By an anonymous contributor

Some days, scrolling through my feeds feels like finding my people, like finally being seen and understood. Other days, it’s a direct pipeline to anxiety, depression, and that all-consuming existential dread.

I have a total love-hate relationship with social media. Actually, it’s more like a full-blown toxic romance. Some days, scrolling through my feeds feels like finding my people, like finally being seen and understood. Other days, it’s a direct pipeline to anxiety, depression, and that all-consuming existential dread.

Social media can be my comfort zone, my stim, my escape when the world gets too loud. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut, my time blindness and hyperfocus turn “just five minutes” into three hours of mindless scrolling and I end up feeling lazy and ashamed.

Social media is actually how I discovered I’m autistic. In fact, the algorithm knew before I did, the posts that kept appearing in my feed cracked open something in me—suddenly, my whole life made sense. For the first time I understood myself and felt understood. I’m genuinely grateful for that.

The biggest problem for me though, is my “justice sensitivity”. Every heartbreaking news story, every injustice, every horror—it all lands on me like a physical weight. I spiral and I can’t shake it off, I can’t “move on” like other people seem to. It becomes almost all consuming and my mental health nosedives fast. So, I delete the apps. Six blissful months pass. I’m calmer, I feel lighter, almost zen. Then the guilt creeps in: What kind of person disconnects from the world? I should at least know what’s happening. So, I think to myself, “I’ll just spend five minutes catching up”—aaaaaand the vortex swallows me whole again. Every. Single. Time.

Share questions:

• What kind of relationship do you have with social media? How much time do you spend on it, and how does it positively/negatively affect your life?
• How does social media affect your self-concept? 
• How does it affect your self-esteem? 
• How do you use social media? 
• What kind of social media do you like, dislike? 
• How much time do you spend on social media?
  
• Any tips, resources, or strategies to share? 
• Anything else to add?