Because to not be online is to accept that you will be forgotten. This is the great, unspoken truth of our age. If you do not post, you do not exist.

I had spent so long performing myself online that without social media, I wasn’t sure how to measure my own existence. What is a life unposted? What are thoughts that no one else can hear? Who am I, if not a series of updates and images, strategically packaged for consumption?

At first, it was excruciating. The reflex to check, to post, to be seen was so deeply embedded that my hands kept reaching for my phone's app store like some desperate, lovesick Victorian heroine reaching for a lover who had long since stopped writing. Except my lover wasn’t a person, it was the feed . The infinite scroll, the algorithmic drip-feed... See more

This, I think, is why most people can’t quit. It’s not just about addiction to the dopamine rush of likes and shares. It’s about survival. Careers, friendships, even identities are built on the currency of online presence.