Being a millennial, social media acts as an
essential communicating and socializing tool.
But more often instead of using it as a tool,
we’re stuck in this rabbit hole of mindless
content consuming.
Companies spend fortunes just to grab hold
of our attention. If they manage to capture
our attention, they can control our actions.
It manipulates our minds and makes us believe
in what they want us to believe in.
They design different visuals and audio feedback
that resembles the slot machines.
It’s a loop that keeps us addicted to the
refresh.
And we have made social media a place for
us to flex our lifestyle while hiding what’s
unpleasant.
It’s also a place where numbers & figures
are a sign of worthiness. We depend on it
to receive social approval. So I’ll say,
he who grabs the attention controls our actions.
And for me, I use social media almost every
day, scrolling through Instagram, watching
other people’s lives on youtube. It’s
the best leisure tool that hides beneath our
phones.
However, as I'm using it to combat my boredom,
I’m also wasting my time watching the random
videos and scrolling mindlessly. Despite it
being a tool that can create dopamine to make
us feel happy, it alters our definition of
happiness and the need to be socially approved.
And in some cases, that can also lead to the
development of mental health issues.
With so many negative impacts social media
can cause us, it’s no wonder tons and tons
of minimalists have ditched their social media
accounts and decided to leave for good.
There are extreme ways to remove social media
from our lives like going back to the basics
and change your phone to a non-smartphone.
Or deactivate your social media accounts and
live as if social media doesn’t exist.
And me I’ve done none of that, I’m not
that extreme and personally I see no reason
for me to use those acute measures. I think
it still boils down to what we want to achieve.
It doesn’t mean that all minimalists have
to reject and feel allergic to social media.
I’m pretty sure most of us are not searching
for those extreme measures as well.
So here are some of the ways we can use social
media effectively but first we have a lot
of decluttering to do.
Unfollow, unsubscribe and unfriend.
Let’s treat our following as intentional
as possible.
Whichever platform you’re using. Treat it
like your minimalist room. Keep it intentional.
Whoever exists in the list has to have a purpose.
To bring us value. It’s easy for us to unfollow
news, celebrities, brands, and inspirational
accounts if they don’t provide us with much
value.
There’s nothing to miss out if they are
unnecessary.
However, the golden question here is should
you unfollow your friends if they don’t
bring value? That’s a question I’m struggling
with as well. I think social media has created
this problem. The event of being “unfollowed”
has a negative connotation to it. It represents
hate and dislikes towards the other party.
But come to think of it, if the other party
is affected by you unfollowing them, then
maybe the relationship is not as close as
it seems. If you ever feel obligated to follow
someone, then maybe the account is not serving
you.
I’ve unfollowed people from my Instagram
account, people who are not providing me much
value and I’m still on the journey of keeping
it intentional. But if you want to take a
baby step, an excellent way to ignore posts
from people you can’t bear to unfollow is
to mute their activities. With that, we can
avoid the awkward situation of unfollowing
someone you know but yet still being intentional
with the things you consume on social media.
I don’t have a magic number of following
to keep your social media intentional. But
just like our physical clutter, my advice
is have a monthly or quarterly social media
decluttering session.
As we are continually changing, accounts and
contents we valued yesterday might not be
what we need today. The same thing goes for
this channel, if you ever find that my videos
are not bringing you value, I wouldn’t want
to be another clutter that distracts you.
My own rule for a minimalist notification
is it has to be an emergency to distract or
break the flow of what I’m doing currently.
They can be one of the most distracting pieces
of information that can make us happy all
because of the social recognition we crave
for.
“If we open the app we fall for the trap.”
That’s a bar right there.
Once the app is opened, it’s so easy for
us to fall for the next distraction by showing
us what we enjoy to see and then the next
trap, to the next trap.
It's a constant loop of scrolling. So instead
of that, shut down the first trigger that
lures us into the lion’s den.
To me notifications for social media are not
needed because there’s nothing urgent for
me to break my flow and attention just for
me to check on the updates. So turn off your
social media notification and use it only
when it is the time to use it.
That’s when you need to set a limitation.
If we can break an addiction just by saying
“we are not going to use it” that will
be perfect, but we are not perfect. It wouldn’t
be an addiction if it’s so easy. So we need
the help of limitation, a system to keep us
in check and prevent ourselves from falling
back to the same habit cycle. There is the
30-day digital declutter. Going cold-turkey
during the period of 1 month. I know, that
can make us really uncomfortable, but it’s
needed for us to break a bad habit.And during
the process, we might understand that we don’t
need social media to make us happy.
We can reintroduce social media back into
our lives after 30 days, we might able to
find new ways for us to use social media effectively.
I think I should try that soon.
But if you want to keep it mellow and start
with baby steps, let say not more than an
hour of using social media every week. I’ve
also limited myself to reply to Instagram
messages through my desktop, so it won’t
be scrolling through my Instagram feed religiously
before I sleep or once I'm awake. That’s
what will happen when I’ve forgotten to
delete my instagram.
I’m not here to tell anyone not to use social
media, but how can we use it better?
There are tons and tons of content releasing
every second as i’m speaking. Whether is
it valuable, that’s subjective.
But a lot of time when we are posting something
publicly, we are seeking the attention of
others. And the results are based on the numbers
of likes and comments.
If it performs well, we feel superb and felt
that we are socially approved by the community,
but when results are bad, we start doubting
ourselves with self-deprecating thoughts.
I’ve definitely felt that way about my post
before. Feeling insecure about it if the numbers
are not doing well.
Indeed, numbers and figures are an excellent
way to judge if a particular post is approved
by the crowd and it acts as a social proof.
An account is way more credible when it has
a significant followings as compared to an
account with lower followings.
But I have to say, it’s important when you
are trying to build a brand or a business.
If it’s all personal I think we should ignore
the numbers.
As a human, we can never be satisfied with
the numbers we received. There’ll always
be people better than us, so what's the whole
point of us comparing ourselves with others
if the purpose of posting something is just
to share our viewpoint, our ideas and creativity.
There’s a need for social media companies
to make the app as easy to use as possible.
But it’s also our job to add friction to
the use of social media if you want to limit
the use. I have to delete my Instagram once
I’m done using it. That acts as a hurdle
for me when I want to use it.
I’ll download Instagram back on my phone
when I need to make a post, and I’ll delete
it once I’m done using. If not, I’ll quickly
fall back to the same old habit of mindless
scrolling. And this happened to me quite a
few times. I found myself scrolling mindlessly
as I’m filming my b-roll.
We need to understand what’s the reason
why we are cutting down on social media and
what do we gain after that.
Those extra time we have right now is a good
time for us to spend it on something we value.
Whether it is starting something new or learning
something you always wanted to learn but just
don’t have the time.
So this is how to use social media as a tool,
to find balance between the extreme of which
is totally rejecting it and also the addiction
of mindless scrolling.
I know it’s common for a minimalist to bash
the use of social media. Certainly, we have
seen so many negative impacts social media
have caused. Whether it is a positive or negative
effect, it still lies within the intention
of the user.
Like I’ve always believed too much of anything
is never the best, so what’s important here
is find the balance that is beneficial to
you.
So I hope this video can help you out and
if you are interested in more videos like
this, you can check out my channel for other
minimalism and self-development videos,
Of course, I wouldn’t want to be your social
media clutter, so only if you have received
value from this video and would like to support
this channel, you can help me with the like
button, or follow me on my instagram, i’ll
keep you guys updated. I have a Patreon page
where I post an extended version of this video.
And I talked about how I use my social media
as a minimalist. That’s also the place where
you can support this channel monetarily and
I’m extremely grateful for that.
Thanks for watching this and I’ll see you
guys again next week. Bye bye
