Many people need to feel part of a social circle in order to be happy. Many if not most of those members of our social circle are going to be friends merely out

Many people need to feel part of a social circle in order to be happy. Many if not most of those members of our social circle are going to be friends merely out of convenience or inertia, but that is an unpleasant fact that we avoid thinking about directly. Leaving social media can be traumatic because you are suddenly brought face to face with the fact that many relationships in your life are a bit of a lie – people don’t really care about you all that much. And sure, you are left with a handful of “real friends” who are still willing to engage with you even though you are now the weirdo of the bunch who doesn’t use social media, but still. I sometimes wonder if the psychological toll of continuing to use social media is less than that of quitting social media.