The best thing that happened when I stopped using social media was I stopped caring so much about things I can't do anything about

I'm just gonna state right out of the bat I'm conservative, I don't know if this is a good space for this topic considering this sub is mostly leftist, so please let me know if you guys want me to stop. Even though I don't agree with most of the stuff you guys talk about, I believe I can learn something from just listening to what you have to say, I'm not here to argue just to learn and maybe create a good dialogue.<br><br> The title is pretty self explanatory. I used to be a social media freak, I had the most common ones. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat. I think that's it. I spent a lot of time on it, way too much time. I had barely any friends IRL, although people at school and stuff liked me and I was pretty outgoing, I just didn't like hanging out with people that much, I was an only child and I was happy being alone, I had no reason to dislike spending time alone, I've never been lonely, I had a perfect childhood with a pretty stable life growing up.<br><br> I used to get pissed off so much about the political climate, I used to watch a lot of videos on YouTube, and I was very passionate about politics, maybe even too passionate, I wanted to change things but I didn't know how to do it. I didn't believe in protests, I didn't want to join a political party, I just wanted to change things, and I had no idea how to approach this. I even used to hate it when people mentioned self improvement, because I thought that I was doing everything I could be doing to help mankind. I wanted to be a hero, I really wanted to be a hero and change the world for better but I didn't know where to even start, I was only 17 at the time and I was pretty mad at the world.<br><br> All of that changed when I stopped using social media two years ago. I don't know what made me snap, maybe it was the fact that I had so much free time, and I was bored but not bored enough to do anything productive, maybe I was just burned out, but I think it was the fact that I was living in a different country for some time, I had an exchange program, so I was in a different country for a year, and when I came back I felt really disconnected from everything happening in my country. I was living in a completely different environment, I was living on campus with people completely different than me. I was living with two other roommates that were also in the program so they were foreigners as well. But when I got back, I started feeling really disconnected with my country even though I grew up there. So I just decided to delete everything, for some reason I didn't delete YouTube, maybe I forgot to, maybe it just didn't feel right, or maybe I just didn't consider it social media because of my ignorance even though I followed certain people and had subscriptions. The point is I stopped using everything.<br><br> What happened? So many things, I'm gonna list them. I started going to the gym, I found a love for reading, I found out what I want to do with my life, I got a job, I learned a new language, I started using my free time to do something productive. Maybe this won't be the same if you're in a different situation than me, but I really think social media is a waste of time. I'm looking back on it and I'm realising how much I sacrificed by spending so much time on social media, it's crazy. I'm not saying it's all bad, everything in this world can be both good and bad. Even water can be bad for you if you drink too much. But I think social media takes away your power, I think it keeps you distracted, it's addictive, it's not really helping you, and I don't know what would've happened if I didn't stop using it two years ago, I don't even wanna think about it.<br><br> What's the problem with it? Well the biggest problem with it is it makes you think you're doing something about a problem, but you're not. You're not changing anything, you're not contributing to anything, you're just messing around in cyberspace, your whole digital life is meaningless and you're just wasting time if you spend it on social media. You're not doing anything about it. I'm not saying it can't be useful, I'm just saying that if you're spending most of your free time on it, you're not doing anything. You're just on autopilot and you're not even living your life. It's so wasted potential. Even if you're making a change, even if you're posting good content, even if you're doing good things on social media, you're not really doing anything, you're not really helping anybody with it, you're not really changing anything, maybe you're entertaining people, I'm not sure why people even follow others on social media, even if you're making good content, it doesn't change anything, maybe you're making money off of it, well that's different, that's a job, but if you're just spending your free time on it, you're not really doing anything, you're just entertaining people, you're not really making a difference with it.<br><br> But there's a certain beauty to it. I'm gonna be brutally honest with you, I do sometimes miss it. I do sometimes miss posting on all of those platforms, or using it as a tool to just express my feelings, or posting about my day, I miss that connection with people, I miss that feeling of belonging, I do miss it. But even though I miss it, I don't think I would ever go back.<br><br> What's happening right now? I'm not sure, I don't really know what people think about social media, but I still see people using it all the time, they're all on their phones, all the time, I don't know if they're even doing anything useful, I don't know if they're just scrolling through feeds, but I'm just pretty sure social media is dying if not already dead. I feel like this was just a fad that's dying out, people don't use it as much as they used to, I'm not sure why, maybe they just lost interest, maybe they realised how much time they spend on it, maybe even both. I do think it's gonna die out.<br><br> What's my opinion on it? I'm not sure yet. I'm still pretty neutral, I'm not gonna hate it or praise it, I don't think it's useful, but I don't think it's useless either, I'm kinda neutral about it. I do sometimes think that it's good that humans have that, maybe we need it, but we don't, maybe it's just a part of our psyche, I don't know. But I think it's a very interesting thing to be honest, it's a very interesting tool, and it's a very interesting idea, it's something that we all have in common, like the internet, it's a very interesting concept, and I think we should cherish it and keep it, but I also think we should be careful with it. I'm not really sure, I don't have strong feelings about it.<br><br> I started to care less about things I can't change. Maybe it's something you can't relate to, maybe you never cared about things you couldn't change, but for me it was a big problem, I was always angry about it, I was always frustrated, but it disappeared once I stopped using social media. I don't even know if you can relate. I don't know if you ever felt like that, I don't know if you've ever felt like you just wanna change something, I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, idk.<br><br> So yeah, that's it.