, I’ve signed off all social media for the month. However, this year I skipped the cleanse. It just seemed outdated.
I called up people who’d also stepped off social media a few years ago to figure out why my annual exercise felt so irrelevant this year. They explained that five years ago, there was still an offline life and an online life. Now, for most of us, that divide has disappeared. Our lives are powered by the internet. Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, and nearly every site and service is more valuable when you log in with your social handle.
I realized that my annual social media sabbatical, which had been reliably awesome in the past, was no longer necessary. Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, and it’s no longer possible to disconnect from it completely.
The month of August had always been a time for me to take a break from social media. But this year, I decided to break the pattern.
I was at a café when the news of a white supremacist driving a car through a crowd of peaceful protestors in Charlottesville, Virginia, popped up on my phone. I couldn’t help but scroll through my Twitter feed, looking for updates and reactions. I knew I should turn my phone off, but I couldn’t look away.
The annual social media sabbatical that I had been practicing for the past five years had been helpful in the past, allowing me to notice things I had lost in exchange for connections and productivity. However, this year, it seemed irrelevant. The line between online and offline life had disappeared, and social media had become an integral part of our daily lives.
The internet had changed, and it was time to adapt to the new reality.