The way Social Media F***s with your mind.

Foto de Monoar Rahman en Pexels

I just finished my healthy morning routine. As we are still in COVID-19 season and currently undergoing the third contagious wave (this sounds like the title for a book); this routine consists of the following:

1. Waking up to a very hot nice cup of coffee.
2. Early meditation (I’m skipping this one for today as I woke up very late).
3. Morning workout: I’m doing the 100 Pushup, Squat & Abs challenge adding up 1000 reps in a jumping rope.

After the revival workout, I follow it with a nice warm shower finished with a cold shower session (I’m trying to accomplish the Wim Hof (aka Jim Wolf) method of the cold shower, however, I haven’t read the complete article yet, and keep on skipping the youtube videos that explains the concept, as I am always fast-forwarding seeking for information, or getting bothered with ads). As I get dressed, I’m planning ahead my day, from answering an old email that has been due since last week to a couple of content creation ideas, sourcing some orders for my e-commerce, and maybe purchasing my so long-awaited mac.

So I turn on my old MacBook Air and after a good 30" seconds, I open Chrome and immediately type “Fac…” the famous social network opens in a sec and I start scrolling down. It´s been more than 5 minutes and I’m still scrolling down to find the next meme and save the next story, and this could go on for minutes or hours.

…I was excited, I was ready to rock my world and finally become that successful entrepreneur that I want to be…

however, out of the blue, I’m still scrolling down until, thanks to my old computer and my demanding RAM consuming tasks…. Facebook stops showing content as the computer gets stuck and stops scrolling down… and like a lightning bolt, it hits me… I close Facebook and start typing.

But how did this happened to me?

Well, It all starts with the newsfeed design. When you open any social network, the way you find information is so easy and simple, and practically anything can be shared, it gives you little pieces of information that will calm your appetite for cheap information.

Also, this newsfeed allows you to interact with the news, and be part of the conversation, and that way it gets you engaged, you like, share or comment to make a statement.

How it messes up with my mind.

It is very simple, as per my experience, Social Media releases small dosages of information, information that, is relevant to you as it is related to the people around you, and the people you follow. This micro-dosage of “relevant news” gets in your head and starts climbing into your “top of mind” and suddenly this news invades your vision and all you can think about is that video of the little girl singing to Selena, and yes there’s an article about it!

And all of the sudden, you start thinking of Selena, and forget what you were supposed to be doing…

And the inspiration fades away and my dream of becoming the next Bill Gates vanishes in the thin air.

Can you do something about it?

I believe yes if you have a strong mind, determination, and discipline, all you have to do is focusing that you can skip that nerve to be updated of things around the world… but you are most likely not, and that’s why you are reading this article, but, yeah, I got a solution for you, it is the 3 Step Social Media Recovery Action Plan.

The 3 Step Social Media Action Plan.

1. One. Right after you type Facebook, open another tab and type the App or Tool you are working on, or Ctrl+Tab your Word, Excel, or Outlook window. This will be the first attempt to warn you against your “weakness”.
2. The Second attempt will be this, you are going to be scrolling, and scrolling, out of a sudden your phone may ring, or vibrate, because, let’s admit it, we are addicts and we have all social networks in our smart something (smartwatch, smartphone, smart-tablet…) Well, you will get a notification, so right after that, you are going to stop and think…. does this really matter? Am I investing my time and life into something useful? I could be dead now and my obituary will read, “died while scrolling”… …This might get you back on track, but if not...
3. Number Tres, you failed to your commitment, you just failed to your self-respect, sorry mate, you are not going to be the next Elon Musk, and that’s okay. The world needs more people like you.

Now that I’m back on track I can continue finishing the work I was supposed to do… this post.

Enjoy.

Gracias.