Less Social Please

I have social media accounts, but I rarely check them. I won't delete them, because I enjoy the power of communication that they provide, and see them as necessary tools of the modern connected world.

I do regularly observe that many people, in most ways seemingly rational, seem to be completely obsessed with staring down at their phone and scrolling through the feed of their preferred social media site. They don't realize the extent to which they are addicted, or the extent to which this addiction hurts their lives.

There have been many news stories in the past few years about the dopamine rush (of a like, a comment, or a post) that cause this addiction, so I won't go into defending that it is a thing.

Distractions Are For Losers

Social Media is meant to distract you. It is made to extract every last ounce of your attention, because that attention is valuable when it is sold for advertising dollars.

Important Announcement: This attention, this time, is yours. You don't have to give it to them. You can keep it, and use it for yourself. To better your own life, and not theirs.

The question is, are you strong enough to fight? Can you break away from the distractions long enough to define your goals, your vision for your life and the life of those around you? Can you take a quiet moment to reflect on how you want your life to be, and what the small things that you need to do to live in harmony with ideas of your best self?

Zombie Mode

Thirty years ago, the plague on our collective intelligence was television. I remember when I was a kid, the TV was never off. It was constant. It seemed normal, and I think for most households it was.

Television was entertainment, a diversion from reality, and it was news, and information. For many, television was life.

While the age of network and cable TV has passed, now the diversion du jour seems to be a combination of social media and streaming entertainment. It's common to see people in social settings, instead of creating or maintaining fulfilling relationships with others, mindlessly scrolling on their mobile devices, unable to resist the pull of social media. It's normal to hear people talking about what show they just binge watched on their streaming platform of choice.

These behaviors show a lack of focus. If a you spend time reflecting on your values, and determine it is important that you invest time and energy into relationships with others, and then miss chances to focus on face to face interactions because you are busy inhaling social media, you are being a thoughtless zombie. As to not come across too harsh, "thoughtless" meaning that you are not thinking, just acting with no conscious thought. "Zombie" meaning that you eat human brains.

If you regularly find yourself checking social media while at work, and wonder why you didn't get that last raise or promotion, you're not thinking clearly. Being a valuable employee means creating value for your employer. It's hard to create value for anyone when you are distracted.

Learn Something

One thing I like to do when I find myself scrolling around in an unproductive manner is divert my attention to some internet destination that provides a learning opportunity. Some of my current favorites are:

These are technology focused, but usually have good intellectual content relating to other interesting subjects. Any content aggregator that is vote based (so you can scan to see if there is anything very popular based on number of votes) and smart (the voters are intelligent) in nature is a good bet.

As a musician, and a software/web builder, for the last few years I have been working on developing apps that help others learn, study, and practice music. Most recently, the latest version of GuitarThinker.com. shameless plug

Maybe the best thing to do though, is just turn off your connected device and read a book.

I hope this post has been inspiring or helpful to you.