TikTok is like eating a whole bag of jellies
Recent life updates got me thinking about social media consumption, and the direction I hope it'll go
It feels apt, that I started this post on March 23rd, but then life got in the way, and now, a month later, I’m opening it again to find that I had written nothing but the headline. (It was originally called Slow Down, You’re Doing Fine, btw).
I think this piece is about overwhelm and the full-on-ness of life.
I started this a month ago and was too busy to finish it, which says a lot, but I also feel slightly different than I did only a few weeks ago.
I often write notes in my phone to keep track off all the random things I want to write about, and this one was a stream of chaotic lines about wanting the world to slow down.
A lot has changed for me in the last month, and because keeping up with *everything* isn’t part of my job in the same way it was until recently, my nervous system is certainly calmer!
I think that we are all overwhelmed right now, there is so much on offer in every fragment of our lives. Obviously, social media is showing us lots of tough stuff, but even on the other end, it feels like too much. Inspiration is so overloaded that nothing really excites us, because there is probably something cooler in the next scroll.
The randomised way in which we use social media at the moment is detrimental to us, I think. I find that I could be watching a fascinating long-form video about a cultural festival or historical event or even just a gal discussing a mascara, and in many ways, I am gripped, and yet, I almost always scroll away before it’s over. A video longer than two minutes? Good luck.
I’ve deleted TikTok in the past, in an effort to unrot my brain a bit, but Reels just take its place. Even if I consciously try not to click into Reels, Twitter or Facebook serve me up their equivalents or reposts, and before I know it I’m sucked in. I think it’s affecting my mind, my ability to form full thoughts without getting distracted, and obviously my attention span.
We rarely choose to tune into the news, it’s often just served up to us after a GRWM or a video of an over-achieving parent putting together an intricate lunch for their toddler.
I think the way that we use the internet needs to be more conscious. I’m aware that I sound 105 years old here. There are many merits to social media, obviously, I’ve found people with similar body types to follow for outfit ideas, I’ve discovered and made dozens of new recipes, but I rarely search for curry before my food shop, or a cute Sunday outfit before I get dressed. Because my social media use isn’t conscious at all. I just let it force-feed me, and I don’t ever get full.
I notice I feel worse when I spend too much time scrolling. It used to be because of that comparison problem but now it’s just because it fizzes my brain due to the sheer amount of different types of content I’m getting in as little as 15 minutes.
Honestly, I think there will be a flip or a change in people in a few years, we’ll have content burnout, and we’ll crave magazines, print media, and more dedicated specific websites again.
I want to go onto RTE and The Journal for news, and I want to visit fashion blogs for clothing ideas. I want to go to my favourite chefs’ websites for recipes and cooking tips.
I’m conscious of how silly that sounds, to be romanticising a time on the internet that isn’t even that long ago, a bit like how tradwife life is resurging for people.
But I want to sit down and read a magazine more often and get in-depth ideas about whether €100 skincare is worth the money. I want to read a paper to get the news that people have worked hard on, not just a TikToker who claims they’re an expert after watching someone else’s TikTok.
Records had a resurgence not that long ago, and I long for the same for magazines. I know there are still incredible magazines on shelves these days, Irish Country Magazine, the Sunday Times supplements and Women’s Health are among my faves. But it’s no secret that other titles are closing down. I was the editor of one until a few months ago. The closure of which was for a myriad of complicated reasons that I can’t quite cover here…
I feel like short-form, mobile-optimised videos (read: Reels and TikToks) represent a lot about what’s wrong with us all right now. Everything feels so fast and full on. Sometimes I feel like I am spinning on a waltzer from the moment I wake up until the moment a TikTok starts looping on my phone because I’m drifting off to sleep.
When was the last time you sat without a phone in your hand? Or at the bare minimum, even *really* chose the content you were consuming.
I hate the argument that we shouldn’t be on our phones as much or whatever, because honestly, it’s just part of life. It’s entwined with simply existing. But we have so many different ways to use it. If I go to a cafe and read Substack half an hour, I don’t feel as dizzy, because it’s a conscious, long-form piece of writing. If I look up a video I love on YouTube (probably Paul Mescal and his sister Nell singing a Villagers song) or google something and read from an actual accurate source about it I feel just fine, even happy.
So to me, it’s about balance. A bit like our diet, there is no point eliminating anything that we enjoy or that is needed, and I feel like social media/my phone is just that. But I need to be conscious. Scrolling on TikTok feels like eating an entire bag of fizzy jellies from the fridge (yes I keep my jellies in the fridge). I enjoy it and get that sweet sugar hit, and then I’m nauseous. Using social media consciously, feels a bit more like a balanced meal.
I’m trying not to put pressure on myself to always be productive, so I don’t want it to feel like scrolling on my phone is bad because I’m not writing features or going to the gym. It’s not about what I could be doing instead but about thinking about what I’m doing at all.
The world feels busy, and it is, but I think that it feels busier and more complicated because we’re taking in 600 short clips of other people’s lives throughout a single day.
With this all said, I will probably click publish on this, and my hand will automatically click on a Reel or a TikTok, and before I know it I’ll have spent another 20 minutes invested in (mostly) strangers’ lives.
It’s not bad or shameful to ‘waste’ time scrolling. I’m just trying to look up content I actually want, and sometimes, maybe even look up from my screen.