They are between 17 and 20 years old and are among the very few of their generation to be reachable only by phone or text. Posting videos of their moods or photos of their matcha latte is far from their reality. Why did they do what no one dares to do, quit social media?
• Read also: Harmful Effects: Quitting Social Media Is A Good Idea
Regain self-confidence
Three years ago, Marilou Dubois spent an average of 45 minutes a day on social media until she realized Instagram was having an effect on her mental health.
“I found that each time, I just felt bad,” she said. It was a waste of time. I was not proud of myself.”
The student at Cégep de Saint-Laurent remembers that Instagram pushed her to compare herself to others and to judge. “To comfort myself, I needed to say to myself: ‘This person is super pretty, but I don’t understand what the trip is to pose in front of an apple orchard’ (…) whereas watching this and generating negative thoughts was also stupid.”
She stopped everything this summer. “It gave me more self-confidence. I feel more proud of myself because I don’t fall into the social media trap.”
On TikTok, trends come and go in an instant; because of this, Marilou admits to sometimes feeling out of place in certain conversations with her friends. Despite everything, she does not intend to reconnect anytime soon.
“It’s like a legal drug”
Photo Axel Tardieu
Adam Krisko, 17, was only allowed to have a phone in secondary 3. So he rushes to Instagram “because it was fashionable”. He spends three hours a day on social media, for a total of 21 hours a week. “Almost a full day wasted,” he realizes now.
All those hours glued to his phone had an impact on his sleep, his social relationships and his grades.
During these hours connected, “I sent lots of messages to everyone and it also put the pressure on me to have to answer”. A responsibility that the student from Collège André-Grasset sees in hindsight as “totally futile”.
His brain was constantly waiting for the next notification, the next distraction. “You don’t like three-quarters of the posts you see,” he recalls.
For three years, he said stop to what he calls a “legal drug” and imposed a routine. He reads 30 minutes before sleeping and has disabled all possible notifications on his phone. He says he regained control over his time, “the only resource, at the end of your life, that you will regret not having used more”.
His grades went up. With this new lifestyle, he even allows himself to dream big. “I never thought I’d try medicine…I’m really happy.”
“I have more patience”
Photo Axel Tardieu
Orphée Dubé-Gervais registered on her first social networks at the age of 13. They accompanied her in her life for more than five years. She used TikTok every day “out of boredom,” she says.
“It’s the culture of immediacy. It’s content that was fast, catchy. It took me a lot, a lot of time,” she recalls. Orpheus realizes one day that these hours scroller reduce her ability to concentrate and eat up her time that she could reinvest in “something more constructive”.
In September, she takes the leap and leaves the platform. “I have more patience and I tend to finish the content I watch more often,” notes the 19-year-old student. This decision also changed his social relations.
His relationships have become more “organic” and authentic. “There is a kind of homogeneity that is created between people who frequent TikTok. They are exposed to the same cultural references.” Away from these “echo chambers”, Orpheus feels exposed to more diversity and feels “an overall improvement” in his quality of life.