Social media

Think it depends on how much time you spend on it, and with which mindset you are checking it.

But my opinion is that social media can make you less confident, you see alot of succesfull and sexy people and you might compare yourself to them. Its also a waste of time.
Try to check on youtube ;
How I Tricked My Brain To Like Doing Hard Things (dopamine detox)

 

Social media can be fine , if you are using it for the right purpose ONLY .the thing is that we are trying to avoid PMO , and social media is full of half naked girls . If you had the discpline to avoid PMO you wouldn't be here ,but you don't , like most of us ( atm ) , so i wont recommend to use social media at all . People that use social media for ' fun ' literally destroy their own brain , getting addicted to likes and attention .

 

Social media basically enhances what you are using it for, based on what little research I have come across. If you are using it for education it improves your success. If you use it to promote your business, your business grows a little faster. If you are using it just for entertainment, you will be entertained for a very long time. I suppose the underlying mechanism behind this is the human support, the feeling of being in a community (the feeling of being accepted) that agrees with what you are doing. Scientific research is not prevalent regarding the impacts of social media, not because there is are no impacts, but because it is very hard to isolate traits and patterns both qualitatively and quantitatively. The math behind it is not easy. There may also be problems with funding such research because social media is a big source of revenue. This is a big problem with research in general, it does not pay to go against the machine.

You can certainly go and try and find some scientific research, but it will be hard to find anything definitive. However, I would not take the stories of many individuals here (at NoFap) lightly, with respect to what social media has wrought on their lives. Social media can take a significant amount of time away from you learning anything. I don't need scientific research (in this regard) to know that social media taking up my time is detrimental to my health and life, and I know it is purely my fault. I do understand that not everybody spends a bunch of time on Social Media and have to gull to drop it and get their shit done. For a long time I was one of those people that spent way too much time on social media, I was lost in the need for attention.

Lastly, there is the feeling that many of us have when we go out and see that everyone is just on their phone taking pictures everywhere you go is just wrong. I like to put some trust in myself when I feel this way, but social media is an addiction. One final thing that I would like to say is, "what is wrong with living without social media?"

 

I deleted Facebook off of my phone. I still have my account, but no longer easy access to the app. It's given me less of a reason to waste my time.

 

You bring up a good point about wanting to be seen as the victor in an on-line battle. I tried and tried to win many an argument, then I get frustrated and finally angered. Sometimes I even feel the rush: the body responds as if it were a real life scenario. And I don't get hurt physically from it. So a win/win perhaps? Stress in the right amount is actually part of the bodies function (think about man before comfy houses). You're not really stressed when you're sitting on your a** endlessly scrolling (not pointing you you specifically) so your body is looking for a stressor. I'm not saying go out and fight people, but our bodies need that thrill from time to time.

These forums are so much better than social media. I went and glanced over at my FB profile and all I see is negativity and sexualization of women. I was saddened, actually. Tens of millions of people lost in a meaningless pursuit, to only a couple hundred thousand (rebooting forums) looking to break free from that false reality.

 

Hola friend!

I think ultimately, the question zeroes down into this - How exactly is your relationship with your social media? Is it empowering to you? DO you think it is really empowering the community as a whole to spread the message of love, harmony, humanity, respect, empathy or do you see proliferation in hatred, disrespect, negativity, spite, insensitivity?

If you feel it is good and that it can be good tool, that's nice! I use social media as a tool as well, for communicating on formal matters. But I see people around me more divided, in real life. In my country, hatred and false info spread through social media has resulted in violence, lynching's and murders.

From the perspective of science, The thing about social media as a whole is that it was designed to make the users come back for more. The revenue behind most social media is the advertisement model and this model is fueled by your attention so the social media model as of today is fueled by your attention. The social media is a great concept and an awesome thing, but the way it is constructed and deployed currently, is to serve advertising and harnessing attention and even more important- mining your data- your attention span, your eye-movements, your scrolling are all carefully chronicled so that the algorithm can send you most effective stuff that hooks you into screen!

No! I'm not a conspiracy theorist and all! These are facts, and the facts I shared is just the tip of an icebreg!

I'd suggest you to listen to Tech experts such Jaron Lanier, Tristen Harris who shares deep insights about the social media's behind the screen.

Also the documentary called "The Social Dilemma" gives an insight into the ramifications surrounding the use of social media. I think that social media as such is a boon, but it is being used with the objective of generating profits, ignoring values and ethics.

You see, we are all porn addicts and we know how our deep rooted primal sex instincts played a role in us getting hooked to porn. Many such primal instincts, some of which we are not even aware of are being used by Tech companies to harvest our attention.

The more dividing, hate inducing, shock inducing the content is, the greater you'll be tempted to consume screen time. And people consume this irrationally, and the sense of being a part of "group" reinforces his dogma.


Borrowing the words of Yuval Noah Harrari, Machines and Algorithms know more about you than you or your loved ones know about yourself!

The sad fact is that this knowledge is being exploited for commercial interests with ethical interest being ignored. This is the issue that I see, is most relevant when we are talking about social media.

https://www.humanetech.com/who-we-are

Just sharing my take on the issues brother, I'd love to know your take as well! Cheers!

 

If you avoid to waste time on social media, you can focus on your goals. In this period I read books. I avoid to spend time on social media. Why? I noticed then when I keep attention on instagram for example, after I get away of phone, I'm distracted. I can't focus on what I read because I'm thinking at what I saw on instagram, tik tok, etc. So, I read that book whithout result about prove myself. Of that I'm staying away of phone. It fill my mind with a lot of inutile content.

 

Wat is scientific?

 

“Social Media is a great platform for who we want to be. But not who we are.”-David Goggins

Comparing yourself to someone’s else projects and ideas isn’t a way to live life. Comparison is the thief of joy. Focus on your life and projects. Don’t pay attention to someone else’s projects and ideas.

I have deleted Facebook, Twitch, Reddit, Telegram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter, Snapchat, Tik Tok, Instagram, and YouTube. My mental health has never been better. I use WhatsApp to talk to friends.

 

Very much relatable!

@Testify I'd like chip in my opinion on the question you posted brother! From my experience, most of the discussions in NoFap platforms is a no-nonsense sharing of ideas and perspectives. The exchanges is rooted in the desire to enrich and forward our agenda of finding out what is best to us. It is like a tool-shop where everyone empowers everyone. People usually share their insights with an intention to exchange their wisdom and experiences, not to grab attention or vomit out their insecurities. it seems like a healthy exchange of perspectives, NOT a hyped-up frenzy of stuffs and stories of ultra-perfection, the consumption of which mostly amounting to borderline voyeurism, draining our time and tricking us to believe unrealistic crap intended to gather likes and follows which is so prevalent in social media!

Forums like this is an effective and enhancing tool to learn, to grow and strengthen ourself. We can reach out to this forum and disconnect too after our purpose here is done. This forum doesn't come up with constant notifications and alerts luring you to check this or anything! Forums like this, which are empowering, is the real way to use 'social-media'.

I hope the coming generation realizes this, and use the potential of social media smartly. I hope they join hands to connect with mother nature, and form deep bond with their community, their family, the rivers, the plants, the animals and ponder over the mystery, beauty and transience of creation itself.

 

Nicely written!

 

In my opinion, forums are more community based. Whereas Social Media revolves around the individual.

 

Wholesome, "well-rounded", "awake", empathetic, honest, "emotionally self reliant" people are not a good source of revenue, and they are most likely not on social media.

The majority of social media out there is not designed for the purpose of developing such people. They are purely designed for pulling at the psychological necessities of humans in order to generate revenue. Most people are not out here to get better. They are out here to live it up in their addictions, which are caused by psychological inadequacies. @black_coyote has touched on this earlier. This is why social media thrives, addictions and money. Social media is not about being "social" at all; they have professionals that are literally paid to make it seem like it is. Whatever good that may come out of social media is from the small proportions of users of social media, but it will always be dominated by people lost in their addictions. Social media does not create an avenue for betterment, it creates a platform for money. People use social media to spread knowledge, it is the "good" people that create the avenue. But, that knowledge doesn't need social media to be transferred to others.