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09/30/2024: Time to Flee Social Media Again. Here's Why

(Warning: This blog mentions politics, the 2016 Election, Donald Trump, swearing, depression and some heavy stuff. Please take care before reading on.)

Welp, it’s that time in the election year again: time for me to flee from most of social media for my sanity! I’ve been doing this since the 2016 Election as I dread what people are going to say about this year’s election and how they’re going to react when the person they want, either win or lose. And what type of misinformation that might be spread about the election, which might trick people into voting (or not voting) for all the wrong reasons!

Based on how things are looking right now, there’s a chance that either Trump wins (which will be bad news for anyone who isn’t a white, straight, Christian man) or he loses. But, there been rumors that if Trump does lose, a civil war might break out! Like, when was the last time we have a normal election, where there won’t be riots and heartbreak whenever the person they picks loses?

2012.

Oh.

Why did it have to be in 2016, when I was finally allowed to vote in the presidential election, when all this madness happened? Like back then, everyone thought Hilary Clinton was going to win the election! Mainly because she’s not terrible like Trump and had political experience working as a U.S. Senator and as Secretary of State. I thought she would be our first female president and everything was going to be great as it shows how much progress America had made in the past few decades!

But it turns out I was wrong. Very wrong. It turns out Clinton wasn’t that good of a person I thought she was due to what she did as Secretary of State (she used a private E-MAIL service!), which made my mom (a civilian contractor who works for the military [and i.e. the government]) not trust her. It was because of what Clinton did, my mom end up voting 3rd party as she won’t vote for Trump, but definitely won’t vote Clinton (mom voted for Sanders instead)! Funny thing about that is early this year; mom actually scolded me for threatening to vote 3rd party when I told her I refused to vote for Biden due to him supporting Israel! Turns out mom doesn’t want me to make the same mistake that she did 8 years ago when it comes to voting, which was the reason why Trump became president in the first place.

Later that year, Clinton made some degrading comments about the rural working class in one of her campaign speeches, which made them not trust her. It also doesn’t help that the rural working class feel like the Democrats had abandoned them when Obama was in office. Because of that, they decided to vote for Trump instead since he “gets” them (no, he don’t) and they know him for his famous reality show. And plus, she has that creepy smile to top it off!

Of course, this being my first time voting in the presidential election, I tried to ignore all that “noise” as I really don’t want Trump as our president and dread what would happen if he does win! Despite the controversies, I heard that Clinton did well in the polls, which made me not worry as much. Then it turns out that you can’t trust the polls at all and that’s how we got Trump in the first place!

Prior to the 2016 Election, I used to be on social media. Like, a lot. I used to read the news and was a way to kill time and boredom whenever I wasn’t in class. I mostly spend my time on Facebook, where I look up on how family and friends were doing in life. Yeah, some of them get a little preachy on some things such as religion, politics or what’s going on in their lives. But nothing too terrible that will mentally drain me from spending my time on Facebook and various social media accounts.

Well, the 2016 Election changed that as I was disappointed in some of the people I knew on Facebook who said that they refuse to vote for Clinton and instead, vote for Trump as they said that she’s a snake because they can’t trust her. Then there are people I know who 100% REFUSE to vote for Trump and instead, vote for Clinton instead as they gave out scary facts on what would happen if Trump wins (which I nervously agreed with them)! Then there are the rest who said they won’t vote either candidate, at all! Instead, they’ll either vote 3rd party (which is basically throwing away your vote here in America) or stay home on Election Day!

Then Election Night happened and I had several meltdowns when I found out Trump won, which confirmed my biggest fears! I remembered fearing what rights would Trump take away first when he spend his first day in office! Going on Facebook on that night made it worst as I saw heartbreaking posts from some that they’re disappointed in their country for voting a sexist, racist man as their president and fear for their futures. For others, they said that Trump becoming their president was the best thing that happened to them and believe that he’s going to make our country “great” again! I got sick reading those posts and had to log off as it caused me to have another meltdown.

It was thanks to what happened on Election Night, I stopped going on Facebook as much as I used to and deleted both the official app off my iPhone and the bookmark on my laptop. I remember getting off of Twitter (before they suck) as well, as people there keep tweeting that it’s the end of democracy as we know it and hope you have a passport that allows you to flee to Canada or somewhere liberal if you want to keep your rights.

It was thanks to all that, I learned that social media isn’t that great when it comes to politics and current events. I learned to not trust others on social media because one minute you think they’re nice, but the next they’re not after seeing what type of politics they follow. I fear that lifelong friendships that were made both on social media and out in real life, ended on that Election Day. Same thing with relationships with loved ones as well as now Thanksgiving dinner is going to be awkward as the Trump supporters are going to rub it in their liberal relative’s faces that their candidate is better than theirs and that they need to “suck it” now that Trump has won.

It was because of the 2016 Election, I learned to keep my mouth shut when it comes to current events and stay away from the comment sections as that’s where most of the problems of social media come from. I also tried to stay away from the political posts and feed on social media as much as I can. I tried to mute and block them from my home feed. But no matter how hard I tried, the political stuff manages to leak in and ruin my day!

Then I learn how toxic social media can be and that it can negativity drain you, the longer you’re there; especially if you put out info about your private life. Because of that, I start going on some social media sites where you can be anonymous and not give out your real name and info. After ditching Facebook, I went to Reddit for that reason and while it’s great, but it also has some problems (mainly the bullying and that it’s a male-ordinated place). Despite the issues I had with Reddit, I feel a little freer than being on Facebook. It was where I spend the rest of the 2010s’ at and help me kept distract from all the things that Trump was doing to my country (most of the time that is…).

Four years later, Trump ran for president again and I fear for the worst as I remember all the horrible things he did during his first term in office. Especially on how he handled the pandemic early that year (it was terrible) and how he reacted when an unarmed black man was killed by a cop, in which kicked off the Black Lives Matter movement over the summer (he didn’t care). I was worried what he’s going to do in his second term if he wins again! At the same time, I also fear everyone’s reaction if he won his reelection as I don’t want a repeat of 2016 all over again.

Of course, there’s a chance that things will be fine and that I should stop worrying so much. Yeah, you might have a point. But the thing is that I’m an anxious person (thanks to my autism), who hates hearing bad news and will cry depending on how bad the event is. And spending my free time on social media and reading said bad news (also known as doomscrolling), doesn’t help!

With bitter memories of what happened on Election Night 2016 on my mind, I don’t want to risk that. So I decided to do what I should’ve done four years earlier: get off of social media. I know that this will be hard as I’ve never did this before. I did a few times before, but it lasted a day or two. But to prevent another major meltdown from the Election Night 2016 from happening again, it’s the only choice I have.

Knowing what to do, I decided that two week before Election Day, I logged out most of my social media accounts and did something else. I remember playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons (when it used to be big) to keep my mind off the election. I drew, baked and ran groceries errands (wearing my mask, of course) in the small German city that me and my mom used to live. I did anything to keep me away from being on social media.

I think my plan worked as when I found out a few days after Election Day, Trump actually LOST and Biden end up winning! I was real happy as (I thought) one of the worst moments in American history was about to end and I hope to God that, we’ll never have to go through this ever again!

Sadly I was wrong as this year; Trump came back a THIRD TIME and that he might ACTUALLY WIN because how poorly our current president is doing in the polls! I heard that people my age won’t vote for Biden because he's pro-Israel and refuses to call cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, which scares me. Then there’s inflation that made everything expensive to the point some have to work in multiple jobs in order to pay their bills and groceries. The inflation is so bad; there are people who want Trump BACK as the economy did (mostly) better when he was president! I fear that no matter how much the Biden administration tried to clean up the mess that Trump made in the past 3 years, it’ll be worthless if Trump wins again!

It got worst in June due to the first presidential debate, where Biden did badly. So badly that nearly EVERYONE wants him to step down! Then Trump was nearly assassinated at his own political rally in July, which scares me as I thought this might HELP Trump, win his reelection! Those two events made me nervous about my future of our country and had to be careful trending the Internet for a while.

Then in late July, Biden announces that he’s going to step down from the election for the sake of our own country and have our vice president go in his place instead. While this seems nice and all as we might finally have our first female president, I fear this will be a repeat of the 2016 Election as there’s a chance that the Republicans will find something that will hurt Harris’ chances of winning the election. Just like they (mostly) did with Clinton back in 2016, which made me lose both trust in our government and in social media!

Because of my fears of the upcoming election and the craziness that happened in the last few months, I decided to get off most of social media that I still follow. As of today, I’m going to stay away from Reddit as some of the subreddits I follow, can get a little political since most of the Redditors are Americans. It’s just no matter how many political subreddits and words I muted, the political stuff will find a way in my home feed and in the comment sections.

I’m also going to stay away from the Following section of my Home page on Tumblr as I fear of how the Tumblrinas will react if Trump wins again in November as Tumblr is very left-leaning in the political standing. Even if I only stay on the Your Tag section of my Home page (which I have been doing in the past few months), the political stuff will still find a way to get in. Same thing with the muted tags as it’ll show up in my feed as well. For that reason, I’ll stay on until two weeks before Election Day as I don’t want to take the risk.

I was originally going to stay away from Cohost as of today as well, as they’re very left-leaning too… But a few weeks ago, the site announced that they’re going to shut down at the end of the year and go read-only starting TOMORROW!!! Welp, that’s just one less thing to ditch, I guess...

I thought about making a Pillowfort account as they’re another Tumblr-like backup account in case the hellsite causes people to flee once again. But I decided to wait until AFTER Election Day (or the day they announce Harris as the winner) to make one since they’re also left-leaning as well.

I’ll still be here on Neocities as most of the sites I follow, tend to be mostly political-free. But I don’t know what it’ll be like come Election Day as most of the people here are left-leaning, Americans and are member of the LGBT community. So, I too fear what their reactions will be if Trump wins again in November. Because of my fear, I might stay away from my Home (and the Activity) feed on Neocities, a few days before Election Day for my safety.

Once again, there’s a chance that things might be fine at the end and that it’s my anxiety playing tricks on me. But I don’t want to risk that. And plus, I have been spending too much of my free time on Reddit lately, which is not a good thing. Maybe taking a break from Reddit (and most of social media) will be a good thing for my mental health.

Maybe while I stay away from most of my social media accounts that I have left, I might actually do something about my video game backlog, since I have so much free time in my hand. Or maybe catch up my anime, some of the movies that wanted to watch or even work on some of my pages here! Anything to keep me away from reading the doom and gloom of our future on social media and whatever nonsense Trump and his Republicans cronies have to say.

But I hope to God, Trump loses a second time and disappear forever as I don’t want to do this again in 2028! I don’t know what would happen if he wins again! I don’t want to see the destruction of our country and my family rights being taken away as we’re not white and my widowed mother (the civilian contractor that I mention above) is the breadwinner in our house. I’m fucking scared for not only for everyone’s future, but also mines and my families’!

I’m scared…very scared.