Return of the King
Dan graced us all with his presence for a brief discussion on the dangers of social media. You could tell the guy was excited by the length of his submission at the end of this post. Worth the read if you have a couple days to spare. I found it a very raw commentary on his experience with social media. This podcast will be part 1 of an ongoing series regarding one of the most addictive drugs on the planet. We needed to get the feet wet after a hiatus so feel free to ignore this one as we hone in on one of our favorite hobbies.
Back to regular posts next week.
I know you all have been closely following my laptop woes, but that will soon cease to be an excuse for my delayed submissions. A loyal reader of this blog and good friend is giving me a much a better machine in exchange for just continuing to give him life advice. What a guy.
Discussed in the Podcast:
Weakening attention spans
Cheap dopamine leading to lack of motivation
Lack of experiencing nature
Increased depression, anxiety, and suicide rates
Positives: connecting with people instantly that would prove impossible and being able to expand your brand/business.
Here it is:
Twitter Thread Referenced Here
Dan’s Submission:
(If you can’t get through this your attention span has been warped by social media)
“Social media is a drug that’s hard to stop. You don’t realize how bad it is until you don’t have it and how much you crave it, your phone in general, but what is the first thing you’re going to do when you get your phone…fucking pull up Instagram to check and see if the girl you last saw on high school graduation day is still working at the local brewery (you know who you are…). Why is that at all important? ITS NOT. But, we’re all addicted. It’s the fucking worst too because it adds absolutely zero net value unless it’s your job which fuck…even a lot of those people know it’s unhealthy. They’ve built a following and do it because that’s their job but often stay off it outside of making and producing their content.
The other problem is no one is ever in the moment anymore. It sounds so fuckin corny, “be here bro, be IN IT”, but “cliches are cliches for a fuckin reason” (one of my favorite sayings, as well as “gotta hit your lay ups”. That one is referring to when someone sets you up for an easy conversational one liner/sarcastic comment…it has to be capitalized upon. But anyways…). You watch a live set at a concert or even go watch ( I can’t believe I’m gunna say this) Lebron James pass Kareem on the all time scoring list, in that historic moment and at those live sets, its just fucking phones held up in the air recording what’s going on instead of actually being in the moment and truly witnessing what’s happening. (also…no one wants to see your fucking concert videos dude, its blurry and your taste sucks, the people being forced to watch that, didn’t buy the ticket for a reason bud). It’s honestly sad. We used to hold lighters in the air to signify a great ballad from an incredible artist, or you used to have to be watching on TV or at the game to catch the game winning bucket but now you can just watch recordings and blurry videos online and know exactly what happened and when.
It's also just making people fucking depressed and anxious. People want to deny this and say, “No people were depressed before cell phones and social media too, there was just a stigma about it, so they didn’t talk about it” Yeah… shut up…idiot. Yes, it is true, there was a MASSIVE stigma about being “sad and wanting to talk about your feelings”, that’s incredibly valid. It was not a healthy way to go about mental health, and mental health is extremely important and needs to be taken seriously. But the cases have skyrocketed since the onset of social media. A study said (“a study said” lol, could be from anywhere lol, but I did look this up I swear) kids 12-15 years old who use social media a minimum of 3 hours a day have twice the risk of developing some sort of mental health issue. To have a risk doubled for doing something 3 hours a day. That’s fuckin nuts. It also just ruins people’s self-esteem, all you do is compare to some fuckin moron who has some crazy online business and lives in Turks and Caicos or some shit. Like that’s not real life, and if it is, he worked his ass off to get there, just like anything worth having or doing, takes. WORK. Social media has poisoned the minds of people, thinking there are quick short easy ways to be successful or get what they want and it’s not the case. Now when that can’t happen or their get rich quick scheme doesn’t work, here comes anxiety and depression again. It is making people softer overall. Something as minor as being called a name on an app all of sudden offends people. Like, @CrushinBrews987! calls you a moron on Twitter and all of a sudden, you’re having a bad day? Grow the fuck up. Social media has turned the next generation into piles of baby shit and I’m guilty of it too. Everyone is so offended and so mad about shit online. IT’S NOT EVEN REAL. I bet if you had a one on one human, in person conversation (I know…crazy right? Talking to someone in person, shaking their hand “AHHHHH NO HUMAN INTERACTION!!!”) with 65% of these people (I’m not crazy, of course some of them would be nuts and assholes and any other word you wanna use) you would maybe not get along and be buddies, but you’d probably have some common ground and learn something from them, just like they would you. Social media has turned us into tribes fighting against one another. We all sound like fuckin Darth Vader “If you’re not with me, than you’re my enemy”. Like calm the fuck down Anakin and just hear my side and understand where I’m coming from before you force choke me and whip out that light saber.
The different ways social media can get to “anxiety and depression” is fuckin insane. From comparing oneself to others, the get rich quick shit, the “why are they so far along in life while I’m on my couch watching Friends through again, and ordering domino’s” syndrome. It’s a fucking mess. And if you’re not on it, you can feel disconnected or have FOMO (Fuck Off, Move Over. It’s a driving acronym strictly used in the Northeast, particularly in and around Boston) or Fear Of Missing Out. It’s a real thing. Everyone is posting about something whether its a party or game or whatever and you have this crazy want and need to be there or be involved with the situation online. It’s just not true, more than likely everyone at that party is just on their fucking phone anyway because we all just don’t live in the real world anymore.
One of the first blogs I wrote was literally about going the fuck outside and honestly it relates to this. Put the fucking phone away sometimes or delete some of your social media apps. It’s not real life, like if you want, facetime a friend and talk about something real. My girlfriend and her family facetime multiple times a week and they catch up talk about upcoming stuff, like yeah they’re on the phone, but its human connection. Do something like that instead of just fucking mindless scrolling and finding new fucking hacks about hanging coats in your closet to save space or about how Disney used the same animation for multiple movies (that shit is wild though actually, they reused so many scenes in the 90’s, just swapping out characters and changing colors and shit, check that out for real).”
Dan will back on in the next couple weeks to discuss a new topic.
Until then I’ll see you next week with a traditional post.
Movimiento es Vida