One metaphor everyone needs to hear...

[marius84]

your next book needs to be a collection of advice for your stepson

Good Idea!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

No exceptions or anything

The exception would be if you need to learn something specific.

Very much like my approach with books -- I seek out non-fiction books to solve problems I'm having.

your next book needs to be a collection of advice for your stepson

All of this advice is already found in the 3 books I've written. Writing such a book would likely be met with "he just rewrote TMF and named it differently" which already people like to say, even though all 3 of my books are very much different from each other, just enforcing the same philosophies.

 

[DW85014]

Lots of extremist, black-white and my-way-or-no-way views here, so here's a bit of unpopular and unconventional personal opinion: do whatever helps you and works for you.

Everything in the world should, including all the posts here and mine, should be analyzed by the reader (you, in this case) after reading and not following blindly. A lot of people seem to lack that underlying, most basic "meta" layer of thought that permeates all opinions and views.

Just because you admire someone or an idol, doesn't mean you need to follow everything they say. Many times, you'll find that you agree 80% and disagree with the other 20%. Example: I admire MJ's thoughts but I disagree with his vegan food choice, for example.

The key is to develop critical/abstract thinking skills. It's reported everywhere that Warren Buffett eats lots of fast food even in his 90s and drinks lots of coke. Assuming this is true, shouldn't his admirers adopt his habits?

If YouTube helps you, or watching a bit of YouTube energizes you to work on your fastlane project, why not?

There may soon be threads about how going full monk mode (aka abstaining from sex, meat and all forms of worldly pleasures including contact with human society and wealth) is good for your mindset in the fastlane journey.

There are people who can do intensive work for 23.5 hrs a day nonstop and never get tired. Can you? If you can't, then you should mix and match from various sources that works for you, and make that YOUR OWN.

Great points - I 80% agree!

 

[biophase]

Very good points! My problem with Youtube is that I feel like I am missing something if I quit completely.

For example, I discovered the Fastlane series of books from a YouTube video. Starting reading happened ironically from YouTube videos talking about books that I was like, "These are so cool to read!". I started with one and I have read around 20 this year. Quitting smoking the same. Six years ago, I read Allen Carrs' book after reading a YouTube comment (I did not buy the book I pirated it). Quitting alcohol was the same, I saw the short video of
Nikki Glaser talking about it and then I bought another book and I was done. Losing weight well the friggin same! Binged Biolayne's, Jeff Nippards, and Greg Douchette's content bought some of Greg's books, the very cheap ones, and boom after a year and a half still consistent at the gym and 30 kilos (66lbs) off the scale.

So are you saying that you may be missing out on personal development and growth videos and educational content? If this is the case, I'd ask you to look at your youtube history and see how many "educational" videos you watch vs. pure entertainment videos and let us know the answer. Is it 10:1, 5:1, 1:1 or 1:10 or 1:50?

Are you kidding yourself?

FYI, I just checked mine for the last 20. Mine was 0:20 lol.
1 music video
2 on animals
10 on baseball
2 on crime
2 on basketball
3 on houses
Total minutes was about 110. Now I didn't watch many of them all the way through, but it was probably at least an hour of my time.

 

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[TeeJay_]

Very good points! My problem with Youtube is that I feel like I am missing something if I quit completely. With alcohol and cigarettes, I never had FOMO.

And the struggle is real! YouTube has had a good impact on my life along with being a huge distraction!
For example, I discovered the Fastlane series of books from a YouTube video. Starting reading happened ironically from YouTube videos talking about books that I was like, "These are so cool to read!". I started with one and I have read around 20 this year. Quitting smoking the same. Six years ago, I read Allen Carrs' book after reading a YouTube comment (I did not buy the book I pirated it). Quitting alcohol was the same, I saw the short video of
Nikki Glaser talking about it and then I bought another book and I was done. Losing weight well the friggin same! Binged Biolayne's, Jeff Nippards, and Greg Douchette's content bought some of Greg's books, the very cheap ones, and boom after a year and a half still consistent at the gym and 30 kilos (66lbs) off the scale.

It is a love-hate relationship for me with YouTube.

I am a big fan of YouTube, probably my most visited website. What I started to do is eliminate all my subscriptions of non-educational stuff. Anything that is just pure entertainment is removed. I'm only keeping channels where you learn about tutorials (web, marketing), and podcasts about business, psychology. These are videos that I could even only listen with my wireless headphones while I'm doing something else, like last week when I did minor renovations in my home for a couple of hours.

 

[Panos Daras]

So are you saying that you may be missing out on personal development and growth videos and educational content? If this is the case, I'd ask you to look at your youtube history and see how many "educational" videos you watch vs. pure entertainment videos and let us know the answer. Is it 10:1, 5:1, 1:1 or 1:10 or 1:50?

Are you kidding yourself?

FYI, I just checked mine for the last 20. Mine was 0:20 lol.
1 music video
2 on animals
10 on baseball
2 on crime
2 on basketball
3 on houses
Total minutes was about 110. Now I didn't watch many of them all the way through, but it was probably at least an hour of my time.

I checked! 50% stuff related to business eg Marketing Strategies, and Social Media Marketing, 20% bullshit eg Pathfinder RPG scheches and GM tips, 30% how-to's for my garden project, and how to fix stuff for my house that is falling apart.

 

[Mballa Fred]

From the Fastlane newsletter being sent out today...
Highly relevant to this thread about shutting down social media.

-------

My stepson never cared about financial freedom or wealth until he started getting up at 6AM and working Monday through Friday. Now all of a sudden, he's interested in his step-dad's advice.

After several conversations and strategy pow-wows, he's devised a Fastlane plan. This is a great start.

However, there's one big problem, a problem that will likely prevent him from succeeding: He's addicted to social media. He wastes countless hours scrolling content on YouTube and Instagram.

He fails to see this as an issue, making the problem worse. He fails to recognize his addiction. He fails to recognize what this is doing to his brain, his motivation, and his goals. And when you add up his full-time job, his commitment to the gym, and his social media addiction, there's no time left for his Fastlane plans.

If nothing changes, he will remain hog-tied to a job he hates, clutching on the ubiquitous excuse of "I don't have time!"

Actually, as I remind him, he does have time. But social media is more important. Whenever I see him lost in a social media binge, I tell him, "That's not going to make you rich," and he realizes just how much time he's wasted.

As I've been saying for years, your actions express your priorities.

You might say, "I want to get rich," but your actions say, "I want to be comfortably entertained, outraged, or humored." You might say you want to lose weight, but that tub of ice cream in your freezer says otherwise.

Priorities get your time.

If mindless social media scrolling is your priority, you will never succeed. Let me repeat: You will never succeed.

A highly-discussed thread at the forum, "Young fastlaners: Shut-Down All Social Media," advocates abandoning social media.

I totally agree, but only from a consumer perspective.

Social media is a tool. For your business, it is incredibly powerful in reaching an audience. For your life, it is addictively destructive, purposely designed to steal your attention, hack your dopamine system, and keep you enslaved to the platform. You are being manipulated.

Katherine Boyle, a tech executive at Andreessen Horowitz, said it best:

We are in a full-contact, all-out war with forces competing for control of our minds. Not just attention but control... this may seem like a consensus opinion, but in practice, eradicating these forces from one's life is a daily battle that requires contrarian actions, not just belief.1

Whenever I visit Twitter to post content, I notice I get stuck in the scroll loop for a few minutes and leave with higher anxiety, anger, and stress. Countless studies show that social media influences anti-success in the form of anxiety, depression, and intense feelings of FOMO. Some studies even suggest that it fosters suicidal feelings. And this negative baggage doesn't even account for lost time!

This brings me to the metaphor everyone-- including you-- needs to hear regarding social media...

A drug kingpin who sells heroin to his addicts doesn't snort his product. He is the producer and lives in a mansion with a Rolls Royce parked on the driveway. You are the consumer and live in a trailer with a Honda parked on the gravel.

The social media kingpins are engineering their product for addiction, stickiness, and agenda. You are the product.

In the last 20 years, I've met many successful people. And you know what? I don't know any of them who are rolling through Instagram and TikTok 3 hours a day. They only use these platforms to serve their business purposes, not their entertainment vices. In other words, the guy with 2 million YouTube subscribers isn't spending hours swiping through social media; they're spending hours creating content for the swipers.

I'll leave you with another metaphor.

Social media is a hammer. You can use it to build a great business that will set you free, or you can use it to bludgeon your brain into mediocrity and submission.

The choice is yours.

Sources:
1. Modern Meditations: Katherine Boyle | The Generalist
2. Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on social media: the impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body Image, 13, 38-45.Link: Redirecting
2. Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among U.S. young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1-9.Link: Redirecting
3. Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. (2018). Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 3-17.Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376
4. Woods, H. C., & Scott, H. (2016). #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Journal of Adolescence, 51, 41-49. Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008
5. Kross, E., Verduyn, P., Demiralp, E., Park, J., Lee, D. S., Lin, N., Shablack, H., Jonides, J., & Ybarra, O. (2013). Facebook use predicts declines in subjective well-being in young adults. PloS One, 8(8), e69841. Link: Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults

Really interesting. Thank you

 

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[DW85014]

From the Fastlane newsletter being sent out today...
Highly relevant to this thread about shutting down social media.

-------

My stepson never cared about financial freedom or wealth until he started getting up at 6AM and working Monday through Friday. Now all of a sudden, he's interested in his step-dad's advice.

After several conversations and strategy pow-wows, he's devised a Fastlane plan. This is a great start.

However, there's one big problem, a problem that will likely prevent him from succeeding: He's addicted to social media. He wastes countless hours scrolling content on YouTube and Instagram.

He fails to see this as an issue, making the problem worse. He fails to recognize his addiction. He fails to recognize what this is doing to his brain, his motivation, and his goals. And when you add up his full-time job, his commitment to the gym, and his social media addiction, there's no time left for his Fastlane plans.

If nothing changes, he will remain hog-tied to a job he hates, clutching on the ubiquitous excuse of "I don't have time!"

Actually, as I remind him, he does have time. But social media is more important. Whenever I see him lost in a social media binge, I tell him, "That's not going to make you rich," and he realizes just how much time he's wasted.

As I've been saying for years, your actions express your priorities.

You might say, "I want to get rich," but your actions say, "I want to be comfortably entertained, outraged, or humored." You might say you want to lose weight, but that tub of ice cream in your freezer says otherwise.

Priorities get your time.

If mindless social media scrolling is your priority, you will never succeed. Let me repeat: You will never succeed.

A highly-discussed thread at the forum, "Young fastlaners: Shut-Down All Social Media," advocates abandoning social media.

I totally agree, but only from a consumer perspective.

Social media is a tool. For your business, it is incredibly powerful in reaching an audience. For your life, it is addictively destructive, purposely designed to steal your attention, hack your dopamine system, and keep you enslaved to the platform. You are being manipulated.

Katherine Boyle, a tech executive at Andreessen Horowitz, said it best:

We are in a full-contact, all-out war with forces competing for control of our minds. Not just attention but control... this may seem like a consensus opinion, but in practice, eradicating these forces from one's life is a daily battle that requires contrarian actions, not just belief.1

Whenever I visit Twitter to post content, I notice I get stuck in the scroll loop for a few minutes and leave with higher anxiety, anger, and stress. Countless studies show that social media influences anti-success in the form of anxiety, depression, and intense feelings of FOMO. Some studies even suggest that it fosters suicidal feelings. And this negative baggage doesn't even account for lost time!

This brings me to the metaphor everyone-- including you-- needs to hear regarding social media...

A drug kingpin who sells heroin to his addicts doesn't snort his product. He is the producer and lives in a mansion with a Rolls Royce parked on the driveway. You are the consumer and live in a trailer with a Honda parked on the gravel.

The social media kingpins are engineering their product for addiction, stickiness, and agenda. You are the product.

In the last 20 years, I've met many successful people. And you know what? I don't know any of them who are rolling through Instagram and TikTok 3 hours a day. They only use these platforms to serve their business purposes, not their entertainment vices. In other words, the guy with 2 million YouTube subscribers isn't spending hours swiping through social media; they're spending hours creating content for the swipers.

I'll leave you with another metaphor.

Social media is a hammer. You can use it to build a great business that will set you free, or you can use it to bludgeon your brain into mediocrity and submission.

The choice is yours.

Sources:
1. Modern Meditations: Katherine Boyle | The Generalist
2. Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on social media: the impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body Image, 13, 38-45.Link: Redirecting
2. Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among U.S. young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1-9.Link: Redirecting
3. Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. (2018). Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 3-17.Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376
4. Woods, H. C., & Scott, H. (2016). #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Journal of Adolescence, 51, 41-49. Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008
5. Kross, E., Verduyn, P., Demiralp, E., Park, J., Lee, D. S., Lin, N., Shablack, H., Jonides, J., & Ybarra, O. (2013). Facebook use predicts declines in subjective well-being in young adults. PloS One, 8(8), e69841. Link: Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults

I get IG - But do you think focusing on educational or motivational Youtube (90% of what I watch) is problematic as well?

 

[theazizmoh_]

What process has worked for you guys to eliminate social media? I have removed Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube from my phone and this has made it easier to abstain while on the phone. My problem is that F*cking YouTube keeps creeping on me (it is my fault of course), and I end up spending way too much time on it. It is the only one that I use actually. I also tried apps like Cold Turkey but I just cannot abstain from opening the tab while on the computer. I spend around 1 - 3 hours a day on YouTube. What has worked for you? Do you have any actionable advice? (Please abstain from advice in the context of finding your why, working harder, don't be a pussy).

I actually successfully quit all social media consumption especially YouTube


Like you I'm addicted to youtube I would spend 3 hours a day on it, consuming bullshit shorts vids


From February 13th, I decided to quit YouTube consumption (except consciously watching some "how to" tutorials while taking notes on notion)


Now, I'm "YouTube free", I barely check out YouTube for entertainment purposes, literally have ZERO urge to open up youtube and start scrolling or binging


So, how I did it?


First off, I deleted the app from my phone, personally I don't have social media apps on my phone

If you're on PC just use the extensions, there's a particular extensions that I like, where you can blur out the Thumbnails and/or titles, so you don't get hooked it


However, naturally you'll get the urge to go to the app store/ Google play/ and install it again or turn off the extensions. I get it, it's hard to abstain from it

Well, the truth is there's no app/tool can help you with that.

So what's the solution?

The answer is stupid simple. Self-discipline (c'mon don't be a pussy)

For me for the first 10 days is hard, when i got to my 31st day of my "YouTube abstinence" I literally lost interest rolling on YouTube.

So here's my advice; instead having the urge to open up Yt, text one of you friends or open that book or just hangout on the forum

I hope it helps.

 

[Panos Daras]

I actually successfully quit all social media consumption especially YouTube


Like you I'm addicted to youtube I would spend 3 hours a day on it, consuming bullshit shorts vids


From February 13th, I decided to quit YouTube consumption (except consciously watching some "how to" tutorials while taking notes on notion)


Now, I'm "YouTube free", I barely check out YouTube for entertainment purposes, literally have ZERO urge to open up youtube and start scrolling or binging


So, how I did it?


First off, I deleted the app from my phone, personally I don't have social media apps on my phone

If you're on PC just use the extensions, there's a particular extensions that I like, where you can blur out the Thumbnails and/or titles, so you don't get hooked it


However, naturally you'll get the urge to go to the app store/ Google play/ and install it again or turn off the extensions. I get it, it's hard to abstain from it

Well, the truth is there's no app/tool can help you with that.

So what's the solution?

The answer is stupid simple. Self-discipline (c'mon don't be a pussy)

For me for the first 10 days is hard, when i got to my 31st day of my "YouTube abstinence" I literally lost interest rolling on YouTube.

So here's my advice; instead having the urge to open up Yt, text one of you friends or open that book or just hangout on the forum

I hope it helps.

Self-discipline is for those that don't know how to plan. Thanks for the Thumbnail blur. It does the job of helping me focus on topics I only want to watch about!

 

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[theazizmoh_]

Self-discipline is for those that don't know how to plan. Thanks for the Thumbnail blur. It does the job of helping me focus on topics I only want to watch about!

You got it!

 

[elkoun]

I just deleted Facebook and Instagram. It's the first action I take after reading something on the forum and feels good.

 

[andyhaus44]

If the product is free, you are the product

 

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[ChasingDream97]

What process has worked for you guys to eliminate social media? I have removed Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube from my phone and this has made it easier to abstain while on the phone. My problem is that F*cking YouTube keeps creeping on me (it is my fault of course), and I end up spending way too much time on it. It is the only one that I use actually. I also tried apps like Cold Turkey but I just cannot abstain from opening the tab while on the computer. I spend around 1 - 3 hours a day on YouTube. What has worked for you? Do you have any actionable advice? (Please abstain from advice in the context of finding your why, working harder, don't be a pussy).

The Human brain is incredibly lazy.
It will make a habit for anything no matter how mundane.

Change your habits by hacking your brain.
Learn what habit loops are and you can change anything in your life.

You should also ask yourself why you are more invested in YouTube than taking action towards something else.

 

[Chrisrod2597]

From the Fastlane newsletter being sent out today...
Highly relevant to this thread about shutting down social media.

-------

My stepson never cared about financial freedom or wealth until he started getting up at 6AM and working Monday through Friday. Now all of a sudden, he's interested in his step-dad's advice.

After several conversations and strategy pow-wows, he's devised a Fastlane plan. This is a great start.

However, there's one big problem, a problem that will likely prevent him from succeeding: He's addicted to social media. He wastes countless hours scrolling content on YouTube and Instagram.

He fails to see this as an issue, making the problem worse. He fails to recognize his addiction. He fails to recognize what this is doing to his brain, his motivation, and his goals. And when you add up his full-time job, his commitment to the gym, and his social media addiction, there's no time left for his Fastlane plans.

If nothing changes, he will remain hog-tied to a job he hates, clutching on the ubiquitous excuse of "I don't have time!"

Actually, as I remind him, he does have time. But social media is more important. Whenever I see him lost in a social media binge, I tell him, "That's not going to make you rich," and he realizes just how much time he's wasted.

As I've been saying for years, your actions express your priorities.

You might say, "I want to get rich," but your actions say, "I want to be comfortably entertained, outraged, or humored." You might say you want to lose weight, but that tub of ice cream in your freezer says otherwise.

Priorities get your time.

If mindless social media scrolling is your priority, you will never succeed. Let me repeat: You will never succeed.

A highly-discussed thread at the forum, "Young fastlaners: Shut-Down All Social Media," advocates abandoning social media.

I totally agree, but only from a consumer perspective.

Social media is a tool. For your business, it is incredibly powerful in reaching an audience. For your life, it is addictively destructive, purposely designed to steal your attention, hack your dopamine system, and keep you enslaved to the platform. You are being manipulated.

Katherine Boyle, a tech executive at Andreessen Horowitz, said it best:

We are in a full-contact, all-out war with forces competing for control of our minds. Not just attention but control... this may seem like a consensus opinion, but in practice, eradicating these forces from one's life is a daily battle that requires contrarian actions, not just belief.1

Whenever I visit Twitter to post content, I notice I get stuck in the scroll loop for a few minutes and leave with higher anxiety, anger, and stress. Countless studies show that social media influences anti-success in the form of anxiety, depression, and intense feelings of FOMO. Some studies even suggest that it fosters suicidal feelings. And this negative baggage doesn't even account for lost time!

This brings me to the metaphor everyone-- including you-- needs to hear regarding social media...

A drug kingpin who sells heroin to his addicts doesn't snort his product. He is the producer and lives in a mansion with a Rolls Royce parked on the driveway. You are the consumer and live in a trailer with a Honda parked on the gravel.

The social media kingpins are engineering their product for addiction, stickiness, and agenda. You are the product.

In the last 20 years, I've met many successful people. And you know what? I don't know any of them who are rolling through Instagram and TikTok 3 hours a day. They only use these platforms to serve their business purposes, not their entertainment vices. In other words, the guy with 2 million YouTube subscribers isn't spending hours swiping through social media; they're spending hours creating content for the swipers.

I'll leave you with another metaphor.

Social media is a hammer. You can use it to build a great business that will set you free, or you can use it to bludgeon your brain into mediocrity and submission.

The choice is yours.

Sources:
1. Modern Meditations: Katherine Boyle | The Generalist
2. Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on social media: the impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body Image, 13, 38-45.Link: Redirecting
2. Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among U.S. young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1-9.Link: Redirecting
3. Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. (2018). Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 3-17.Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376
4. Woods, H. C., & Scott, H. (2016). #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Journal of Adolescence, 51, 41-49. Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008
5. Kross, E., Verduyn, P., Demiralp, E., Park, J., Lee, D. S., Lin, N., Shablack, H., Jonides, J., & Ybarra, O. (2013). Facebook use predicts declines in subjective well-being in young adults. PloS One, 8(8), e69841. Link: Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults

I completely agree I recently deleted all of the apps except for facebook( since I’m using it for my digital marketing agency). It’s a complete waste of time and would distract me from what I have to do or even read. Thank you for typing a great thread about social media more people need to be aware of this sh**.

 

[DondisTreasures]

From the Fastlane newsletter being sent out today...
Highly relevant to this thread about shutting down social media.

-------

My stepson never cared about financial freedom or wealth until he started getting up at 6AM and working Monday through Friday. Now all of a sudden, he's interested in his step-dad's advice.

After several conversations and strategy pow-wows, he's devised a Fastlane plan. This is a great start.

However, there's one big problem, a problem that will likely prevent him from succeeding: He's addicted to social media. He wastes countless hours scrolling content on YouTube and Instagram.

He fails to see this as an issue, making the problem worse. He fails to recognize his addiction. He fails to recognize what this is doing to his brain, his motivation, and his goals. And when you add up his full-time job, his commitment to the gym, and his social media addiction, there's no time left for his Fastlane plans.

If nothing changes, he will remain hog-tied to a job he hates, clutching on the ubiquitous excuse of "I don't have time!"

Actually, as I remind him, he does have time. But social media is more important. Whenever I see him lost in a social media binge, I tell him, "That's not going to make you rich," and he realizes just how much time he's wasted.

As I've been saying for years, your actions express your priorities.

You might say, "I want to get rich," but your actions say, "I want to be comfortably entertained, outraged, or humored." You might say you want to lose weight, but that tub of ice cream in your freezer says otherwise.

Priorities get your time.

If mindless social media scrolling is your priority, you will never succeed. Let me repeat: You will never succeed.

A highly-discussed thread at the forum, "Young fastlaners: Shut-Down All Social Media," advocates abandoning social media.

I totally agree, but only from a consumer perspective.

Social media is a tool. For your business, it is incredibly powerful in reaching an audience. For your life, it is addictively destructive, purposely designed to steal your attention, hack your dopamine system, and keep you enslaved to the platform. You are being manipulated.

Katherine Boyle, a tech executive at Andreessen Horowitz, said it best:

We are in a full-contact, all-out war with forces competing for control of our minds. Not just attention but control... this may seem like a consensus opinion, but in practice, eradicating these forces from one's life is a daily battle that requires contrarian actions, not just belief.1

Whenever I visit Twitter to post content, I notice I get stuck in the scroll loop for a few minutes and leave with higher anxiety, anger, and stress. Countless studies show that social media influences anti-success in the form of anxiety, depression, and intense feelings of FOMO. Some studies even suggest that it fosters suicidal feelings. And this negative baggage doesn't even account for lost time!

This brings me to the metaphor everyone-- including you-- needs to hear regarding social media...

A drug kingpin who sells heroin to his addicts doesn't snort his product. He is the producer and lives in a mansion with a Rolls Royce parked on the driveway. You are the consumer and live in a trailer with a Honda parked on the gravel.

The social media kingpins are engineering their product for addiction, stickiness, and agenda. You are the product.

In the last 20 years, I've met many successful people. And you know what? I don't know any of them who are rolling through Instagram and TikTok 3 hours a day. They only use these platforms to serve their business purposes, not their entertainment vices. In other words, the guy with 2 million YouTube subscribers isn't spending hours swiping through social media; they're spending hours creating content for the swipers.

I'll leave you with another metaphor.

Social media is a hammer. You can use it to build a great business that will set you free, or you can use it to bludgeon your brain into mediocrity and submission.

The choice is yours.

Sources:
1. Modern Meditations: Katherine Boyle | The Generalist
2. Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on social media: the impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body Image, 13, 38-45.Link: Redirecting
2. Primack, B. A., Shensa, A., Escobar-Viera, C. G., Barrett, E. L., Sidani, J. E., Colditz, J. B., & James, A. E. (2017). Use of multiple social media platforms and symptoms of depression and anxiety: A nationally-representative study among U.S. young adults. Computers in Human Behavior, 69, 1-9.Link: Redirecting
3. Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. (2018). Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 3-17.Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376
4. Woods, H. C., & Scott, H. (2016). #Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem. Journal of Adolescence, 51, 41-49. Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008
5. Kross, E., Verduyn, P., Demiralp, E., Park, J., Lee, D. S., Lin, N., Shablack, H., Jonides, J., & Ybarra, O. (2013). Facebook use predicts declines in subjective well-being in young adults. PloS One, 8(8), e69841. Link: Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults

Thanks for posting this. I have heard it said that if you don’t know what the product is then YOU are the product.

 

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[Ayush6543]

How do we define our priorities? A couple of days ago, I lost a client, I felt really sad and because of that pain, I wasted two days playing video games and watching movies.

 

[CYRUS PR]

Deactivated my IG 2 years ago, best decision ever, my mental health is booming

 

[Kevin88660]

Deactivated my IG 2 years ago, best decision ever, my mental health is booming

I am still somewhat curious why most people find IG addictive. It is not a brag and genuinely I find it interesting why different people are addicted to different kinds of stuff.

In terms of addictiveness I would rate youtube as a 9, fastlane forum 7, and ig 0 for me.

IG literally keep updating me where my friends (mostly distant) went for dinner and their oversea trips.

 

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