Why did I delete all my Social Media Accounts
Why did I delete all my Social Media Accounts?
And when do I plan to be back on the grid?
Social Media has brought the world together and has been very profitable for many people, especially the creator community and those invested in them and those responsible for actually building them altogether. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Clubhouse are some of the most famous one's out there and there is a dark secret behind this.
But before we get into what made these garage startups into multi-million companies, let me just put it upfront that I do not recommend everyone to delete social media and become a Digital Minimalist. This is very much a personal preference and if you can leverage the power of Social Media to your benefit without getting caught up in the endless loop of scrolling down (which is highly unlikely but still) I would not recommend it to everyone reading this blog post and there is a good reason for that which we'll discuss towards the end of the blog.
The rise of social media started in 2004 when Facebook, for the first time, had a million active users, the company began to leverage their growth. In June 2007, Facebook official started integrating Adverts and it started generating revenue from the attention it had from almost 500 million users in the United States and the rest of the World.
But this was not always the scenario, Facebook started as a website where you can create a profile, add some basic info, and some of your favourite songs, movies, game, TV shows, and stuff. Back then, the interface looked something like this...
Everything changed in 2007 with the addition of the Like button to Social Media. When the Like button was introduced in 2007, the platform turned from a website where you can post stuff to a website where you now look for social approval. The Like button was the key that unlocked riches for these applications. Now when you post something on your Instagram, you loop back to it every single minute just to check how many likes your post got! But have you ever thought why do you do that??
The biggest problem with Social Media these days is that they have you at their mercy. You can not stop scrolling once you open that screen and there is a good reason for that. Social Media Platforms like these are alleged to use the techniques to hold attention which is used in Las Vegas Casino's to reel in people and have them spend all their money. These Tech Giant's use a team of psychologists and a team of people called the Attention Engineers whose sole job is to make sure you stick to these applications. If you spent hours scrolling down on these applications by chance, You don't really have to feel guilty about it as these apps have been engineered to keep you hooked up.
When the team came up with the notification design drafts for likes and comments on Facebooks, the design team brought in the panel of Blue and Grey colours to match the aesthetics of the design of Facebook. But, the attention engineers suggested that the notification and popups should actually be red as red is a sign of alarm and it creates a state of urgency for the user to open up the application. This is how they hook you in.
The problem began when Social Media platforms turned into an advertising platform for the Conglomerates. Because now they make money by keeping your attention on their platform. When you get that notification of someone liking your post, your brain releases a chemical called Dopamine. And boy... let me tell you what else makes your brain release Dopamine... Cigarettes', Weed, Alcohol and Drugs. Read that again.
What else makes your brain release Dopamine.... Cigarettes', Weed, Alcohol and Drugs. And you basically have a numbing agent in your hand or in your pocket 24X7 with unsupervised access to it.
These companies basically trade your attention to the advertisers in exchange for money. You are the product, Social Media Companies sells to the Conglomerates and Advertisers to push their products.
But that's not the main reason why I left Social Media. In his book, Digital Minimalism, the author, Cal Newport argues that Social Media has taken away the ability of humans to focus and perform Deep Work. Cal Newport is a Doctorate holder from MIT, currently a full-time computer science professor at Georgetown University and also a New York Time's Bestselling Author of seven Books namely,
- How to Win at College
- How To Become a Straight-A Student (highly recommended!!)
- How to Be a High School Superstar
- So Good They Can’t Ignore You (highly recommended!!)
- Deep Work (highly recommended!!)
- Digital Minimalism (highly recommended!!)
- A World Without Email
The problem with Social Media nowadays is that it sedates your mind and takes away your ability to focus for long hours and produce Deep Work. Just think about it for a second, The newest addition to the Instagram Platform is the Reels... a short 30-second video clip that loops infinitely one after the other keeping you hooked up to the platform for hours on end. But what you don't realize that slowly you have trained your mind to cater to that very format of holding attention.
Don't believe me, let me give you a reality check. A few days ago, My best friend and asked me why did I quit social media, instead of telling him why... I showed him.
I want you to take a pause from reading this article and go check your ON-Screen Time and your Unlocking Frequency. With that in place, Let me tell you what my stats showed me...
1. I unlocked my cellphone every 18 minutes (that was including my sleep time when I didn't touched my phone, so the actual frequency was around every 10 minutes)
2. I had a screen time of 12 HOURS on average!! 12 HOURS... That's basically half of my day and 3 quarters of my waking day if you count out the sleeping hours..
With these two observations, I was flummoxed and bewildered. This actually meant that I wasn't able to concentrate on my work for more than 10 minutes at a stretch. THAT RIGHT THERE... THAT HIT ME HARD!!
If you have seen your numbers right now... You too must be thinking, there's something wrong with your device. You didn't spend an hour and a half yesterday on Whatsapp, did you??? Well, that's the bitter truth. And let me make it very clear! It's not your fault. These Platforms are engineered to keep you hooked up!! When my friend asked me to Uninstall or Deactivate my accounts rather than straightaway deleting them... The evidence pointed against this strategy! Now with my account's Deactivated or Unistalled, I would have been more anxious about what was happening while I was onboard. This was just like a deal someone would make with a devil to have short term control over long term problems. I did not want that for me. I wanted to be able to work without interference long hours and produce quality work without being distracted.
This is my reason to quit social media for good. Now for the second part of the question... When do I plan to be back on the grid??? Right now... I don't feel any need to do so... It's almost been I month I have left social and I have had a lot of trouble trying to change my cognitive patterns to help me focus on what matters to me. And I don't plan on srewing it all over again just for some likes and connectivity with my friends and acquaintances.
I will say this again... I do not recommend anyone to quit social media just because I did. Maybe you have the required self-control to keep yourself from trouble. or your life and work might revolve around your social presence. Our circumstances are totally different and so should our decisions be! I just want you all to make an analysis and weigh the good and bad once before making a decision for yourself!!!
So that's about it for now. Thank you so much for sticking to the end! I hope to meet you in my next blog post, but before we depart, I would like to tell you that...
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"You are Strong and Intelligent enough to figure this out for yourself!! Take care!"