“The last comparison example can make you sick”

Tips: Unlike most of your peers, you have been living without Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, etc. for three years. How did that happen?

Thank you Pfeiffer: I’ve never been a big fan of social media, but during Corona and the first lockdown, I downloaded the platforms to be able to stay in touch with my friends better. At first, I liked learning so much about others and being connected. But with each passing month, I noticed negative changes in myself.

Tips: Which ones were they?

Pfeiffer: I felt that I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with myself. Puberty is a time of a lot of self-doubt anyway, but the constant comparison with others was dragging me down and wearing me down more and more. Other people were constantly experiencing much more amazing things than me – or at least that’s how it seemed to me at the time. You’re always confronted with pictures in which other people look incredibly great, slim and apparently in a good mood. I thought to myself: What’s wrong with me? Why am I not like the others? Basically, I’ve always been able to accept myself just the way I was, but social media platforms caused a lot of things to go wrong for me. I noticed a negative spiral starting to spin, which was dragging me down more and more.

Tips: How did you manage to press the stop button?

Pfeiffer: The constant comparison and the pressure to post something great was wearing me down. I reached a point where I only saw myself with critical eyes. I also realized that social media is a huge time-waster. Before, I had been very creative. I had painted, written and taken a lot of photos. I had completely neglected all of these hobbies. I realized that I could only get back to my old self if I deleted all the social media on my phone and that’s what I did.

Tips: How did the others react?

Pfeiffer: Fortunately, I only received respect and recognition for this decision. Many people told me that they admired my decision, but that they didn’t have the strength to do it themselves. “The fear of missing out” – the fear of not belonging should not be underestimated. On the first day, I actually felt a certain emptiness because I hadn’t heard anything from other people and was worried that I would become an outsider. But that passed very, very quickly. I used the time I gained for my hobbies and real social contacts and became much happier with myself again. I have now been living without Instagram and the like for three years and am still very happy with this decision. Of course, you have to actively approach others in order not to lose touch. You have to call people yourself, arrange meetings or find out what’s new. But the quality of these “real” contacts is much better and more honest than the world that is often presented to you on social media.

Tips: Is there anything you still missed about social media?

Pfeiffer: Nothing really. But sometimes, when I take nice photos, I think to myself: I’d like to show these to other people. But then I send the photos to friends on WhatsApp. The direct feedback I get is usually much more sincere than a knee-jerk like.