hi everyone
I stand here with a simple offer an
offer that if accepted yields
instantaneous results and inevitable
positive consequences my offer is this
the chance to purge yourself of social
media and reclaim your personal identity
I challenge everyone to try going one
week without social media and I
guarantee it will change your life I can
attest to this because I personally have
been without any social media for almost
a year and it’s completely changed the
way I view the world I’m not saying that
all social media is bad social media can
be used for marketing or to spread a
positive message to the world however it
apps like Facebook Twitter Instagram and
snapchat are taking over our lives
they’re taking us out of the present
moment and causing us to exist only in a
virtual world and nobody should live
like that social media has taken over
astonishingly quickly if you think about
it when we meet a new person the norm is
no longer to ask them for their phone
number the norm is to friend them on
Facebook or ask for their snapchat or
Twitter username in 2008 only 24% of the
US population had a social media profile
now 81% has won this astronomical growth
is because social media is seen as a
do-it-all platform it’s widely replaced
texting and email in a lot of cases and
it’s used as our main source of news
this leads to people spending hours a
day with their noses just glued to their
phones psychologists at Trent Nottingham
University found that we spend twice
as much time on our phones as we think
we do and that amount of time is five
hours a day nearly a third of our entire
waking lives I’m sure you’re familiar
with this site that used to be me in
fact I would wake up every morning and
immediately reach for my phone the
amount of notifications I had would
determine how good my morning was yay
people want to talk to me I would spend
one to two hours thoughtlessly scrolling
through all my social media profiles
before even getting out of bed I would
check Twitter then snapchat then
Instagram then go back to Twitter to see
if anything new had been posted just in
the last 30 minutes I was an addict
wasting my time and the time that I was
wasting was being spent looking at other
people’s posts and seeing how I thought
other people lived this influenced me to
shape my life in a similar way and I
took on the values of what I saw online
in hindsight I wasn’t living my life at
all I was living society’s life this is
one of the biggest problems with social
media it causes people to live their
life based on some societal standard
humans have always had an instinct to
fit in collaboration and cooperation
were necessary for our species to
survive because of this a sense of
belonging is one of the most
sought-after and rewarding feelings
anyone can experience think of the
feeling of your favorite sports team
winning the big game or finally
finishing a group project where each
member of the group knew their role and
carried it out perfectly successful
group interaction triggers a firing of
the pleasure centers in the brain
and releases amounts of dopamine
synonymous with drug use a feeling of
belonging is sought in humans like drug
addicts seek their next fix and social
media is designed to exploit this all
the little features like comments likes
and being able to share posts are just
gimmicks designed to get us hooked by
causing dopamine to be released I was
guilty of just posting what I thought
everyone wanted to see than anyone I
knew that on social media
I was simply crafting an image of myself
but I didn’t care
I loved attention and I loved the
ability to portray myself any way I
wanted it wasn’t me I was losing touch
with my authentic self and this problem
manifests mainly in my generation as
teenagers have grown up with the
Internet
we’ve spent our whole lives interacting
with our peers online we’re more
comfortable on our phones than in a
face-to-face interaction and this has
catastrophic consequences on our mental
health studies have shown that kids who
spend more time on their phones have
less developed frontal cortexes and we
need our frontal cortex to plan for the
future think rationally and solve
problems my generation is losing those
abilities because we can’t focus on
anything besides our phones combine that
with the fact that social media is our
main source of forming connections with
other people
and it’s easy to see why teen depression
has skyrocketed 33% just since 2010
and teen suicides have gone up 31
percent in the same period we are
killing ourselves just to fit in yet
everyone around me somehow thinks
they’re better than social media they
tell me oh I only use it to look at me
more I just like to keep up with my
friends that I can’t see every day it
the conversation that I constantly hear
is gossip and judgment did you see my
post did you like it did you see her
post
why was she hanging out with him why did
he say that he’s so creepy
why’d she post that she has no self
respect the people around me are
addicted to stalking other people yet
maintain the assertion that they’re
somehow above it all and all the
features that I talked about earlier the
gimmicks they can’t replace real life
interaction alike can’t replace a smile
or a compliment but we treat it as if it
can we allow ourselves to become less
social and lose touch with the
face-to-face interactions that really
matter in a study by Pew Research Center
55% of participants said they interact
with their friends online on a daily
basis only 33 percent said they interact
with their friends face to face on a
daily basis think about this how many of
you have ever pulled out your phone and
stared at it just to avoid an awkward
social situation I know I see that every
day in school how many of you have ever
taken a long video at a sporting event
or concert so you can relive the moment
later or share it with your friends
instead of actually making sure
that you’re living in the moment and
enjoying life as it happens last winter
I was at a crossroads in my life I’ve
always been driven but I really had no
idea what I wanted to do track has
always been my main sport but I didn’t
really think I wanted to run in college
I’ve also always had dreams of attending
a top-level academic school but schools
like that required true excellence
I had no motivating force and nothing
that separated me from the people around
me I cared more about creating the image
that I wanted of myself online than
working to secure the future that I
wanted everybody has dreams of greatness
when they’re a kid nobody wants to live
an average and unfulfilled life yet so
few people are willing to put in the
work to developing themselves and
unlocking their full potential I
realized that if I devoted myself to
improving on the track I would have a
way of standing out from other
applicants and maybe reaching one of my
dream schools so I began dedicating
myself to track more and attempting to
spend less time on social media however
about two weeks into this new routine I
realized that while I was training for
track more I was spending about the same
amount of time on social media I was
simply shirking my academic duties and
losing some sleep
I had to decide if running track in
college and my future was more important
to me than trying to fit in and it was
slowly but surely I became disgusted
with who I was and I wondered how I had
let myself become so addicted to
something that had no value in the long
run I decided to quit social media cold
turkey
instantly if says if a massive weight
had been lifted off my shoulders I began
to see the beauty in the world around me
I discovered my passion for life and I
found a sense of individuality and
contentment with who I was in the week
after I deleted social media
I changed more than I have at any other
point in my life I really ate it not
only my actions but my mindset my goals
and my overall attitude towards life I
realized that at any given moment I can
be doing anything I want to in the world
I simply have to choose to do what’s
best for myself and because of this I’m
on my own path now and I’m my own person
I’m not standing up here proclaiming
that I’m a perfect person devoid of
weakness just because I deleted social
media but I am claiming that I’m in
control of my own happiness and
satisfaction with life I’m also not
claiming that by deleting social media
you will immediately become a better
person find happiness and reach your
goals deleting social media in itself
doesn’t bring anything of a direct value
to your life it’s simply an avenue
towards individual thought and freedom
everybody spends their life searching
for happiness and yearning for
fulfilment yet most people spend so much
of it looking at other people’s lives
online if you have the superpower to be
present in the moment and you aren’t so
preoccupied with what everyone else is
doing you’ll find that life is a little
easier happiness is always at hand it’s
easier to treat the people around you
with kindness and have straightforward
but proof
relationships I think the world would be
a better place if everyone possessed
this skill thank you
[Applause]
I stand here with a simple offer an
offer that if accepted yields
instantaneous results and inevitable
positive consequences my offer is this
the chance to purge yourself of social
media and reclaim your personal identity
I challenge everyone to try going one
week without social media and I
guarantee it will change your life I can
attest to this because I personally have
been without any social media for almost
a year and it’s completely changed the
way I view the world I’m not saying that
all social media is bad social media can
be used for marketing or to spread a
positive message to the world however it
apps like Facebook Twitter Instagram and
snapchat are taking over our lives
they’re taking us out of the present
moment and causing us to exist only in a
virtual world and nobody should live
like that social media has taken over
astonishingly quickly if you think about
it when we meet a new person the norm is
no longer to ask them for their phone
number the norm is to friend them on
Facebook or ask for their snapchat or
Twitter username in 2008 only 24% of the
US population had a social media profile
now 81% has won this astronomical growth
is because social media is seen as a
do-it-all platform it’s widely replaced
texting and email in a lot of cases and
it’s used as our main source of news
this leads to people spending hours a
day with their noses just glued to their
phones psychologists at Trent Nottingham
University found that we spend twice
as much time on our phones as we think
we do and that amount of time is five
hours a day nearly a third of our entire
waking lives I’m sure you’re familiar
with this site that used to be me in
fact I would wake up every morning and
immediately reach for my phone the
amount of notifications I had would
determine how good my morning was yay
people want to talk to me I would spend
one to two hours thoughtlessly scrolling
through all my social media profiles
before even getting out of bed I would
check Twitter then snapchat then
Instagram then go back to Twitter to see
if anything new had been posted just in
the last 30 minutes I was an addict
wasting my time and the time that I was
wasting was being spent looking at other
people’s posts and seeing how I thought
other people lived this influenced me to
shape my life in a similar way and I
took on the values of what I saw online
in hindsight I wasn’t living my life at
all I was living society’s life this is
one of the biggest problems with social
media it causes people to live their
life based on some societal standard
humans have always had an instinct to
fit in collaboration and cooperation
were necessary for our species to
survive because of this a sense of
belonging is one of the most
sought-after and rewarding feelings
anyone can experience think of the
feeling of your favorite sports team
winning the big game or finally
finishing a group project where each
member of the group knew their role and
carried it out perfectly successful
group interaction triggers a firing of
the pleasure centers in the brain
and releases amounts of dopamine
synonymous with drug use a feeling of
belonging is sought in humans like drug
addicts seek their next fix and social
media is designed to exploit this all
the little features like comments likes
and being able to share posts are just
gimmicks designed to get us hooked by
causing dopamine to be released I was
guilty of just posting what I thought
everyone wanted to see than anyone I
knew that on social media
I was simply crafting an image of myself
but I didn’t care
I loved attention and I loved the
ability to portray myself any way I
wanted it wasn’t me I was losing touch
with my authentic self and this problem
manifests mainly in my generation as
teenagers have grown up with the
Internet
we’ve spent our whole lives interacting
with our peers online we’re more
comfortable on our phones than in a
face-to-face interaction and this has
catastrophic consequences on our mental
health studies have shown that kids who
spend more time on their phones have
less developed frontal cortexes and we
need our frontal cortex to plan for the
future think rationally and solve
problems my generation is losing those
abilities because we can’t focus on
anything besides our phones combine that
with the fact that social media is our
main source of forming connections with
other people
and it’s easy to see why teen depression
has skyrocketed 33% just since 2010
and teen suicides have gone up 31
percent in the same period we are
killing ourselves just to fit in yet
everyone around me somehow thinks
they’re better than social media they
tell me oh I only use it to look at me
more I just like to keep up with my
friends that I can’t see every day it
the conversation that I constantly hear
is gossip and judgment did you see my
post did you like it did you see her
post
why was she hanging out with him why did
he say that he’s so creepy
why’d she post that she has no self
respect the people around me are
addicted to stalking other people yet
maintain the assertion that they’re
somehow above it all and all the
features that I talked about earlier the
gimmicks they can’t replace real life
interaction alike can’t replace a smile
or a compliment but we treat it as if it
can we allow ourselves to become less
social and lose touch with the
face-to-face interactions that really
matter in a study by Pew Research Center
55% of participants said they interact
with their friends online on a daily
basis only 33 percent said they interact
with their friends face to face on a
daily basis think about this how many of
you have ever pulled out your phone and
stared at it just to avoid an awkward
social situation I know I see that every
day in school how many of you have ever
taken a long video at a sporting event
or concert so you can relive the moment
later or share it with your friends
instead of actually making sure
that you’re living in the moment and
enjoying life as it happens last winter
I was at a crossroads in my life I’ve
always been driven but I really had no
idea what I wanted to do track has
always been my main sport but I didn’t
really think I wanted to run in college
I’ve also always had dreams of attending
a top-level academic school but schools
like that required true excellence
I had no motivating force and nothing
that separated me from the people around
me I cared more about creating the image
that I wanted of myself online than
working to secure the future that I
wanted everybody has dreams of greatness
when they’re a kid nobody wants to live
an average and unfulfilled life yet so
few people are willing to put in the
work to developing themselves and
unlocking their full potential I
realized that if I devoted myself to
improving on the track I would have a
way of standing out from other
applicants and maybe reaching one of my
dream schools so I began dedicating
myself to track more and attempting to
spend less time on social media however
about two weeks into this new routine I
realized that while I was training for
track more I was spending about the same
amount of time on social media I was
simply shirking my academic duties and
losing some sleep
I had to decide if running track in
college and my future was more important
to me than trying to fit in and it was
slowly but surely I became disgusted
with who I was and I wondered how I had
let myself become so addicted to
something that had no value in the long
run I decided to quit social media cold
turkey
instantly if says if a massive weight
had been lifted off my shoulders I began
to see the beauty in the world around me
I discovered my passion for life and I
found a sense of individuality and
contentment with who I was in the week
after I deleted social media
I changed more than I have at any other
point in my life I really ate it not
only my actions but my mindset my goals
and my overall attitude towards life I
realized that at any given moment I can
be doing anything I want to in the world
I simply have to choose to do what’s
best for myself and because of this I’m
on my own path now and I’m my own person
I’m not standing up here proclaiming
that I’m a perfect person devoid of
weakness just because I deleted social
media but I am claiming that I’m in
control of my own happiness and
satisfaction with life I’m also not
claiming that by deleting social media
you will immediately become a better
person find happiness and reach your
goals deleting social media in itself
doesn’t bring anything of a direct value
to your life it’s simply an avenue
towards individual thought and freedom
everybody spends their life searching
for happiness and yearning for
fulfilment yet most people spend so much
of it looking at other people’s lives
online if you have the superpower to be
present in the moment and you aren’t so
preoccupied with what everyone else is
doing you’ll find that life is a little
easier happiness is always at hand it’s
easier to treat the people around you
with kindness and have straightforward
but proof
relationships I think the world would be
a better place if everyone possessed
this skill thank you
[Applause]
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