Hey You! Yes You — The Social Media Addict! Here’s How to Detox Your Pathetic Online Habits

Sascha H. Funk
3 min readSep 8, 2023

Listen up all you social media suckers! 📢 This article is a wake-up call for cleansing your lame online habits that are turning your brain to mush. Keep reading if you can’t resist outrage, crave external validation, and are trapped in bubbles. It’s time for you to detox! ✨

You Are Trapped in Toxic Filter Bubbles

Ever feel like your social media feed is an echo chamber of the same old voices validating your worldview? That’s because you let algorithms trap you in a filter bubble by only showing you perspectives you already agree with!

This personalized propaganda keeps you comfortably coddled and closed-minded. You only see news and views that confirm your existing biases, leading to dangerous polarization according to media experts.

Protect yourself: Actively follow accounts with opposing views to get the full picture. Don’t let platforms manipulate your feeds based on what they think you want to hear. Pop your bubble through exposure diversity!

You Are Pathetically Addicted to Outrage

Face it — you’re hooked on viral outrage. Social media is designed to maximize “engagement” — which often comes from controversial content that makes you angry react, comment, and share opinions reflexively without thinking.

Here’s the thing — your rage-sharing and knee-jerk reactions spread toxicity. You feed the algorithms by reacting. You enable attention-seekers and trolls. Don’t be a puppet! Optimize for your mental health instead of getting sucked into pointless sparring matches.

Protect yourself: Pause before sharing outrage to fact check. Don’t enable antagonists. Limit time on platforms profiting off making you mad. Prioritize inner peace.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

You Spread Performative Wokeness

Admit it — your wokeness is performative. You share empty platitudes about social justice but do little tangible action to drive change. It’s slacktivism and virtue signaling that rings hollow!

While social media positivity seems inspiring, it means nothing without work to back it up. Be a more critical consumer and activist! Question motives behind feel-good messaging. Progress requires more than pretense — do the work.

Protect yourself: Don’t spread shallow sentiment without backing it up. Use your platform for awareness, then provide concrete ways followers can take meaningful action. Progress over performance!

You Are Desperate for Followers and Likes

Let’s get real — you chase validation through social media vanity metrics like followers and likes because you tie self-worth to platforms. Obsessively sculpting your personal brand in pursuit of external validation is pathetic!

Basing your value on something as fake and fleeting as viral posts fosters a fragile sense of self according to psychologists. Don’t lose authenticity to perfect some phony online persona!

Protect yourself: Focus less on perception. Spend more time offline developing self-esteem beyond social media. Use tools mindfully without letting them dictate your worth. You are beautifully complex beyond any algorithmic snapshot!

Ready for Your Social Media Detox?

The truth hurts — bad social media habits are making you shallow, distracted and polarized. Take control by being more intentional with technology use. Approach outrage and branding in moderation. React thoughtfully, not impulsively. Seek truth over tribes.

Model rational discourse focused on solutions. Support accounts bringing nuance and understanding. Use platforms for good by spreading empathy over empty rhetoric. You control your online habits — now improve them!

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Sascha H. Funk

Head of Media Studies | BKK | New Media & ED #Volleyball, #MuayThai. https://saschafunk.com — hosting @FunkItPod | it’s not rain, it’s liquid sunshine