How to Wage War on Social Media Like a Badass.

Spent 10 hours doomscrolling on social media? Fear not—there is no shame to be felt. That’s right: it’s not your fault, but rather something far more insidious at play.

Welcome to MeowMed’s Musings, where I discuss relevant topics in well-being, health, and self-improvement on the weekly. With some of my own interests sprinkled in. But I think the topic for this week is something that everybody should take interest in.

You see, since its inception, instead of connecting people, social media platforms have always made their goal to be keeping you on the platform. Believe it or not, this is the primary objective of the field known as consumer neuroscience. That is right—PhD-level researchers have been closely examining the actions of the human brain interacting with social media interfaces to fuel this age of distractibility.

This notion of consumer neuroscience grinds my gears so much that I know I will write another newsletter to fully delve into the topic, but I wanted to focus on actionable steps that you can take TODAY to put an end to the atrocious theft of your valuable time being committed by these social media companies.

My maternal grandma always told me that too much of anything is bad, and this especially applies to social media. Conversely, however, if you use social media for a few minutes a day to reach out to that friend that lives on the opposite side of the globe or push out an exciting new product/idea to benefit your community, then I believe it is of net benefit to the user. Here are some tools that I employ to achieve such benefits.

1. Cold Turkey—PC app that allows you to block any website or app accessed on your computer. You can even arrange it such that you permanently block yourself from your distractions unless you uninstall the app. With lifetime access for only $39, I say this is a steal. A similar app for Mac is SelfControl.

2. Freedom—Essentially plays the same role as Cold Turkey, but for your phone (it’s on both iPhone and Android) for $8.99 monthly, $39.99 annually, or $99.50 for lifetime access.

3. SPIN Browser—I’d say this one is more for preventing children from encountering illicit content, yet if you yourself wish to filter that out then this may be a desirable option.

4. Buffer/fedica/etc…—If you wish to only utilize social media for your business, then you may want to try an app that will let you write and schedule your posts. This will allow you to provide content to your audience while minimizing engagement with the platform itself.

That’s more of less my toolkit that has allowed me to cut my time on social media by more than half. What strategies do you employ to combat the ever-growing distractibility of social media?

Also, while I am going to write another article on it, I urge you to share this article with at least 1 person who may be struggling with social media use, or even someone who may find this information intriguing. While I would appreciate the growth of this newsletter, I genuinely wish to improve the relationships and well-being of individuals through this article providing some tips to control social media use. You can share the article by clicking the link below.

By the way, if you missed last week’s article, you can find it here. Other than that, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week!