I am addicted to social media
I spent at least 30 minutes on Reddit yesterday and can only remember two posts. That’s when it hit me that I have a problem. I’m a social media junkie, and it sucks.
It’s the ease of scrolling and the constant stream of seemingly interesting content that is messing with my brain. It somehow feels good, but it’s superficial and, if we are honest, mostly so stupid that nothing really sticks. Probably because it completely lacks substance.
Social media was once friends sharing stuff, but friends are mostly gone. Now it’s the engagement algorithms running an endless scroll of “content” that it’s so irrelevant we don’t remember 95% of it. Compare this to a movie or a book.
A movie or book stays with you for days, weeks, or months. Social media feeds deliver nothing but an occasional “ha ha” or share button click and then, seconds later, vanish from memory.
True, I often found something useful for my newsletter, but does it really make sense to spend 2h or 3h per day looking for those 5 potentially inspiring discussions or links and fry my brain in the process?
The worst part was that I started rewarding myself with social media during my breaks. Even worse, I often caught myself browsing while eating instead of enjoying the food I just prepared. Wow, wtf.
I tried many things.
App usage limitations of 15 min didn’t work because the extension is trivially easy, and as an addict, I didn’t mind pushing the button. An accountability group also only worked for a couple of weeks. Physically removing my phone partially worked, but I often need it for work.
The algorithm defeated every single thing I tried.
The only thing that worked was to delete the algorithm from my phone. I did it years ago with Facebook, a couple of months ago with Twitter and now with Reddit. It works, but it’s like a nicotine addiction. You stop missing it in general, but there is this little algorithm monster which is always there, encouraging you to scroll a bit… just for 5 minutes. And five minutes always turn into 20, because algotime runs faster.
I am now a recovering addict, trying to replace the dopamine hit with something more meaningful, like books or touching grass. Or just by sitting there being bored, because it feels good.
My main worry was that my curation profession would suffer. But since I deleted Twitter, not a single subscriber told me: hey, I really miss the links to Twitter you used to have.
So long, algo! Hope to barely see you again.
Useful resources:
- You need to be bored, a video.
- Four Thousand Weeks, a book.
- Social media and dopamine, a Google search.
- Social media is in decline, Instagram.
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