How to Drop Social Media for the Sake of Reflection

¶ … Ability to Reflect

Social media and instant communication do pose obstacles to reflection and serious thinking because they cultivate an atmosphere of instant gratification and response, whereas reflection, meditation and serious thought require time, effort, and work. There is nothing instantaneous about reflection or spending time thinking about things. Thus, the usage of social media poses a danger for college students who hope to practice serious reflection in their academic journey.

One way students can avoid this pitfall is to cut back on their usage of social media and to adopt/cultivate different habits -- ones that help the student to strengthen his mental muscle. Reading good books is one such way that this can be achieved. Reading books challenges the mind to focus on a single item, a story, a narrative, a plot, an idea, and to engage with it over an extended period of time. The mind learns to unravel mysteries, to see more deeply into the human character, to appreciate nuance, to gain clarity through illumination. Obviously, the better the book the more likely this is to happen. Thus, students should consider engaging with serious classical works of literature, such as the novels of Dostoevsky, whose psychological and spiritual insights have been praised for more than a century.

Reading is a much better way, too, to stimulate the imagination than, say, watching television or movies, which simply requires the viewer to be passively engaged. Reading obliges the reader to be actively engaged. Another way to actively engage the mind is to actively engage in society. Social media has actually been shown to be "anti-social" in that it deters face-to-face communication and isolates the user behind an avatar and a screen, creating a false sense of security/social interaction (Haythornthwaite). By participating in actual society, whether within or without the University, the student can engage with real life and other like-minded individuals or even persons whose differences could bring diversity and a new way of looking at or thinking about life and one's own experiences. Regardless, an active engagement in society can lead to a more critical understanding of and appreciation for the values of life, culture, civilization and one's own era, time and place in history. This widens one's perspective and allows for new growth and depth of insight. Thus, by expanding one's real social engagement beyond the confines and limitations of the social media setting (i.e., the Internet facilitated by various digital connection devices), the ability to reflect and give serious thought to life and the deeper meaning of reality -- the beneath the surface sense -- can be cultivated more efficaciously.

Social media represents a consumerist mindset, which serves a kind of anti-social relationship engineering for the digital age that celebrates social posturing via the Internet rather than intimate social interaction conducted in private. The mistaken assumption that what is posted will be "liked" or "shared" in a positive sense leads persons to seek attention that can easily have negative consequences (Suler). This is not what society is for. On the contrary, society unites individuals towards a solid, common aim -- which is not the enshrinement of self but rather the support system needed for facilitating the basis of the civilization, which is the family unit, operated by the heads of the family, whose ability to reflect and be educated and to think deeply is a necessary component. By ascribing to a philosophy of social engagement which is not strictly digital but rather actively participant in a physical way can lead to a less immediate but more gratifying because more tangible and authentic, complete with social cues, empathy, etc. (which all help to cultivate the ability to reflect, gain insight, and see more deeply into things), the student can strengthen himself against the traps of social media which make instant communication and rapid-fire expressions so deadening to the intellectual life needed for serious study.

Still, the best practice of serious reflection is to give the mind to the activity of reflection on a consistent basis. This could be facilitated by the activity of daily reading, which could consist of five or ten-minute segments, thoughts for the day, prayer journals, etc. Anything that helps the student to focus on serious reflection is beneficial and external distractions, such as social media, should be limited or timeblocked in such a way that they do not interfere with the practice of reflection.