“The secret of a full life is to live and relate to others as if they might not be there tomorrow, as if you might not be there tomorrow,” the writer Anais Nin said. “This feeling has become a rarity, and rarer every day now that we have reached a hastier and more superficial rhythm, now that we believe we are in touch with a greater amount of people. This is the illusion which might cheat us of being in touch deeply with the one breathing next to us.”

From “I Used to Fear Being a Nobody. Then I Left Social Media.” by Bianca Vivion Brooks.

In one sense we’re more connected than ever. Social media allows us to connect instantly to other minds all over the world. But social media has been engineered to be addictive, so we end up spending increasing amounts of time using it.

This extra time that we’re spending on social media is time we’re not spending socialising with people in real life. Humans are social animals, but socialising digitally doesn’t compare to the real-world equivalent.