I swapped media habits with my dad for a week, here’s what I learnt
Words by Alexcea Apostolakis
“If I joined The Facebook, all of Google and Yahoo would crash.”
Firstly, let’s just establish this outright – my dad has absolutely no idea about social media. He has zero accounts, has never scrolled TikTok and words like ‘Threads’ and ‘Reels’ have only one meaning in his mind. In all honesty, I respect his integrity and dedication to the bit.
Since the conception of social media, my Greek father has been avid in his efforts to never join in. It was a very big deal when he finally made his own email address just last year, after bouncing between using my mum’s and my brother’s for anything that required an email address. (A tedious and sometimes awkward task.)
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I distinctly remember, during the early 2010s, my friends and Ι encouraging Dad to sign up to Facebook. I thought it would be a great way for him to connect with his friends and family in Greece. To this, he responded with a statement that went on to become an iconic family quote, still referenced to this day: “If I joined The Facebook, all of Google and Yahoo would crash.”
In total contrast, social media has been a big part of my daily life since probably 2009. I genuinely (and somewhat sadly) can’t remember a day when I haven’t used it. I would say I’m an ‘active’ user, I post regularly on Instagram and almost exclusively use DMs and Facebook Messenger to keep in contact with people. So much so, that I still don’t have some close friends’ phone numbers as a result. After some reflection, I decided I wanted to improve my relationship with social media and through it, my relationships more broadly. And so, for one week, I set out to swap media habits with my 58-year-old dad.
I knew going into this swap, the ‘no social media’ part would be the most challenging. However, it was also something I was looking forward to. I knew I’d fallen into some not-so-great social media habits, which had often resulted in chronic procrastination and doom-scrolling and most certainly contributed to my self-confidence issues. Disconnecting for a couple of days seemed like it could only be a good thing.
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In terms of other media consumption, like TV and print, my dad turns to two sources: the news and sports. He religiously watches the 6pm news and reads the newspaper every morning. In my standard day-to-day, I stay in the loop by consuming snippets of current affairs via social media platforms, or a few highlights on YouTube. Most of the time, I learn about what’s happening in the world through conversations with people.
Entertainment-wise, this man genuinely only watches sport and the odd Coronation Street episode with my mum. Weirdly, though, he’s somehow also tapped into online fan forums and can navigate these like a tech wizard, which if you’ve read this far, you can understand why this was a surprise to me.
Ahead of this article, when I called him to discuss his daily media routines, he explicitly emphasised the importance of logging into three local football club fan forums and actively contributing to and reading every post. Now after a week* of clocking into these forums, I know more about the sport from my hometown in New Zealand than I think anyone ever really needs to.
My saving grace this week has been that thankfully, my dad is an avid Spotify user. I listen to music constantly – whenever I leave the house, or have a moment to myself, there is something blaring in my headphones. For the challenge, I decided to exclusively listen to music from his playlists, which meant a lot of Greek pop and Six60.
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For someone I consider a technophobe, he’s actually always had good music gear, like Bose speakers and the latest iPods. I remember Dad always having an iPod and constantly updating these crazy playlists filled with a mix of Wyclef Jean, Phil Collins, Takis Karnavas and Eiffel 65. During this swap, I enjoyed reconnecting with the music I grew up listening to, and even discovering some new gems in his discography to sprinkle into my daily listening. Thanks, Dad!
Something I found weirdly daunting from our swap was the fact he calls people instead of texting. I’ve fallen into a habit of talking with my friends mostly through direct messages and to be honest, sometimes exclusively through memes or Reels sent back and forth to each other. I was nervous calling up friends or family on the phone instead of just messaging. After some practice that doubled as exposure therapy, I got over it and calling felt more intentional. It led to better conversations and made me feel even closer to my friends and family. Instead of frequent and sometimes mindless messaging throughout the day, I had one or two really nice phone calls and felt better for it.
After a week (okay I’ll admit it, I lasted four days) of this challenge, I can confirm I was left with a few valuable insights: 1. Cutting social media actually made me more social. 2. Reading the news every morning actually made me more informed. 3. People actually do like answering random phone calls (??).
As the world we live in now is more and more connected, it also means we’re more and more busy and, ultimately, disconnected from each other. There’s value in looking at how we currently use our devices and trying something different.
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Check out your community Facebook page, actually use the phone function to call your mates, and give your dad’s playlist a chance! It sounds super basic and maybe a little obvious, but the changes I made this week made a huge difference to my mental health and relationships with others.
I can’t promise to be as adamant as my dad when it comes to social media, but I think cutting down is something I’d like to try. Instead of scrolling first thing in the morning, maybe I’ll pick up a newspaper to read with my morning matcha.
* One week was the goal, four days was the reality.
For more about generational media habits, head here.
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