Social Media is Really Weird

Ok so tell me, is this normal? No. Is this normal? No. Then how about this? Probably not. Ok, but what about this? It’s 2024 and I feel like social  media is still pretty weird. Not bad, not good just hella weird. Because its potential negative effects are  now more apparent than ever. We know that spending no more than 5 minutes on Twitter or  X will make you regret having eyes and spending time on Discord will significantly impact your  ability to function as a normal human being, or taking a

shower. And yet our dependency on them  as an integral part of our lives, as a sort of escape from reality  has also never been greater. Not only is it super accessible  but it is very very normalised. It’s weird because in its infancy, social media  was designed with the goal of connecting people, but its growth relies on aggressively monetising our attention, our time to keep us  on screens for as long as possible, resulting in the biggest **** disconnect  human brings have ever felt in histor

y. Now, you could argue that it had to be  designed this way, because otherwise how else would social media companies generate  revenue and push new features? Right? Over consumption of media is now at an all  time high and algorithms are optimising for clickbait and retention. In the past  2 years alone I’ve noticed a surge of well, whatever this is. Because this is what seems  to keep you and I on screens. Now before we continue, I just want to address  that some of you wanted me to stop using

that bruh sound effect. It’s a bit annoying and honestly  just a bit played out, so I wanted to apologise. Now, I think it’s important to note that Social  media companies don’t actually do this harm you. Of course, they know it harms you,  but unfortunately cash money baby. Dino Ambrosi in his TED talk “The battle  for your time” sums it up pretty well. He says it's because of a "business  model that has incentives which are fundamentally misaligned with our wellbeing”. Now imma be honest, whi

le writing for this video I could not last more than 5  minutes without opening Instagram. If I had to think too hard about a  certain concept or just use my brain, I’d find myself unconsciously  scrolling through Reels. It was only after realising  how much time I’ve just wasted, that I’d throw my phone away  and try get back to writing. But this time, with the guilt that I’ve  not only lost my focus but in a way, feeling like I let myself consume so much  content for which I now feel ten times

worse. So what do I do? Well, I go back on social  media to distract myself from these feelings. Ok that’s a cool story bro, but how  the hell did it get to this point? And why does technology keep screwing us over? For that, we need to go back to the  early 2000s - back to the good old days - back when the internet was fun  with just a tiny bit less capitalism. Now, during this time, the internet  was going through an identity shift. It was moving away from these colourful static HTML webpages

that were  scattered and hard to navigate and becoming more interactive,  collaborative and centralised. It marked a significant change in  how web technologies like Flash and JavaScript were being used to deliver  information, and we quickly realised, Hey wait a second, we can create a whole  *** interactive application on the web? Improved development techniques allowed  pages to load and update content dynamically, based on the user's interaction and  without the need for a full page reload

For example, if you smash that subscribe button, your browser will update your status  without needing to reload that entire page. And that is pretty damn cool Now this shift in thinking was often referred  to as Web 2.0 and it had one big focus: User-generated content. In other words, the internet was becoming 10  billion times easier to use - for everyone. Straight up easier to share and view content. Soon enough, blogging and social networking  platforms started popping the hell off and we go

t things like MySpace and Facebook.  People enjoyed expressing themselves but of course it was also an opportunity for these  social media companies to make a *** ton of money. But if they were free to  use, how did they make money? Well let’s take Facebook as an example. At first, they kinda tried everything.  Anyone remember Facebook credits? But eventually, they found that the  best thing to sell was well, us. By signing up, social media  companies were guaranteed at least 3 key pieces of per

sonal  information, our full names, our date of birth and our emails, which  of course, helped sell targeted ads. And this sold like hot cakes. That is,  if the hotcakes were completely stolen. Now without targeted ads, the internet  probably won’t exist or at least not be free. But they’re also partly responsible  for our increased screen time, because the more screen time, the more ads,  and the more ads, the more cash monies. It’s a bit of a messed up cycle: we  contribute and engage with con

tent, the content is incentivised to be attention grabbing  and retention focused, the data is then harvested for targeted advertising, and the resulting ad  revenue fuels this continuous grip on our brains. Now fast forward to 2024 and social media has  become even easier to use and consume content. And with 2 decades of fine tuning, it’s fair to say that this business  model has now reached its final form. Kinda like Six Paths Sage Mode Naruto.  It’s literally designed not to be beaten. And we

ll, we’re like kid Sakura. Or Tenten. Ok maybe not Tenten. trying to fight off a thousand different pieces of information from right within our  hands and we lose every single time. Now that’s because their strategies often  use principles from behavioural psychology. The ability to scroll infinitely is  a textbook variable reward system because the fact that we don’t know what  comes next keeps us scrolling for more. Push notifications trigger the brain’s  release of dopamine and even auto-play

videos conveniently reduce the effort required for us to consume even more content - all  as a clever way to increase retention. Countless studies link high screen time with  issues in mental health and ability to focus, because not only does an over-use of these  platforms impact the way we think, our world-views and self worth, but it makes it so so bloody hard  to find and achieve things that matter to us. Now you could be sitting there and thinking:  “Hey, I don’t have a problem with social

media” and you know what? That’s fair. Actually, that’s insane.  Please teach me your secrets. I don’t think social media  affects everyone the same way, but it’s got me thinking, could there  be an alternative business model? A model in which its incentives are very much  aligned with our own well being while at the same time, still being able to generate the  same amount of money for companies to grow? I don’t know. And it might  just be a stupid question, because big profits and human well 

being don’t really mix well together. But, what does look promising  though, is the recent rise of successful content creators that seem to  focus on authenticity and story telling. Those that seemingly break the traditional  algorithm like Sam Sulek. Perhaps it’s a sign the people are also just sick  of so much over-edited content. But only time will tell if  this is also just a trend. In the meantime, I’m just chilling. Figuring out how to make this  social media thing work best for me. Becaus

e I don't think  social media is inherently bad. And I think we can all agree with  this. It’s great for knowing what my close friends are up to, and a  great way to start conversation. It’s also just a great source of entertainment  and makes it so easy to learn new things. A lot of you also need it  for your businesses and art But it seems that whenever I open these apps  without any particular reason (which by the way is every single time), these platforms  will instead create that reason for

me, and create an even bigger reason to stay. Like this one user suggests, I’m  trying to think of it less like a dopamine vending machine and more like a tool. This way, I try to open these apps  with a purpose in mind and once it fulfils this purpose, then I close  it. Makes it sort of harder to use. This of course, is disgustingly hard.  Addiction is real, and my dopamine reward systems have been pretty messed  up, so it probably won’t change overnight. Now if you’ve made it this far into  t

he video, then firstly, I love you. And secondly, I encourage you to disable  that autoplay and not go onto the next video. Even if you don't have a problem with social media Take a bit of a break. Your time is valuable, yes, but  a happy brain is pretty cool too. Trust me, the grass has been  looking extra beautiful lately.