Social media, in general, is terrible for your mental and physical health.
It builds up an unimaginable vision of what you think you should be. Fill all your time with scrolling so you aren’t outside or, at minimum, doing something productive or active.
But I know stopping cold turkey on anything is really hard. I relapse into hard social media binges after taking a complete break or fall back into scrolling habits when I am feeling depressed or stressed.
So, instead of getting off all social media platforms, I vote for November to just go off YouTube.
I will be transparent: I hate YouTube policies or, should I say, the murky lists of undefined rules that make it so that my channel about throwing rocks with string gets shut down, but people can have bigger channels that promote hate and violence, and they get to keep their channels.
So fuck them.
But this is a helpful blog, not just a place for me to bitch. So, let’s loosely quote facts and reference books. Why else are we here if it isn’t for something actually useful?
The book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport states that social media companies are just that, companies, and they care about their bottle line. And that gets higher the more time you spend on their platform. They want you on there as long as possible.
He cites individuals who have gotten off social media and gotten promotions in their jobs. Had more hobbies and time with family and friends. If you ask me, it is becoming interesting people.
Have you ever hung out with someone who quotes videos and is otherwise on their phone? Are they interesting? No, they are boring as fuck.
Don’t be like them. Give yourself a break.
I have been requiring myself to stand in line recently, just stand there, no phone in hand, no earbuds, listening to a podcast. Just stand there and be. It is crazy how few people in their 30s and under will actually have their heads up and be able to make eye contact with me.
Cal also talks about processing time. The time when we have nothing going into our minds. Time for our brains to just be and think. He covers this topic fine, but I think Ryan Holiday covers it much better in his book “Stillness is the Key.”
For those that want the broad strokes ideas of this, here you go. Our minds need time to process and compute what we have seen, heard, and experienced throughout the day. If we don’t have that, our brains keep building it up and waiting for downtime.
The result is we get more anxious without knowing why. We have more depression. And we become easily distractable. This all comes from our brains not having time to think things out and settle.
If you have ever tried a brain dump journal, it is like that. Sometimes, you just need the ideas out of your mind so they no longer have to be held in your mind. Then you can start working on a strategy, knowing you don’t have to keep all of your other thoughts in your mind, too.
How can you integrate Stillness and Thinking time?
Sitting by yourself. Standing in crowds looking around. Commutes to work. All can be moments for you to think and clear your head. And once it is clear, you can do the tasks of your day much faster and with better results.
But if we keep filling our heads with social media feeds, it gets harder and harder to do that.
Great thinkers and Leaders of history had moments of deliberate silence and aloneness where they would walk with their thoughts. Abraham Lincoln had a house in the woods. Obama would walk the grounds of the White House in the quiet morning hours. Greek philosophers spent hours sitting and thinking before giving speeches to crowds of onlookers. And this is because we need time uninterrupted to get the most out of life.
There is a newer Non-profit I just found out about called NoSoNovember. They mainly focus on school-aged children. But they are a great place to start and look for new and up-to-date info of inspiration if you want to join a group to give social media the boot.
Let me know what you think about this and if you have had any experiences with low or no Social Media.
Peace out,
Til next time
Glenn Paskiewicz 