La Oficina

Welcome to our office, a place for content on lessons we've learned on our family journey.

We'll include topics on parenting, marriage, friendships, work, and more. 

Deleting Social Media

It wasn’t one single thing that brought this about. It was a series of events or observations in my newsfeed or daily interactions that planted the seeds. It was an article about Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. It was observing people I care about spend time on social media and absorbing content as if it is all reality, then measuring their own lives against it, only to be left feeling disillusioned by unrealistic expectations, or left wanting. It was observing people I care about believe everything they watched or read as if it were absolute truth, without taking the time to research. It was getting caught up in headlines or perspectives that made me feel despair, anxiety, anger, etc. over the entire world and feeling powerless to change anything. It was the feeling that there is no redemption for humanity, and the more I saw, the uglier it all looked. It was the countless hours spent scrolling. It was the endless list of things that could’ve been done and weren’t because, scrolling. It was not wanting my child to grow up with the image of her mother with her eyes glued to a screen instead of doing things with her. It was the thought of my own child not wanting to engage with me or the world around her, because her own eyes were glued to a screen. You can probably relate to any one, or many of these, most likely. The final nail on the coffin for us was Mark Zuckerberg’s views on the corporate world becoming more “culturally neutered” as companies are distancing themselves from “masculine energy” according to him (January 2025 interview on The Joe Rogan Experience). So here we are today.

El Dilema 

The night I read, and relayed the quote from Mark Z to Rafael, he instantly deleted Instagram. Facebook was already a thing of the past for us, so there was no issue there. I, on the other hand, was grappling with the implications of deleting the app. How would I keep up with the things my friends and family were doing across the country and internationally? How would I keep up with the growth of the kiddos I cared about? How would I spiral into fan theories of my favorite books? Review fan castings of said books? Laugh at the jokes about being a book girlie? How would I discover new places to eat and activities to try? Where would I get my inspo on kid stuff, and recipes, and mental well-being? Where would I see or consume the parenting content that made me feel seen and a little less lonely in the joys and struggles of being a parent?

In today’s world, I realize that living a life with some degree of necessary evil is inevitable, and it’s up to us to decide what we’re willing to live with. For this to be the hill that I decide to die on, might seem a bit extreme, but aside from the irreparable damage that unregulated social media is causing to our society, I think if a man wants to make a statement about needing more masculine energy in his workplace, he shouldn't stand to profit from female engagement on his platforms.

The Way Things Used to Be

So, what has this meant for us, and more specifically me, as I've written the first piece for La Oficina? Innumerable hours saved on scrolling and instead spent on being more present with the kids, increasing household productivity, learning new skills for building this website or improving my financial acumen, connecting with friends and family more intentionally, less anxiety over the state of the world, etc. This all sounds great, right? But at what cost? This change has meant missing out on the milestones that matter from friends and family spread out all over, being out of the loop on key news updates or local events to take my kids to, which has also meant spending more time researching local happenings, feeling less connected to some friends or family whom I would've engaged with in some capacity via DMs, comments, or stories, missing new book releases or what the book girlies are reading these days, etc. 

These are all truly champagne problems. We used to be able to function, engage, and connect with one another prior to social media. We did so before even the Internet blew up! But I will say, operating in the world in a way in which your family and friends do not, is challenging. What I've found is that embracing a life that's more similar to the way things were before social media, is not that simple, nor straightforward. Just because I'm willing to walk away from the way the world engages with itself, doesn't mean that my people are going to meet me there. With so many different things claiming a stake in people's time and attention, I'm learning that my time, effort, and intention will not, nor can it, always be reciprocated. And that's okay. I've learned that as long as I feel good about my own intentions and efforts, it's enough. It has to be. And at the very least, my people would know I think of them. I like believing this is a comforting thought when our society is also managing feelings of loneliness in this increasingly connected, disconnected world.

Pa’lante

If you’ve made it through this website, thank you for being here! Thank you for caring about what the Garcias are up to. Thank you for choosing to spend your time here, when you could be spending it on literally anything else. Whether your time here is mere curiosity, genuinely wanting to “catch up” with us, a little bit of both, etc., I hope you’ve enjoyed your time here. I hope that this added a little something to your day. I hope you were inspired in some small way. 

I don’t know what this will look like six months from now, a year, or beyond, but I do know that I’ve nourished my soul through this process in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t deleted social media altogether. Have I missed out? Yes. Have I gained anything? Also, yes, and then some. 

Missing out has been difficult, yes, but I’d also say that this has just presented a problem in my life that needs solving. And a problem that needs solving "smells like potential". 

Stay tuned 😉

Genuinely,

B. Garcia