The Social Media Duality: Tool of Destruction? Or Growth?

[MJ DeMarco]

I'd like to reiterate that social media is a TOOL.

This thread advocates deleting social media.

GOLD! - HEALTH - Young fastlaners: SHUT DOWN ALL SOCIAL MEDIA

Important note: The internet is the most powerful communication tool in the history of mankind. All powerful tools are inherently dangerous and need to be used properly. There is a huge difference between using a tool, and being crushed by it. It all depends on how you use them. This thread...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

My agreement depends on how the tool is used.

You can use social media to hammer you over the head and make you stupid.
Or you can use it to hammer you a better life and a better business.

At the end of last year I've been having some hip problems which I am 99% sure is due to too much sitting; it dropped me to Healthcon4. This particular issue only flared up during my sleep so I was started to sleep poorly due to hip pain.

I spent nearly $1K on a chiropractor who did nothing to fix the problem.
I spent more $$ on massage.
I stretched daily the area.

Nothing really changed.

My wife started following a bunch of exercise physiologists, kiniseologists ,and physical therapists on IG. She sent me a bunch of stretching exercises as recommended by these people. I started doing the stretches 5-6X a week. Within one week, the problem was reduced in severity.

Today, the pain is virtually gone and I can once again, get a good nights rest. HealthCon5.

And the exercises exposed some really interesting mechanics in my body that likely have been caused by YEARS of sitting in a chair during work hours.

Social media solved these problems for me. And for FREE. Or I could have spent countless hours and dollars trying to find someone to help me, which was already proving fruitless.

Social media improved my health.

It didn't destroy it.

You decide how to use the tool.

 

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[biophase]

I'd like to reiterate that social media is a TOOL.

This thread advocates deleting social media.

GOLD! - HEALTH - Young fastlaners: SHUT DOWN ALL SOCIAL MEDIA

Important note: The internet is the most powerful communication tool in the history of mankind. All powerful tools are inherently dangerous and need to be used properly. There is a huge difference between using a tool, and being crushed by it. It all depends on how you use them. This thread...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

My agreement depends on how the tool is used.

You can use social media to hammer you over the head and make you stupid.
Or you can use it to hammer you a better life and a better business.

At the end of last year I've been having some hip problems which I am 99% sure is due to too much sitting; it dropped me to Healthcon4. This particular issue only flared up during my sleep so I was started to sleep poorly due to hip pain.

I spent nearly $1K on a chiropractor who did nothing to fix the problem.
I spent more $$ on massage.
I stretched daily the area.

Nothing really changed.

My wife started following a bunch of exercise physiologists, kiniseologists ,and physical therapists on IG. She sent me a bunch of stretching exercises as recommended by these people. I started doing the stretches 5-6X a week. Within one week, the problem was reduced in severity.

Today, the pain is virtually gone and I can once again, get a good nights rest. HealthCon5.

And the exercises exposed some really interesting mechanics in my body that likely have been caused by YEARS of sitting in a chair during work hours.

Social media solved these problems for me. And for FREE. Or I could have spent countless hours and dollars trying to find someone to help me, which was already proving fruitless.

Social media improved my health.

It didn't destroy it.

You decide how to use the tool.

Btw this is where the youtube algorithm shines!

If you have back pain and watch one video, you will start to get recommended videos on other parts of your body or other possible reasons that your back hurts. You will learn names of random tiny muscles you never knew you had and stretches for just that one muscle.

My back has always had a strain which I could never figure out. Turns out it was my QL, the quadratus lumborum.

 

[heavy_industry]

What I failed to mention in that thread is the fact that YouTube changed my life, and to this day I believe it is one of the best websites to ever exist on the internet.

You can use it to get a world-class education on almost any topic you can imagine, or you can encounter some life-changing ideas or concepts that wouldn't have otherwise been available to you.

Youtube is how I found out about MJ.

---

Other social media platforms could still be very useful if you're smart about it (marketing your business / keeping in touch with your friends), but that is not what is happening in 9/10 cases.

For those that are addicted to social media - most of the users - the day is spent in agony, glued to the screen, watching bullshit, and scrolling down into the abyss.

This (demonstrably) leads to suffering, illness, and cognitive impairment. The young generation is the most vulnerable to this effect, and the consequences are already here: no focus, no motivation, inability to delay gratification etc.

They are unable to stop and are tormented by their habits. This is the textbook definition of process addiction.

---

When handling a tool - any tool - you can either be the master of it... or you can be the victim of it.

If you know how to drive well, you will have a wonderful experience. If not, you will wrap the car around the nearest tree and die.

Same with using a hammer.

Same with money.

Same with social media.

There is no middle ground. You are either the master or the slave.

 

[perchboy]

I think social media is absolutely great

I have met some great friends, dated some girls from there, networked with other business owners, got offered a sales job, and even was pitched some joint ventures.

Just like anything, it can be positive or negative depending on who is using it. Obviously downloading TikTok to watch stupid dance videos is a waste of time and mental energy but it is a gold mine if you use the app intentionally.

Note: All the pros I’ve gotten from social media has come from posting content and reaching out to people. Be a producer, not a consumer.

 

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[Two Dog]

I'd like to reiterate that social media is a TOOL.

This thread advocates deleting social media.

My agreement depends on how the tool is used.

Social media improved my health.

It didn't destroy it.

You decide how to use the tool.

@MJ DeMarco Agree 100% despite still waiting for my own miracle cure. Standing desk for you??

@biophase Unfortunately, it goes both ways. YT recommends by popularity, not results.

MJ is fortunate in that IG delivered actionable advice that quickly resolved the problem. My version with chronic back pain is ten years, $50K+, countless hours of everything imaginable and reluctantly turning to the internets for more advice. Not that I don't think the answer is somewhere out there. I'm still vaguely hopeful about that, but picking the right fortune teller out of all the endless self-promoting BS is complete guesswork. Everything from a ten dollar ebook to $15K surgical procedure is equally suspect nowadays.

That's actually one of the AI use cases I'd pay serious $$$ to have. Something that both filters the BS from social media according to my own criteria that it learns by watching me along with somehow vetting my news feeds for believability. Something like a spam filter on steroids.

 

[biophase]

@biophase Unfortunately, it goes both ways. YT recommends by popularity, not results.

I don't think this is the case if you dig deep enough. The first say 10-20 videos will be what you searched for and what others have clicked on. But you click around long enough and some rare hardly viewed videos will eventually pop up. You will also start to get college lectures and presented papers.

What I like about youtube in this regard is that it kind of starts to throw everything at you to make you click and stay watching. And that's what will open you up to new medicine jargon which will cause you to go down more rabbit holes.

My version with chronic back pain is ten years, $50K+, countless hours of everything imaginable and reluctantly turning to the internets for more advice. Not that I don't think the answer is somewhere out there.

This is exactly why you have to look. If you think the answer is out there, it could be that you just don't know what to search for. But I'm telling you, you will literally find another person with the exact same issue as you.

For me, this guy was at a chiropractor in some small town and saying, I got this pain back here, but it feels like this and only hurts when I do this and I can't seem to ever get pressure to it. I was literally watching like, holy crap, that's me... I hope the chiro fixes it in this video!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

 

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