How is technology and our online interactions impacting us? The even more important question is “how is it impacting the younger people”. I can attest that it has significantly impacted me at this age and when I took a 90 day detox it made me realize how much my online persona had eaten into the actual me and in a way altered me.

I agree there are benefits, but only when we are able to keep it in check. And I was failing miserably. The algorithms have made it more and more difficult for us humans to escape it and in that process it has fundamentally changed our views on everything that matters in real life.

Here is where Jonathan Haidt’s ‘The Anxious Generation’ becomes an urgent must read….. A ‘Here and Now’ read to be precise.

For me, I found how much my social media usage had moved me away from my actual connections and understanding of the world I inhabit… the society I am part of… the people I live and interact with. How far I was from the priorities I should have had in life vs. what I had started to think I should have.

I am mainly referring to Facebook, but that could change based on which platform is using up your time. For me it was Facebook, but it could be Instagram, or Tiktok or YouTube or Snapchat or Whatsapp or even LinkedIn.

Gone are the days when LinkedIn just sits at the realm of professional contacts. The amount of stupid irrelevant bigoted useless content coming up on LinkedIn feeds, especially after the video format became popular is just obnoxiously high. The fact is LinkedIn is competing for the same attention span that Facebook and Instagram and others have been competing for.

But for someone like me in my 50s I have an anchor or a memory of an anchor of “non social media” and “non online” existence to compare the current and past and correct and adjust, but the younger generation does not have it.

I have known and grew up in a world with no internet, smartphones or social media. Now we have generations who always had some or all of these. They are in a way programmed with no way to escape. I don’t even know if escape is a relatable word in this context. Because “to be here” is “to be online” for many… there no where to escape and go 😦

This has its impact on mental health and it is not that no none knew, only now more people are talking. The brutal fact is you cannot walk back from these, but you can have interventions to prevent bad things from happening to good people and innocent youngsters. It is high time these technologies are treated the same way someone treats additive substances.

On a positive note after 90 days of my Detox from Facebook when I went back to Facebook, I started finding how irrelevant and stupid most of the posts on my feed are. including many of my old ones.

Making a ’90 day Social Media Detox’ should be part of the yearly plan we make