It has been a few years since I stepped away from the online world of commentary and consumption on social media. Now returning in late 2026 after a prolonged hiatus.
Life without digital media has been expressively liberating.
While I felt no desire to participate in or to log back into these digital spaces in my time offline, the experience simultaneously induced a peaceful nostalgia of life before the digital domain as well as a loss of connection to that same world. It further reinforced the realisation of the degree which the world we live in today functions and operates within the parameters and rules of social media. There is no divorcing the virtual from the literal. Social media and AI is the future.
These digital platforms are fundamentally woven into the fabric of modern communication thus becoming an integral part of human exchange, critical thought and human nature. None of which is by error. This was meticulously engineered through algorithmic design.
To stay connected to the world, we need to be engaged with the digital ecosystem and all else that moves within it. This is the only way to maintain an awareness of what lies ahead and how best to utilise digital platforms whilst understanding the hidden corners of the internet. Much of which, is also dark, disturbing and in growing cases, radicalising.
Ultimately, this raised the following questions for me: Do we consume social, or does social media consume us? Are we the ones utilising digital networks and influencers or have they started to swallow us whole?
Social media dictates a social tone
While my offline world rejoiced during my time unplugged, digital dents would routinely puncture the peace. Sitting face-to-face with people, at first meant navigating unsolicited debates over breaking headlines, viral reels, or WhatsApp forwards. None of this was anyone’s fault neither was it always done intentionally. This is the digital world now. It just meant that reinforcing boundaries became paramount. Which was not always easy.
Many of our everyday conversations with each other will carry sentences like “have you watched this on social media?’ ‘I saw a viral video on TikTok shop and so this is my TikTok purchase’ ‘I saw this happening in the world on this person’s page – let me show you (without asking).’ This is also how news disinformation spreads from person to person. Whether it is true or not. Whether we care to see it or not. To the chronic doom-scrollers and smartphone users I say, go outside. It is time look up at the sky and touch some grass.
‘Do you live under a rock?” a friend comically and abruptly asked me when talking about news updates from across the world over coffee one day. Much of which I had heard of in any great detail until these discussions. It did not matter that I was indefinitely offline at this point.
I was being told by some people I spoke to that they had bombarded me with a terrain of YouTube videos, Instagram reels and online articles. All unopened and still sitting there of course. Nevertheless, my responses were still being anticipated. Someone’s social anxiety or never-ending online interactions will still make it to your doorstep while offline whether you want it to or not.
Admittedly, this renders a digital detox challenging because everyone around you is so switched on, that your conversations can run the risk of pulling you back in without you wanting to. Stepping away from the digital sphere meant pulling back from friends and colleagues who live and breathe internet culture, headlines, and endless content. I soon discovered a harsh reality: a digital detox inevitably turns into a human detox. And indeed, in this case, that is what happened with some.
The ‘online’ meets the ‘offline’
Social media is the watchful algorithmic eye of the metaverse. This ‘Big Brother’ eye seeps into everyday conversation whether you like it or not. The online space directly transfers into the offline world. With all of the world-changing-economy-boosting societal benefits that have come with social media, there is an undeniable amount of over consumption of the digitised world, and it is to a serious fault. I delivered a presentation for the Diaspora Screen Media Network on this in 2022. A copy of what was discussed is found here.
When I decided to withdraw from being online a few years ago, I had professionally wrapped up communications and deactivated everything. My intention was never to stay away for the number of years I have done. I was working, living life away from being captured in digitised worlds and taking time out for myself. What was meant to be a one week break from the online space, became a year upon year long pause. It was a good refresher from an environment that I had 1) already been conscious of given my academic and professional background and 2) one I was increasingly bored of interacting with.
One thing became certain over time. The longer I remained unplugged and offline, the more transparent the world I lived in became to me, and the further away I was from the digital dilemma. I noticed how many people stared at their phones in the mornings, how often someone reached for their beloved device during a meeting or coffee catchup, often in the middle of a conversation. How this rectangular appendage was dictating the social tone; and to be honest, I quite enjoyed being on the other side of all that I was now seeing.
The era of disinformation
Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu had what appeared to be an article published in The Guardian using her name but she never wrote it. This article does not exist.
This image of a fake article was already shared online before Dr. Shola was able to address any falsities and online smear campaigns that were targeting her for it. The tweet seen here received thousands of likes and hundreds of thousands of views. The Guardian has some 10M+ followers on X/Twitter alone and this is just one example of how online misinformation spreads. It is seriously damaging to society and dangerous for the people being targeted.
AI-curated videos often do the rounds on every social media platform available to us. How many of these disingenuous videos have the public considered to be real? How many genuine videos shared online have been dubbed as AI or in the infamous words of Donald Trump as ‘fake news?’
Psychological warfare and ideological segregation will win wars on the ground before any physical ammunition is aimed and fired. The paranoia and mistrust (also fuelled by politicians) from this contemporary era of disinformation is embedded into the human psyche. This further influences our interactions with online content and each other offline.
Social media: A double-edged sword
Having a film and media background gives you an advantage when analysing and making sense of modern media. You don’t get as readily wrapped up in the digital world as others might, and you have the skills to decode media and social media language with better ease. There’s naturally a more interrogative and research led approach. Of course, applying common sense is a given but further to this, an understanding of the fifth estate in a consciously aware and critical manner consolidates well. It is with that lens that I write on such matters.
Digital media is a double-edged sword. Where social media gifts us community, connection, information and opportunity it also offers ideological segregation, communalism, political feud, online disinformation, increased criminal activity, online rape academies, the manosphere, online bullies and worsened mental health. With that also comes the false AI news reports, online impersonation and a celebrated narcissistic influencer culture that continues to evolve with its growing supporters. All of which continues to play out in our lives in real time through the news, internet and society.
The democratisation of disinformation must continue to be challenged with real consequences for powerful MPs, and political influencers fuelling propaganda campaigns to their followers. Social media needs to be navigated responsibly and with better laws in place around safety with fairer and more just online regulatory laws. We are yet to see this happen.
Impacting our brains. Is it re-wiring it too?
What is the longest time you took away from a significant part of social media that you engage with or consume? Remember, social media also includes WhatsApp groups and status posting. Do you get headaches from being on your phone for too long? Feel better when you’ve not looked at your screen in a while, or do you feel worse? Do you monitor your daily screen time?
Calculate how many hours you spend online every week. Then look at how many hours that amounts to in one year. What could you have done with that time lost to Elon Musk, TikTok and Mark Zuckerberg?
I began realising how removed I was from world events as they unravelled online in real time and away from my consuming eye. This included the train of misinformation that has people plugged in during times of global or national conflict. By unplugging from digital media, I was, in many ways, free of this and detached from what I intentionally sought distance from. Still, the residue and bleed-through from others in my professional and personal life did inevitably taint parts of my digital detox because of how deeply embedded into their own phones people have become. We literally see drivers checking their phones when behind the wheel on the roads. You can not be more chronically plugged in than that.
Do we really believe that this addictive behaviour with smartphones is not changing the way our brains are wired or impacting on our health? Just look at the effect this has had on Gen-Z. We have the tragic documented cases of children and young people dying by suicide because of AI chatbots and other dangers online.
Should we be worried about social media, AI and its overall impact?
The thing about social media is if you did not post it online, if you did not say it online, if you are not living it online – graduation, marriage, holidays, a new home, a new partner (so everyone thinks you moved on even if internally you haven’t) and so on – then you run the risk of appearing ‘unsuccessful’ ‘irrelevant’ and in some people’s minds unaccomplished. LinkedIn does well for a reason (see article here).
At the other end of the spectrum, ghost followers post nothing but consume everything off your page; while other account users begin to believe that the lives they are seeing online and the numerous podcasts (some are great, others not so much) that they listen to regularly is how life should look and feel. It can all become very overwhelming.
In my own experiences, pages with larger followings than mine have re-positioned my work and writings with inaccuracies whilst still referencing me as its source. Other British Asian bloggers have in the past replicated my content and research and passed it off as uniquely their own work when it never was.
Then of course there are the online smear campaigns, online bullies, harassment, threats for daring to speak on contentious matters and aggressive creepy messages that filter through to your DMs. Instead of placing profit over people, technological giants need to do better to safeguard the wellbeing of users online. Particularly those of vulnerable groups.
It has become so normal to communicate in person about the digital world that we may not realise how extensively our behaviours and dialogue offline is led by our consumption of what we see and consume online. This includes the influence we take into our lives from the people we follow and communicate with on the socials, and the podcasters we listen to (see Andrew Tate and the manosphere).
Not all doom and gloom
With all that being said, social media is not all doom and gloom. It has given so many creative professionals, businesses, journalists, artists and those alike a platform to build on their good work and a meaningful place for that influence to exist amidst all that online noise. Positive work and voices of reason can now reach anyone anywhere in the world and change has come with social media activism too. The onus will ultimately fall on us to challenge that which we are fed online as always being ‘authentic’ information. Just because a popular podcaster or famous content creator posted it, spoke about it and shared a version of ‘that story’ as being truthful, will not always mean that it is.
We must ensure, that we are involved with actively engaging with the healthier and more digitally conscious pages and creators online, before the algorithm consumes our attention and minds beyond our own awareness and comprehension. It is now in our best interest, and those around us, to regularly unplug from our smartphones and technological devices.