Digital Compulsion and Mental Poverty
Three Point Essay #16 | Screen Time, Social Media, and Digital Era Weakness
Here’s a three-pointer to open your mind.
The mission of “Three Pointers” & about the author here
Too Much Screen Use Is Destroying Your Brain
Simply put, humans are not wired to be constantly wired.
―Cal Newport
That hellish noise: your morning alarm.
Laying in bed, you open your buzzing phone. The bright screen assaults your eyes. Squinting, you upload 49 notifications into your mind:
10 from Instagram
5 from twitter
8 from Tik Tok
6 emails
5 snapchats
You check them all. Then the emotional rollercoaster:
Anger from a dumb Tweet
FOMO from videos of friends partying
Confusion from group chat messages
Jealousy from Instagram
Anxiety from professor emails
All this before even getting out of fucking bed. First thing in the morning.
The sad thing is, this is how many people start their day. I used to lay in bed scrolling away like a sicko myself.
Until I started different morning habits:
Drink water
Take a cold shower
Get some morning sunlight
Drink more water
Exercise and/or do focused work for 60-90 minutes
(Before going on phone or social media).
If you win the morning like this you’ll see:
How much clearer you think
How much calmer you become
How much better you can focus on any given task
Guaranteed.
Social Media Is Making People Sick
If we were to look at ourselves through the lens of an experiment—like we would an animal experiment—we’d think that animal is sick. If you saw a dog digging in the corner looking, looking, looking, for a bone, pausing for a moment, then doing it over and over, we’d think it’s really sad. But that’s us.
—Andrew Huberman
(Referring to obsessive-compulsive social media scrolling)
This quote from neuroscientist Andrew Huberman is a powerful visual.
Human beings have been evolving for millions of years.
iPhones, social media, and the internet however, have been around for less than 50 years.
We did not evolve having all the worlds emergencies pumped into our minds every moment of every day, as we now do.
Excessive scrolling on social media is an avalanche of unrelated, negative, or misleading stimuli.
Most people consume an overload of this type of information that they can’t process or make any sense of. This leads to anxiety and overwhelm (and stupidity).
Doing this is also cutting away at your attention span. Your addiction to it stops you from being able to focus on anything for an extended period of time.
It’s not to say you shouldn’t use these digital technologies. That would be foolish.
Social media is an amazing tool. To connect with people. To develop personal brands. To create online businesses.
But it’s a bad place to spend a lot of attention. And if it’s where you consume all your information, God help us. You’re a threat to society. You deserve a slap in the face.
This is why I only go on social medias 3 or 4 times a day. To post. To answer direct messages. To promote this newsletter.
Anything more than that is not a good use of your attention. Attention you could use on productive work.
Or on quality long-form content: good books and podcasts about increasing health, wealth, and happiness.
Digital Era Weakness
The modern mind is overstimulated and the modern body is under-stimulated and overfed. Meditation, exercise, and fasting restore an ancient balance.
—Naval Ravikant
Our ancestors were in a struggle to not starve. Food, resources, and information were scarce.
Today we’re in a struggle to not be addicts. Food, resources, and information are plentiful.
It’s causing diseases of abundance as Naval calls it:
Why wait to eat until dinner when you can chow ding dongs right now too?
Why play real sports when you can create a virtual athlete on Xbox and play as him all night?
Why go out and talk to women when there is infinite porn on the internet?
All these ways of living are of course flawed. And destructive. Avoid them at all costs.
Instead, get in touch with the ancient human whose DNA is still carved into you.
Channel your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather. Who was in a constant struggle to survive and thrive.
Who woke up hungry needing to work hard to eat. Who had to be a fierce athlete. Who had to become as strong and competent as possible to attract a mate.
Be that guy.
Don’t be the fat, weak, lazy, over-indulged, modern screen slave.
Couldn’t agree more! I’ll be sharing.
Great advice!