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Three Point Essay
That buzzing duh-duh-duh of the alarm sounds. You roll over and adjust your heavy eye-lids to the screen. As your foggy vision clears, you go to check social media “real quick.”
“Chat GPT is a free university. Use these 27 prompts or you shall to be condemned to everlasting fire.” a Tweet screams at you. Overwhelmed, you swipe out and tap on the Instagram icon. You see all the people who are pretending to be happy. You do a nice little comparison to their lives (even though they themselves are miserable) and feel a twinge of sadness.
Like a zombie you continue consuming, in a trance of sorts, wondering why you’re not somewhere else, with someone else, doing something else. You put yourself through this subtle form of torture every day. You sell your most valuable resources—your time and attention—for little in return.
Meanwhile you neglect the real world. You don’t touch grass. You skip workouts. And whenever you sit down to work, you struggle to focus. And now Instagram threads dropped, so you go for a real quick check…
Considering some people actually use their attention in this way, it’s unsurprising the number of teens who “don’t enjoy life” has doubled since the rise of social media. Problematic social media use is associated with loneliness, decreased self-esteem, increased impulsivity, and decreased life satisfaction.
Social media is an awesome tool.1 I use it every day. But I view going on it like running into a burning building. Do the essentials and get out. Save the baby and get out. Post the video and get out. Fast. Before your brain sets on fire. One log in a day is ideal. Three is like, ah, ok, but chill. Twenty-nine is like, maybe you belong in federal prison? If you’re not using these platforms to create content or build a business, or connect with people, then what the hell are you doing? Sure, you get to see the cool content and businesses, but in excess this becomes the mental equivalent of punching yourself in the jaw. You’re going to keep tilting your neck, slumping your shoulders, and assaulting your mind with impulsive scrolling? Really? Stop. Please stop.
“But my feed is all positive content! It’s not a big deal that I consume a lot of social media! I’m learning and getting inspired!”
Yes, take responsibility for your experience online. Yes, follow positive influences who inspire you. Yes, there is life-changing content on social media. But even too much of this becomes a problem.
For example, people on a self-improvement journey fall prey to the of illusion of progress. They follow people they admire. They obsessively consume their content and feel inspired. But nothing changes. They still hold on to the same destructive relationships and habits. But it’s ok, they think, because they plan on changing their behavior. This is like watching a gym creator’s content every day and never working out but thinking you’re upgrading yourself because you’re planning on working out. Past a certain point of consuming, the mind starts to confuse planning with progress. It’s shocking how easy it is for people to waste time mentally masturbating to the idea of improving themselves by absorbing content without ever doing anything different, all while feeling like they accomplished something! In reality nothing is different. They day-dreamed about personal development and imagined that they improved. You need to learn, yeah. But don’t learn, then start. Start, then learn. Do the learn.
The way to avoid this trap is to consume less and act more. Simple. Not easy, but simple. Tim Ferriss calls it the “low-information diet”—to limit your intake of unnecessary information to free up time and mental bandwidth to be more productive. To ensure that you’re bout that action boss2.
The less you consume social media, the less likely your brain is to devolve into the brain of an unfocused bozo. Consider writer and computer scientist Cal Newport’s deep work hypothesis, which says that “the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy.” What is the main reason the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare? You guessed it, social media consumption. Scrolling addicts suffer from comparison games, decision fatigue, the paradox of choice, and perhaps even digital dementia and physical posture problems all at once. It’s no surprise they can’t perform deep work and struggle to enter flow states. These psychological pains and the impulse to scroll are malicious venoms preventing them from ever doing so.
People who perform deep work, as opposed to unfocused bozos, are also aware of the fallacy of “the informed citizen.”
They know that the majority of news is noise. That if something is big enough news, they’ll hear about it anyway. They know that paying significant attention to the news—especially on social media—does your mind more harm than good; that it’ll cause you needless anxiety over something you don’t control; that it’ll fool you more than it makes you knowledgeable. Essayist Nassim Taleb explains how “counter to the common discourse, more information means more delusions: our detection of false patterns is growing faster and faster as a side effect of modernity and the information age.” In other words, our minds aren’t built for this.
Our minds are at a mismatch with our current environment of hyper-connected infinite waves of digital news. With it’s complexity. Humans evolved for generations in much simpler habitats—in small tribes, deprived of information. That is where our species developed and got programmed for eons. But recently, especially the last 100 years, technology has gone exponential. Human evolution has not. Hence the mismatch.
We’re cavemen on a rollercoaster. Our animal instincts tend to become confused by our godlike technologies. We have iPhones that can pour unlimited emergencies, breaking news, political drama, and statistics into our brains all day, every day. Trying to make sense of it all is literally impossible. But that doesn’t stop people from thinking they can do so—with inappropriate conviction—because they consume tons of digital content and convince themselves they’re knowledgeable because of it (or maybe this is just a personal shortcoming, experiencing this Dunning-Kruger Effect type issue).
It’s only by taking a step back, out of the hurricane of news and scrolling, that you realize how more information can lead to more delusions. Only then will you stop mistaking noise for signal. Only then will you become less susceptible to becoming fooled by propaganda, fads, social contagions, psyops, marketing funnels, sensationalist stories, and flat out scams that are so prevalent online. Only then will you recognize that the news isn’t a good way to be informed about reality because anything that is newsworthy is by definition atypical of reality. Only then will you have time to think.
When you do return to the information cascades on social media, you look at them with a fresh perspective. With more critical thought. With more skepticism. Less quick to draw conclusions, if any at all. By deliberately and periodically spending time away from the digital information matrix, your mind naturally becomes better at filtering what online is important, real, and useful versus what’s not.
Nassim Taleb also once wrote “I try to remind my group each week that we are all idiots and know nothing, but we have the good fortune of knowing it.” Compare this sentiment to the grandiose predictions and over-confident takes online. Or to someone you’ve met who thinks they know a lot, and who believes they’re smarter than everyone they come across. That’s actually the dumbest kind of person! A bozo never worries if he’s a bozo.
The fastest way to actually become more intelligent is not to try and be a genius, but to acknowledge your infinite ignorance and capacity to be wrong. A recurring theme amongst the wisest people of all time is them recognizing that their knowledge is limited; that their intellect is fallible. “The greatest enemy of knowledge is the illusion of knowledge.” That’s Stephen Hawking. “Man cannot learn what he thinks he already knows.” That's Epictetus. “The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing.” That’s Socrates. “I’m smart enough to know that I’m dumb.” That’s Richard Feynman. On and on.
When you get loads of internet, social media, and news (eww!) information every day, it becomes so easy to convince yourself you know more than you do, and to have strong opinions on things you shouldn’t have strong opinions on. You’re fooling yourself and likely harming your mental health at the same time. Ouch.
I’m aware of these problems because I’ve struggled with them.
Believe me. All of these realizations are life changing if you execute. Less scrolling, less noise, less news, more reading, more thinking, more activity. It’s improved my well-being. It’s restored my ability to concentrate for long periods, allowing me to read many books, write lots of essays, and learn other languages. It made me stop being a know-it-all idiot. It’s let me enjoy life on a deeper level.
We all have a pathetically miniscule amount of time on this planet. You going to do something with it? Launch that creative project? Post that video? Stick with that workout plan? Send that trip? Learn that new language? Jump in that water? Approach that person? Pursue that adventure? Or sit around and watch other people do it all through a screen?
I’ve often thought: zoom out, and consider the fact that every human you know stares at a piece of metal every day, absorbing most of the same platforms. Why not put yourself in a position to take advantage of that strange fact? Look at how many people are doing what they love and making a fortune by creating on the internet. Succeeding will take serious time and effort, but anyone who develops skills, focuses, and is consistent can capitalize. It’s 2023. And this whole game—the creator economy and online businesses—is still *relatively* new. It’s only going to keep growing. I never thought I would be a “content creator” (something about that term I find yucky) but between reading the right books, considering this reality, and having a burning desire to do work I enjoy and be free, I chose to become one. As opposed to only a social media scroller (customer). This idea seems in direct contrast to me making the case to use social media less as I did in this article. And yes, I make short-form videos for Instagram and YouTube even though I myself spend little time ever consuming content in that way. But there is a place for short-form content. And there’s no shortage of people who want it. I might as well do my best to give people something valuable while they impulse scroll!
Marshawn Lynch reference.
“Man cannot learn what he thinks he already knows.” love that part
Great article!