MY friends and I casually talk about everything under the sun. Sometime last week, I was ‘gaffing’ with one of my friends when she told me she needed a ‘social media detox.’ In hindsight, I knew what she meant, but this creative mind of mine that never ceases to rest kept thinking about that very phrase. “Detox? Isn’t that the thing they do to people who’re addicted to substances?” I thought to myself. I then looked down at my hands only to notice that my phone was there, then my mind started to unravel this very topic that you’re about to read. Now, phones/tablets/computers and social media go hand-in-hand. You simply can’t use one without having to use the other and somehow people, including myself, feel the need to ‘detox’ from it all. Perhaps, there’s a new wave of ‘drugs’ and I’m not talking about cocaine and pills.

Now, I’m not saying phones and social media outlets are outrageously terrifying and we should plot a revolution against them– NO. What I really am trying to say is what I’ve been always saying: it’s based on perspective and oneself. Put a phone in the hands of a mentally stable, balanced and self-aware individual, you might just get a whole other outcome. When you’re speaking about someone like me– ridden with anxiety– you’ll probably get to that point of wanting to either ‘detox’ or to dive deeper into it. If you were to ask me what’s the world’s worst prison? I’d say it’s our minds. Some of us have so many unwanted thoughts, feelings and desires that we rather not talk or think about, we find ways and means of escaping. We go above and beyond creativity, to even build a perfect Instagram profile when in contrast, our life is far from it.

Let’s take a minute to compare addictive drugs– in this case cocaine — and social media, shall we? At first, it might probably sound funny, but then it isn’t when you realise they have much more in common than you thought. For instance, the release of the ‘feel-good’ chemical–dopamine–is similar in the brain for both activities. This release of dopamine is above the average release compared with other activities. With a cocaine user, it leads to possible addiction and usage of the drug regularly to regain that feeling. In the unfortunate comparative terms, a person using a smartphone receives similar effects of dopamine– maybe when they receive many Instagram likes on a post or a text-back from the people they want to talk to. Like the cocaine user, it leads to possible addiction and regular use of the ‘drug’ to regain that feeling.

My parents and many family members have been quite skeptical and vocal about phones, social media and everything in between. If you guys or anyone who feels the same way are currently reading this, my point to you is that it all depends on the person behind the screen. It’s their ability to cope with life’s troubles. I know many parents who see a phone as the worst thing that can happen to their child, or is it your child the worst thing that happens to a phone? Hear me out and think about it–social media and phones have many perks. You can view Paris on Google Maps right in your palms. You can build a business and even an empire through websites. You can even answer most of life’s troubling questions by the click of a few buttons. It can be a ‘drug’ or it can open doors of unimaginable possibilities; it all depends on whose hands the phone is in. All we need to ask ourselves is: from what reality are we trying to escape? And is a phone really the way of doing so? Or should we seek the professional help we really deserve?