{"id":36448,"date":"2025-10-25T12:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/as-a-gen-zer-i-grew-up-glued-to-social-media-now-im-learning-to-unplug-and-be-present\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T12:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:42:12","slug":"as-a-gen-zer-i-grew-up-glued-to-social-media-now-im-learning-to-unplug-and-be-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/as-a-gen-zer-i-grew-up-glued-to-social-media-now-im-learning-to-unplug-and-be-present\/","title":{"rendered":"As a Gen Zer, I grew up glued to social media. Now, I&#8217;m learning to unplug and be present."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ed4de5cc993f9955d01904?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Woman posing with New York City view\"\/><figcaption>The author is less focused on likes on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Courtesy of the author<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Growing up in the age of social media, I thought it determined my worth.<\/li>\n<li>Today, the same pressures of posting still exist in different ways.<\/li>\n<li>I limit my time on social media to escape the noise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a Gen-Zer, I grew up in the early phases of social media. I went through the trends, posted silly music videos with my sister on Vine (pre-TikTok), and, of course, I took many duck-face selfies and dog-ear filtered photos on Snapchat.<\/p>\n<p>I tried so hard to fit in with the aesthetic of white borders around photos, collages, and throwback Thursdays. I took mirror selfies of my #OOTD before school and snapped artsy pictures of my mocha latte at the popular coffee shop. My VSCO app was always open, adding heavy filters and removing the blemishes I fixated on that only I noticed.<\/p>\n<p>Now that I&#039;ve gotten older, I&#039;m carving out time away from social media to do things I love. <\/p>\n<h2><strong>I was obsessed with how I looked on the screen<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In high school, I was obsessed with my follower count, as were many of my peers. Likes, comments, and shares occupied my mind.<\/p>\n<p>If a post didn&#039;t get a like within two minutes, I&#039;d delete it and try again, often asking friends to like it and comment just to keep up with appearances. When I lost a follower, I&#039;d look at an app to see who it was. I was constantly refreshing, hoping to get more than 100 likes in an hour.<\/p>\n<p>I drove myself crazy.<\/p>\n<p>My teen self, like many others, was constantly on the apps. Who&#039;s hanging out with whom? Whose house did I not get invited to? Where&#039;s the big party after the homecoming dance?<\/p>\n<p>It left for sad nights and the pressure to appear a certain way on social media for intangible likes.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The pressure of social media follows into adulthood<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Today, these same pressures continue to manifest in various ways as social media evolves and grows daily. Now, instead of focusing on likes, I get stuck in the endless scroll: seeing people my age move out of their parents&#039; homes, get engaged, land dream jobs, or travel to extravagant places and resorts.<\/p>\n<p>This creates comparison and self-doubt about what I am doing wrong, when the answer is nothing, I&#039;m on my own path. However, social media makes it easy to compare myself and feel like I&#039;m falling behind.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I try to set boundaries for my social media usage<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>As social media has changed over the years and apps try to suck us in for longer and longer, I have to change, too. I&#039;ve learned to try to resist the pressures these apps create. During the week, I carve out time away from the screen, focusing on things that make me feel good about myself.<\/p>\n<p>After work, I make time to attend my favorite group exercise classes at the gym, followed by a walk in the park, where I take in the natural surroundings. I only use my phone for music, not scrolling while walking.<\/p>\n<p>I block out time for writing by putting my phone away to eliminate any outside noise. I turn off all notifications, enjoying the time away from the pings.<\/p>\n<p>When going out with my family and friends, instead of constantly reaching for my phone to snap an Instagram story, I try to remain present, engaging in meaningful conversations and creating memories that will last a lifetime, rather than something for a random person to click on for a millisecond.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I&#039;m not perfect<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Instead of having the mindset of proving my self-worth to a bunch of followers, I&#039;ve shifted to posting what I want to post, and it makes me feel good.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I enjoy posting in ways that help me establish more connections with people in my career field \u2014 I seek to engage in meaningful conversations instead of just scrolling or chasing clout. I don&#039;t hesitate to post something that I&#039;m proud of accomplishing and disregard what others&#039; opinions may be.<\/p>\n<p>Getting wrapped up in social media can be challenging, especially as my full-time job is as a social media and marketing manager. It&#039;s easy to start getting into your head and begin comparing yourself to others.<\/p>\n<p>I often get trapped and start doomscrolling. And, trust me, I still do love posting a nice sunset or my favorite pasta dish at a restaurant. However, maintaining a mix of a positive mindset and simple practices to avoid the noise helps prove that my self-worth isn&#039;t defined by likes and follows.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The author is less focused on likes on social media. Courtesy of the author Growing up in the age of social media, I thought it determined my worth. Today, the same pressures of posting still exist in different ways. I limit my time on social media to escape the noise. As a Gen-Zer, I grew [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}