Do yourself a favor and delete social media

There is an old Russian fable about two poor peasants, Ivan and Boris. The only difference between them was that Boris had a goat and Ivan didn't. One day, Ivan came upon a strange-looking lamp and, when he rubbed it, a genie appeared. She told him that she could grant him just one wish, but it could be anything in the world.

Ivan said, "I want Boris's goat to die."

This story, despite its humor, depicts the stark reality of how most of us make decisions based on what is most relevant and available to us. Ivan has the potential to ask for anything in existence, but his absorption into Boris’s goat has completely distracted him from the potential at hand. In so many ways, this can be tied to social media in that it occupies our minds and veers us away from our true potential and opportunities.

Social media has plagued modern man with a multitude of distractions. So many of us, largely due to the content presented to us on these various digital platforms, have become preoccupied with the lives and wellbeing of others instead of our own. Social media is in large part a highlight reel of how others live.

Success is when you reach your aim or purpose. Therefore, it is crucial to overall success to set goals and envision what it is that we are working towards. Successful people are not those without problems. They are successful because they have acknowledged their problems and have worked on solving them. Regardless of what happens to us or others, we must stay disciplined and continuously work towards our dream reality.

If you ask most people nowadays what their goal is or what they are working for, some will tell you that they don’t know or that they merely work as a means to survive and put food on the table. So many people have been so engulfed in the digital realm of chaos that they have failed to focus on their own self-improvement and personal development. This has fostered a mental state of survival instead of one of creation. This is a stress mindset, and Dr. Joe Dispenza has clearly stated that the body is the most susceptible to disease and illness when the brain is in a state of stress.

Social media news feeds are flooded with negative news and stories of global catastrophes, political corruption, celebrity drama, and other stories that do not affect us in the slightest. However, we have been programmed to believe that it is all relevant to our daily lives.

For most people, the one thing standing between themselves and deleting all social media is their “friends.” Unfortunately, these platforms are no longer websites fostering socialization and communication. Instead, they 100% have become a source and avenue for content consumption. Furthermore, we are not even the consumers on these platforms. Nothing is free in this world and if something is free, we become the product instead of the customer. Our data is sold to corporations who bid on it which allows for ads to be more specifically targeted towards us. For most people, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media sites are no longer sources of enjoyment but merely platforms to satisfy our habits and boredom.

Utilization of social media for business purposes such as advertising and promotion can be a useful tool. However, it is important to ensure that you set boundaries between your business and personal life, because these platforms are created around algorithms that are meant to be as addictive and habit forming as possible. Currently, I am creating my website and attempting to market it without social media. That is my personal choice, but I will survey various digital marketing strategies and who knows, social media may eventually come into the picture. However, I do not plan to ever have any personal accounts on these platforms. In an article from McLean Hospital, a 2018 British study directly tied social media usage to decreased, delayed and disrupted sleep which is associated with depression, memory loss and poor academic performance. “Social media use can affect users’ physical health even more directly. Researchers know the connection between the mind and the gut can turn anxiety and depression into nausea, headaches, muscle tension, and tremors.” Ultimately the risk to reward is skewed toward risk, and I will get my news on the world and socialize with friends by other means.

Since deleting social media, I have remained in contact with my friends and spent more time socializing. Despite a short period of loneliness following deleting Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, I found that after a month, people who truly cared about me eventually reached out via call or text. My social anxiety is down remarkably and despite my circle of friends shrinking, my relationships have overall improved in a real way.

For me, my passions reside in the outdoors, nature, animals, sustainability, and health/wellness. My goal is to have a couple hundred acres of farmland where I produce my own food, tend to a wide array of animals, invent, and have the freedom to create as I please, and provide food for both my family, loved ones and community. This and financial freedom through multiple sources of income, such as my investments, real estate, my website, and farming is what I am working towards with all my energy and focus. Everything else is merely a distraction that is attempting to tempt me off my path to success through silly news stories, phony “influencers,” and fear mongering stories. I am definitely better off mentally because of deleting social media and I recommend watching the movie the Social Dilemma on Netflix which greatly summarizes why social media is so harmful and addictive. I tend to stay away from Netflix documentaries because they tend to be agenda driven, but this movie certainly seems genuine and has resulted in me making one of the healthiest decisions in my life thus far.

Thanks for taking the time to read what I have to say today, and I certainly believe that if we all take the time to work on ourselves and grow, the world will be become a better place.