they don't mention the culture shock
I left social media accounts behind a couple of years ago. I've experienced all the benefits the clickbait articles preach about - a better attention span, more time, less exposure to every bad event on God's green earth. Every day I am more validated in my decision, a trend I expect to continue. However, there is one side effect that's been a pain in my side ever since. 'Culture shock' seems like too strong a phrase, I can hardly compare my complaints to that of someone who has left their home country, but its the closest I can think of. Maybe it almost seems to fit because there is an online culture separate from any offline one, although those lines are getting ever blurrier.
I have all this now useless knowledge from my time in the online worlds, words and conventions that aren't used in reality. Hobbies I picked up from some niche internet group. Songs I heard in an algorithm instead of any social gathering or store. I have loved digging for shows and movies that no one has ever heard of except for some dedicated discord server - but when I come up for air all I have are plots and stories I can never reference.
Maybe part of my problem is the fact that my main social site had been tumblr. The reason I said I left accounts behind and not the entire concept of social media is because I can still browse tumblr blogs without a login and, on occasion and despite my best interests, I do. That website seems particularly insular, with evergreen memes that make the rounds each year and slang that doesn't quite breach containment. But aren't most internet groups (communities feels too warm a word) bubbles, to an extent? Doesn't every website with user input have documented conversations about the state of the website itself, the in-jokes, the discourse, the fights, and the memories? Perhaps it is good that so many of these larger websites use similar designs, built from research on human attention and not from artistic choices. I'd hate to have team colors.
Based on my year of birth I'm a digital native; the term never seems as apt as it does when I'm trying to spend more time in reality.