It’s October 9th 2026, I just decided to delete my BeReal. I will be honest, this was my favorite of the social media apps. I really enjoyed how it would allow me to take a snapshot of each day, with the way I looked and what I was doing. Out of all of them, BeReal is the one platform I really grown to love. I decided to delete it though. I don’t really have a strong reason other than I’ve been keeping my phone in my bathroom lately, to avoid usage. It goes hand and hand with the deletion of social media, removal of notifications, and decision to only call people, and use texting as a means to an end. Heck, while I’ve been writing this I am tempted to reinstall BeReal. I have 14 days. I will think on it. I have much more time to think as my mind isn’t dragged out by social media.

What is Social Media?

I would argue, that any form of social interaction online is social media. Substack is social media. YouTube is social media. Reddit is social media. The mind can easily play tricks to argue that Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat are the big social medias and the other ones don’t matter. No. Any form of human interaction online is social media. Even through this site. If I were to have a comment section, my website would be social media. I do have an email connected to my site if people want to connect with me, the difference is, I won’t be checking my email every second. It’s like okay, the big social media platforms are more addictive too right. So it’s obvious that some are worse than others. I would just say the best solution is to back away whole heartedly. I know it turned me into someone I was not. It wasn’t my true self. I felt myself becoming like AI. I was referring to thinking through reddit. “This person on reddit said xyz” like AIDAN, STOP.

I ask this question because the first time I deleted my accounts, I still used some social media. I would still keep up with YouTube and Reddit. Even though, these are the worst platforms of them all, in my opinion. Actually, I am going to get into my thoughts on each platform, and the dangers that lay within each one.

Youtube

This had to be the personal worst platform for me. I still remember the day, my elementary school best friend, put me onto YouTube. We watched a Fred video, and then a Shane Dawson video. I remember my cousin, creating an account, and thinking about how cool it was. It was like, woah, my cousin is a celeb. Over the years, YouTube sort of became my default state, if I didn’t have any other activities to do. I would still do this even up to now! That’s the harm in it. My idle animation at home, would be watching YouTube. I would even listen to it on my walks. I would use earbuds, and listen to YouTube videos on walks. This is crazy! That is crazy. It’s unhealthy. It’s disconnecting me from the outside world, literally. I could make a whole blogpost, on the history of my usage. It’s a drug. It’s the modern equivalent to television for me. Other people may use streaming services instead, for me it was YouTube.

It’s a form of social replacement.

Seriously, it is. I know this as, I would have para-social bonds with the YouTubers I would watch. While watching TV shows I noticed this too. I really loved the show Dexter. I remember having a fondness for the character Batsita. With YouTube, it’s even worse. It’s worse because I am socializing with people who are actually real, yet they don’t socialize back with me. It’s a unhealthy dynamic. It’s even worse when using the other platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. Let’s get into that now.

Snapchat

Snapchat is another layer to social replacement I was describing. Although, this time, it’s more based on people in your lives. It’s like, oh, I am friends with these people because we keep up with streaks. It’s like, oh, I am socializing with these people when they send streaks, they care about it. While, it’s not something thought about objectively, it’s definitely there. I have 15 streaks at the time I deleted snapchat, and most of them were with people I wouldn’t spend time with in real life. That’s a problem. The only people I should be communicating with, are people I am going to spend time with in my real life. That’s why I am sticking to the FaceTime and Phone Calls. It’s just more realistic. It’s based in reality, and it’s not pulling me away from reality. Snapchat is not reality. It’s a form of social replacement. True social bonds, are spent in person. With phone calls and FaceTime, I would allow that as it’s realistic to time spent in person. Another thing about Snapchat is the ads. The ads were filled with Porn, and if you read my other blogpost, you would know that I am taking a step back completely from Pornography as well. It’s a lot of changes lately. I’ll be good.

Instagram

I remember, I started to re-use insta at the beginning of this year. I was off the gram for a minute. I was off the gram from 2023 until I re-made an account in 2026. I believe it was around March or so. Why did I reinstall my account? Loneliness of course, would be my guess. Also, I have always heard that the woman love the instagram and socials. Although, I shouldn’t need to use social media to attract women or men for that matter. It’s going to happen when I spend time out in public. Now that I don’t have the other roadblocks of YouTube and Reddit, I am safe.

The Internet

The internet in general isn’t safe. It’s basically all AI now, it’s all these big tech sites. I am not going to quit the internet 100%, I would say my usage would come down to a few things.I kept my Facebook for events. I was able to install a blocker that will block the feeds and everything “so called social” about it. So now, I have a pinned link to Facebook Events, so I am able to see what’s going on in the area. It’ll also be nice to use for marketplace.

I am going to start, marking down all the times I think I need to use the internet. I will label them out, so I am aware on the reasons or excuses I am using. One of the BIG ones with social media is the goddamn FOMO. It’s like yeah I am missing out, and sure, I probably might have a harder time making friends. It’ll force me to actually interact with humans in the real world though, and that’s really the mission statement. Socialize with people in real life, over the phone, through FaceTime. Use texting/email as a means to an end. Use my website to get my thoughts out there. I would say that my blogposts are the modern equivalent to writing to a pen-pal. Since no one is going to be my pen-pal, everyone who views this site is my pen-pal. Anyone who reads through these blogposts, I’ll never know. I would be cautious in socializing through independent sites too. The internet in general must be severed. It must be bye bye. It can’t be trusted.

Best,

Aidan Hellrigel