We’ve all heard it before, social media is bad for you, or at least too much of it is. While we know this is true, it’s hard to want to completely disconnect yourself from social media. It’s something that keeps you in touch with your friends, family and for some of us, it’s an awesome creative outlet as well.
Lately, I’ve been so fed up with social media and the way it affects my daily life. With the rise of short form content in recent years, social media has become an extremely addictive and harmful place for me personally. In short, it makes me feel utterly horrible. I’m more tired, unproductive, antisocial and less creative the more time I spend rotting my brain on these apps. The question remains, why am I doing this to myself day in and day out? How is this REALLY affecting my life?
Short form content is truly dangerous for our minds and productivity. We are constantly stimulated, and because of this constant access to entertainment, we are truly never bored. Recently, I’ve learned how important boredom is for our naturally creative and analytical minds. Boredom allows for valuable thoughts, better ideas, and most importantly, productivity. In a study conducted by Timothy Wilson, a social psychologist, he and his colleagues from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville discovered just how much humans hate being bored. They recruited hundreds of volunteers to participate in a study where they were asked to sit alone in a room with nothing but a button that they could choose to push to shock themselves with. According to an article written by Nadia Whitehead from Science.org, 67% of men and 25% of women chose to literally shock themselves rather than sit with their own thoughts, bored.
This study might be extreme, but it really shows us how intensely we as people would rather do literally anything else than be bored. Even though this boredom may be excruciating at times, we are innately wired to find a way out of it. This is how I learned exactly how to be my most productive and powerful self. I limited my social media use to just Youtube, where I learn new skills and watch long form content that’s slightly less addicting for me, for about 2 weeks.
During this time, I accomplished so much and actually began practicing my hobbies again. Although it was hard to break away from my phone, I realized how much time there really is in a day, I just wasn’t utilizing it correctly.
While of course I still struggle everyday to minimize my social media use, I have now experienced the true value of getting off my phone and instead getting creative and being comfortable with being bored. Not all of us can completely escape social media. Whether it’s needed for a job or how people communicate with long distance loved ones, the important thing is that you are able to limit it.
A basic rule I use to hold myself accountable is what I call the 30-70 rule, saying that 30% of my time should be spent consuming, while 70% should be spent creating. I find it difficult to spend ALL of my time creating, because often inspiration comes from consuming as well. I find that this distribution of consuming versus creating is healthy for me, but it could look different for you. If needed, start by dividing your time 50-50. Then, gradually limit your consumption time as you personally see fit.
Look up, and experience the world how it was intended. See what you can truly accomplish without the extra noise and who you can be.