Leo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
retrogrrrl) wrote2025-11-08 10:04 am
retrogrrrl) wrote2025-11-08 10:04 am
Entry tags:
Dopamine Detox is for MORONS.
People keep jib-jabberin' about leaving Social Media behind for better mental health & productivity, but no one talks 'bout it being the most lonely experience you can ever have.
I'm not joking, dudes! I think a lot of the discussion 'round social media addiction and dopamine detox as a whole is so severely lackin' in the actual truth that I gotta spring up from my chill-sesh to chit-chat with ya 'bout it.
This is more of a ramblin’ account, but I just wanta get this out there.
If you, by miracle, haven't been subjected to, like, the abomination that are the videos 'bout Dopamine Detox (and by extension Social Media Detox) then consider yourself a lucky dude, my friend. Those videos were a heap-load-a-bullcrap! That's right, a red alert on the lame scale by a mile. If y'trust my judgement I can tell you that disguised in all the (misleading or fake) pseudo-science they tried to shove into ya there was this workhorse mentality and alarmin’ culture of, like, working all the time and being productive even in your downtime. So, instead of one soul-crushin’ nasty habit y’gotta develop a whole ‘nother one called WORKAHOLISM ‘cause apparently that one is more socially acceptable and great for our capitalists overlords. Major bummer, dude. Like, that’s great, now y’gotta peel out from work and hurry on back home so ya can become a slave to endless productivity goals and have no time to ponder whether or not this is a lifestyle worth livin’ but HEY at least you got that slop-of-a-video done in record time so you can show the Youtube overlords how much their new system sucks.
Am I bein’ hyperspecific enough about this or am I still reachin’ too many audience members here?
Let’s actually get onto the topic at hand, ya? ‘Cause I feel like I’m totally losing focus here. So check it, among the many array of putrid slop that I combed through I had this new concept pop-up ‘bout living without social media for good of your mental health and all that bullcrap. I’ll give ya the skinny ‘cause I believe your time is precious enough.
Social media bad, touching grass good.
Listen, you’re goin’ to look at me and say “no actually, what’s wrong with that?” and I will hafta stop you right there ‘cause I’m not done with this story, dude! I promise you, I’m gonna make sense outta it.
I thought that statement was sound logic, so I think it through and plan out to be social media free for a hot second, just to scope it out and see how it feels, y’dig? I already don’t use instagram, I already don’t do twitter as much (‘fore you tell me anything, it’s cause it got blocked on my country and getting a VPN sorted can be a hassle when you’re in a hurry and dealin’ with sites that don’t like VPNs) and all the pinterest/tumblring I do is lookin’ at pretty pictures and remembering the pretty flicks I watched a while ago. So, I set sail and leave social media cold turkey, and can ya guess what happened?
Those Dope Detox people are fuckin’ stupid. That’s my goddamned conclusion on the subject.
Here’s the 411 these losers don’t seem to think ‘bout.
You guys know I'm from a small town in the middle of wouldn't-ya-like-to-know-land. I grew up bein' very confused about people’s way of socializing and findin’ myself not fitting into it ‘cause I was, surprise to no one at all, neurodivergent. Because of this, I was a very lonely child with only a handful of friends I could truly call my crew, but even then I felt incredibly overwhelmed by the idea of having ‘em connected to me at all times through the internet. I shared my messenger with ‘em but I never really went to their parties, never hung out with ‘em and I think that habit of keepin’ peeps at an arms length metaphorically is what kept me from understanding how to make meaningful connections. Alright, I know you’re not here for my sob-stories so I’ll cut to the chase. It became a nasty habit that I kept on me until very recently when I became more Lax’d on having people connect to me.
But that was AFTER I did the SocMed Detox.
‘Cause guess what? There I was sittin’ at the park, having not talked to anyone in a long time and wondering why I felt more lonely than ever. All I did for a good chunka time there on my lonesome was complain! Whinge, whinge, whingeeeee! Why are people so connected to social media? Why is everyone takin’ pictures of shit? Why is everyone filming their stupid little tiktoks in public? All that kinda bullshit. But y’know that what I was truly complainin’ about was:
“Why is everyone social?”
‘Cause that’s what it is… I was all alone, enjoying nature but how long can ya enjoy nature until you realize it’s your only companion? How long until you realize your ultimate failure as a social creature to connect with others? Sure, some people ARE addicted to their social media, but how much of it is entirely ‘cause they like knowing what’s the score and the newest-latest to chit-chat-it-up with their crew? How much of it is GENUINELY connecting with dudes and dudettes from other parts of the world who share your same interest, same taste in art and aesthetics, and maybe even the same job? Shit, what was I even complainin’ about? People takin’ snapshots and quick vids of their lives with friends, sharing ‘em on their instagram history or their groupchat. Sweet memories captured, even if just a speck of it, in a picture that they can upload to a fuckin’ public cloud so other people can see ‘em — for the heck of it, ‘cause we can DO THAT. IT AIN’T A CRIME TO DO THAT. Shit, goin’ to a grubjoint and taking a snapshot of the gorgeous food in front of ya and appreciating its visual beauty ‘fore you devour its tastiness with gusto isn’t a GODDAMN CRIME EITHER. Filmin’ a silly little tiktok dancing isn’t a crime, sharing the fun and laughter you get from doing silly dances or the passion of getting a complicated dance done right isn’t a crime…
It had been nearly a week or so detached from social media as much as I could be ‘til I came to the conclusion…
Was I lettin’ the doomscrolling maniacs and terminally online discourse KEEP ME from actually usin’ social media in a cool way? Was I letting the productivity clever clogs take more joy away from me in exchange for slaving over bein’ “useful” to society yet again? Or worse.
Was this me tryin’ to run away from the frightening reality that I hafta open up to people to make meaningful connections?
Betcha didn’t see that one comin’.
The thing is this, cats. Social Media has been embedded into our social experience, and y’cannot get rid of it from your life entirely without a price to pay. The price being isolated from the pack of people who have healthier (or, hell, even toxic) relationships with social media. If you already have a banda of people who are social media free and live ‘round your area? Totally rad, dude! Give it a try, y’never know what ya end up figurin’ out. But what if you don’t have that? You have a squad that all keeps in touch through a group chat with each other but you are the only one that’s detached from ‘em, that is probs going to make them feel some type of way. Or at least, that’s what my experiences have been tellin’ me. These kids stay on the latest hype and you don’t gotta do that, but ask yourself if bein’ too detached is keeping you away from the conversation? Is it isolating you? ‘Cause lords know, at one point it started to isolate me. Is you going away from social media keepin’ you away from amazing artists and fresh dances bein’ shared across the globe?
The whole Socmed Detox is heavily bankin’ on several things like you bein’ hopelessly addicted to ragebaits and doomscrollin’, having friends outside of socmed, having A JOB outside of socmed (which, good luck. Most jobs have some social media marketing aspect to ‘em now), and havin’ like-minded people who are also quitting social media in order for this shit to work. The whole discussion revolves around gettin’ rid of Social Media, pretending that it hasn’t, like, established itself as a legitimate media like print, radio or TV — but it doesn’t revolve around having a healthier relationship with the fucker, it doesn’t discuss resources to strip algorithms from your experience, it barely even touches on the subject of discussing how Algorithms are designed other than “they are designed to keep you watching!!!!”
No ya fuckin donut, the algorithm is designed to bring you content related to what YOU are watchin’. Are you constantly checkin’ out infuriating videos and ragebait takes and ENGAGIN’ WITH ‘EM? THEN WHAT DID YA FUCKIN’ THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN YOU DIMBAG. WHAT DID YOU THINK?! So why aren’t we talkin’ about how we can curate our experience in social media and how we can make this tool of ours a wonderful tool to connect with people with our same interest and ideas?! Why can’t y’all start fuckin’ talking about that instead of whinin’ about whatever the kids are laughing at now? It’s infuriating once you know the score, like, I know exactly what a lotta people need to do to balance their social media and real life without havin’ to go Cold Turkey and feel the most crushing loneliness and isolation they could ever feel – BUT NO ONE IS LISTENING. Sometimes it feels like I'm the lone cat battlin' through boomer's vitriolic takes and concerning Gen Z/Millenial thinking trends, holding balance as my celestial champion and watchin' the rest of you pals at each other's throat. But like every other wise person in the world, I don't get noticed and people don't listen. If ya’ll remember my rant ‘bout the online-punk community you’ll find that theme bein’ persistent, so who would’ve fuckin’ thunk it.
I’m all over the place, lemme try and wrap this up.
Social Media Detox, much like Dopamine Detox, is a whole slippery slope to overproductivity and livin’ miserable BUT bein’ useful to “society” and y’can’t convince me that the whole discussion has not been designed to reach that fuckin’ conclusion. Another tool to sell us hyper-capitalistic bullshit, joy nowhere to be found and tips and tricks to safely enjoy things out of the window. It’s a fuckin’ trap, believe me.
Social media is ingrained in our way of socializing, get the FUCK over it, pal.
Don’t be a dimwit and learn to use it to your advantage and happiness, don’t listen to these fucking smartypants with their bogus science studies. Keep on your toes, keep your wits about you and remember that your journey is YOURS. So ya don't even needa listen to me!
With all of that said... Leona, out!
I'm not joking, dudes! I think a lot of the discussion 'round social media addiction and dopamine detox as a whole is so severely lackin' in the actual truth that I gotta spring up from my chill-sesh to chit-chat with ya 'bout it.
This is more of a ramblin’ account, but I just wanta get this out there.
If you, by miracle, haven't been subjected to, like, the abomination that are the videos 'bout Dopamine Detox (and by extension Social Media Detox) then consider yourself a lucky dude, my friend. Those videos were a heap-load-a-bullcrap! That's right, a red alert on the lame scale by a mile. If y'trust my judgement I can tell you that disguised in all the (misleading or fake) pseudo-science they tried to shove into ya there was this workhorse mentality and alarmin’ culture of, like, working all the time and being productive even in your downtime. So, instead of one soul-crushin’ nasty habit y’gotta develop a whole ‘nother one called WORKAHOLISM ‘cause apparently that one is more socially acceptable and great for our capitalists overlords. Major bummer, dude. Like, that’s great, now y’gotta peel out from work and hurry on back home so ya can become a slave to endless productivity goals and have no time to ponder whether or not this is a lifestyle worth livin’ but HEY at least you got that slop-of-a-video done in record time so you can show the Youtube overlords how much their new system sucks.
Am I bein’ hyperspecific enough about this or am I still reachin’ too many audience members here?
Let’s actually get onto the topic at hand, ya? ‘Cause I feel like I’m totally losing focus here. So check it, among the many array of putrid slop that I combed through I had this new concept pop-up ‘bout living without social media for good of your mental health and all that bullcrap. I’ll give ya the skinny ‘cause I believe your time is precious enough.
Social media bad, touching grass good.
Listen, you’re goin’ to look at me and say “no actually, what’s wrong with that?” and I will hafta stop you right there ‘cause I’m not done with this story, dude! I promise you, I’m gonna make sense outta it.
I thought that statement was sound logic, so I think it through and plan out to be social media free for a hot second, just to scope it out and see how it feels, y’dig? I already don’t use instagram, I already don’t do twitter as much (‘fore you tell me anything, it’s cause it got blocked on my country and getting a VPN sorted can be a hassle when you’re in a hurry and dealin’ with sites that don’t like VPNs) and all the pinterest/tumblring I do is lookin’ at pretty pictures and remembering the pretty flicks I watched a while ago. So, I set sail and leave social media cold turkey, and can ya guess what happened?
Those Dope Detox people are fuckin’ stupid. That’s my goddamned conclusion on the subject.
Here’s the 411 these losers don’t seem to think ‘bout.
You guys know I'm from a small town in the middle of wouldn't-ya-like-to-know-land. I grew up bein' very confused about people’s way of socializing and findin’ myself not fitting into it ‘cause I was, surprise to no one at all, neurodivergent. Because of this, I was a very lonely child with only a handful of friends I could truly call my crew, but even then I felt incredibly overwhelmed by the idea of having ‘em connected to me at all times through the internet. I shared my messenger with ‘em but I never really went to their parties, never hung out with ‘em and I think that habit of keepin’ peeps at an arms length metaphorically is what kept me from understanding how to make meaningful connections. Alright, I know you’re not here for my sob-stories so I’ll cut to the chase. It became a nasty habit that I kept on me until very recently when I became more Lax’d on having people connect to me.
But that was AFTER I did the SocMed Detox.
‘Cause guess what? There I was sittin’ at the park, having not talked to anyone in a long time and wondering why I felt more lonely than ever. All I did for a good chunka time there on my lonesome was complain! Whinge, whinge, whingeeeee! Why are people so connected to social media? Why is everyone takin’ pictures of shit? Why is everyone filming their stupid little tiktoks in public? All that kinda bullshit. But y’know that what I was truly complainin’ about was:
“Why is everyone social?”
‘Cause that’s what it is… I was all alone, enjoying nature but how long can ya enjoy nature until you realize it’s your only companion? How long until you realize your ultimate failure as a social creature to connect with others? Sure, some people ARE addicted to their social media, but how much of it is entirely ‘cause they like knowing what’s the score and the newest-latest to chit-chat-it-up with their crew? How much of it is GENUINELY connecting with dudes and dudettes from other parts of the world who share your same interest, same taste in art and aesthetics, and maybe even the same job? Shit, what was I even complainin’ about? People takin’ snapshots and quick vids of their lives with friends, sharing ‘em on their instagram history or their groupchat. Sweet memories captured, even if just a speck of it, in a picture that they can upload to a fuckin’ public cloud so other people can see ‘em — for the heck of it, ‘cause we can DO THAT. IT AIN’T A CRIME TO DO THAT. Shit, goin’ to a grubjoint and taking a snapshot of the gorgeous food in front of ya and appreciating its visual beauty ‘fore you devour its tastiness with gusto isn’t a GODDAMN CRIME EITHER. Filmin’ a silly little tiktok dancing isn’t a crime, sharing the fun and laughter you get from doing silly dances or the passion of getting a complicated dance done right isn’t a crime…
It had been nearly a week or so detached from social media as much as I could be ‘til I came to the conclusion…
Was I lettin’ the doomscrolling maniacs and terminally online discourse KEEP ME from actually usin’ social media in a cool way? Was I letting the productivity clever clogs take more joy away from me in exchange for slaving over bein’ “useful” to society yet again? Or worse.
Was this me tryin’ to run away from the frightening reality that I hafta open up to people to make meaningful connections?
Betcha didn’t see that one comin’.
The thing is this, cats. Social Media has been embedded into our social experience, and y’cannot get rid of it from your life entirely without a price to pay. The price being isolated from the pack of people who have healthier (or, hell, even toxic) relationships with social media. If you already have a banda of people who are social media free and live ‘round your area? Totally rad, dude! Give it a try, y’never know what ya end up figurin’ out. But what if you don’t have that? You have a squad that all keeps in touch through a group chat with each other but you are the only one that’s detached from ‘em, that is probs going to make them feel some type of way. Or at least, that’s what my experiences have been tellin’ me. These kids stay on the latest hype and you don’t gotta do that, but ask yourself if bein’ too detached is keeping you away from the conversation? Is it isolating you? ‘Cause lords know, at one point it started to isolate me. Is you going away from social media keepin’ you away from amazing artists and fresh dances bein’ shared across the globe?
The whole Socmed Detox is heavily bankin’ on several things like you bein’ hopelessly addicted to ragebaits and doomscrollin’, having friends outside of socmed, having A JOB outside of socmed (which, good luck. Most jobs have some social media marketing aspect to ‘em now), and havin’ like-minded people who are also quitting social media in order for this shit to work. The whole discussion revolves around gettin’ rid of Social Media, pretending that it hasn’t, like, established itself as a legitimate media like print, radio or TV — but it doesn’t revolve around having a healthier relationship with the fucker, it doesn’t discuss resources to strip algorithms from your experience, it barely even touches on the subject of discussing how Algorithms are designed other than “they are designed to keep you watching!!!!”
No ya fuckin donut, the algorithm is designed to bring you content related to what YOU are watchin’. Are you constantly checkin’ out infuriating videos and ragebait takes and ENGAGIN’ WITH ‘EM? THEN WHAT DID YA FUCKIN’ THINK WAS GONNA HAPPEN YOU DIMBAG. WHAT DID YOU THINK?! So why aren’t we talkin’ about how we can curate our experience in social media and how we can make this tool of ours a wonderful tool to connect with people with our same interest and ideas?! Why can’t y’all start fuckin’ talking about that instead of whinin’ about whatever the kids are laughing at now? It’s infuriating once you know the score, like, I know exactly what a lotta people need to do to balance their social media and real life without havin’ to go Cold Turkey and feel the most crushing loneliness and isolation they could ever feel – BUT NO ONE IS LISTENING. Sometimes it feels like I'm the lone cat battlin' through boomer's vitriolic takes and concerning Gen Z/Millenial thinking trends, holding balance as my celestial champion and watchin' the rest of you pals at each other's throat. But like every other wise person in the world, I don't get noticed and people don't listen. If ya’ll remember my rant ‘bout the online-punk community you’ll find that theme bein’ persistent, so who would’ve fuckin’ thunk it.
I’m all over the place, lemme try and wrap this up.
Social Media Detox, much like Dopamine Detox, is a whole slippery slope to overproductivity and livin’ miserable BUT bein’ useful to “society” and y’can’t convince me that the whole discussion has not been designed to reach that fuckin’ conclusion. Another tool to sell us hyper-capitalistic bullshit, joy nowhere to be found and tips and tricks to safely enjoy things out of the window. It’s a fuckin’ trap, believe me.
Social media is ingrained in our way of socializing, get the FUCK over it, pal.
Don’t be a dimwit and learn to use it to your advantage and happiness, don’t listen to these fucking smartypants with their bogus science studies. Keep on your toes, keep your wits about you and remember that your journey is YOURS. So ya don't even needa listen to me!
With all of that said... Leona, out!