Microprocessing
What Do Social Media Breaks Accomplish?
It depends on who you are
In Microprocessing, columnist Angela Lashbrook aims to improve your relationship with technology every week. Microprocessing goes deep on the little things that define your online life today, to give you a better tomorrow.
Like many people before her, Molly realized she had a problem when her social media use started interfering with her romantic relationship.
“It wasn’t so much that we were fighting—more like I had a harder time being present,” says Molly, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy. “Our interactions were becoming really surface level.”
That wasn’t the only issue — the endless onslaught of bad news from these platforms and the resulting effect on her mood was also a factor. Molly decided social media was having a significantly negative impact on her life. So she decided to take a break.
Her situation is hardly unusual. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are becoming so ingrained in our lives — and so absolutely exhausting — that there are now numerous terms for its negative effects: social media fatigue, information overload, social media burnout.
