written in June 2023
"It costs you virtually nothing to continue consuming content. Just your 20's, just your young adult life."Media and digital usage should be a means to an end, not an end to means. Certainly, some people do get rich and benefit tremendously from it, but it leaves many emotionally impoverished. This whole phone and social media thing hasn't been a win-win for a very long time. It's a winner takes all situation, with the loser always being the end user, leaving them insecure, empty and unfulfilled. At best its usually a slippery slope of time-waste, at worst a cause for depression, suicide and mental issues.
Many benefits, but oh so many downsides, so that for many it should not be worth it, yet they are coerced. But it has to be consumed in just the right amount, lest you burn yourself. It is up to you to find a middle-road that works for you, but when in doubt, it is better to err on the side of less rather than more. Whether you endlessly scroll feel-good videos, or are addicted to scrolling feeds, you need to think about the amount of time you spend on that media, and where the line of diminishing returns start. At what point have you maximized your time online, and at what point does consuming any more of it not lead to anything significant? The online Goldilocks zone is that fine border where you benefit most from it, without wasting any extra wasteful time.
Everyone, especially young people, should strive for a healthy, balanced digital presence. I call it the digital goldilocks zone. It's a zone where you to reap all the benefits of technology, and more specifically, online media, while avoiding the psychological, relational and physically harmful effects of overuse and unwanted exposure. To get yourself into this zone, you have to ask yourself some analytical questions. These are meantt to sketch your intended usage and your actual behavior. Once we have that clear picture, you can take action to alter the unwanted behavior and act more intentional. You could see intentional media consumption as a rough hewn block of marble. You can shave and sculpt it in such a way that the only thing left is a magnificent piece of habits and systems meticoulsly designed to maximuise your relationship with technology.
The best tool in your arsenal is being intentional, and setup up your environments to cater to that. It is
almost impossible and quite crude to simply avoid it all together, or brute-force it with willpower and
discipline. Those are finite resources.
I also think there is no need to completely
throw out social media and
digital consumption. The way we interact with these systems is the
real culprit. The problem is less in the content itself (a symptom) and more
in the way it is watched, consumed and interacted with. For many,
looking from outside in, it has ceased to be entertainment or
"inspiration", and rather has become a routine. An unconscious habit. An
addiction, even.
Ask yourself the question: What do I really want to
gain from this interaction? Are you really scrolling your feed for
inspiration like you tell yourself, or has it become hard or almost
impossible for you to spend any time at all by yourself, being bored, or
consuming slow media? Be brutally honest with yourself. Is it a crutch
to fill a void?
You need to find better ways of consuming and interacting with your preferred media. Ways that are less destructive to your life. First, here are a few categories of digital media, ranked from worst to best
Some questions to ask yourself
Some things you should look into: dumb phones, RSS
These are rough, uncurated writings. Take them seriously for their intent, but don’t let typos or awkward phrasing get in the way of the message :D
Through and through designed with revenue in mind. You are a mere product and you do not matter. You are being farmed for screen time, for those oh-so-sweet advertiser dollars. Nothing they do is for your benefit.