How To Break Free From Social Media’s Grip
Ever go onto Youtube, or Twitter, and wonder why you always see the same ads, the same type of trending issues? It’s because social media is meant to keep you using. Almost like a drug. Algorithms are set up to recommend and trend the topics and information that’s most likely to get you to click. Most likely to get you to respond. Once these companies have your algorithms and patterns down, you’re locked in.
Social media was designed to hold your attention, gain data, and advertise to you. That’s their business model. An entire 60 minutes segment on “Brain Hacking” exposed how social media uses punishment/reward dynamics to keep you hooked. A like here, a retweet there… all just to give you a dopamine rush. That dopamine rush, keeps you coming back. This is in addition to the ad targeting, and related content serving.
When you don’t receive that dopamine rush, you become sad, anxious. They manipulate your moods.to get you to use social media more, and for longer periods of time. It’s that simple.
If you’ve noticed a dip in productivity, how much time you’re wasting. If you’re sad…depressed and you think social media is contributing to it (after HONEST reflection) and you want to tackle this head-on, pay attention.
Delete The Apps From Your Phone First
This is the 1st and most important step. In idle time, whether you’re commuting, or on line at the grocery store, there is a tendency to reach for that phone and go on social media and scroll. Deleting these apps off your phone will stop that. At least the social media portion. Texting and chatting in all likelihood will continue. But the social media manipulation aspect can end.
Depending on how many apps you have, start off with one, then move to the next one. It’s important to delete these apps because these apps not only mine data from your use of the app but of from your general phone use. So some go cold turkey, some gradually do it. You know yourself, do it in the way that works best for you. Deleting these apps from your phone will save you a lot of time and emotional energy. Reserve social media use for desktop or laptop use.
Get Brave
Brave is revolutionary. Brave is a browser geared towards privacy and paying content creators via Cryptocurrency. One of the best things about Brave is the features that provide privacy to its users.
Once you delete your apps (or not)… login to your social media accounts via the Brave browser. Let me share why. Those cookies, algorithms, and so on… are all blocked on Brave. In other words, you will not be fed ads based on what you browse, your recommendations will not echo your searches. So you won’t necessarily get sucked in by a steady stream of tailored content. This leaves you freer to disconnect. If you watch one video on woodworking and youtube recommends cat videos, it’s less likely you will watch vs more woodworking videos. The goal is to not get sucked into the vortex!!
In a nutshell, the algorithms will not be following you and tracking every last one of your online movements with Brave.
Download it and try it. It’s worth it.
Conclusion
These two steps aren’t really about quitting social media altogether. More about breaking the parts of it that suck people in for long periods of time… thus causing anxiety, wasting time. These two steps have helped be tremendously. Also, just something to note, if you download Brave you earn $5 in their cryptocurrency called BAT, for free. Just for trying it out. It’s a WIN-WIN situation.
Breaking this grip will free you up to accomplish more goals, and help your emotional health. Get started A.S.A.P. … don’t waste any more time.
