Stop Consuming Like an Animal
There is no way we can quit social media now. We are too entrenched in it. Just as we cannot live without smartphones, we cannot live without social media apps. There is no point in debating it anymore. That discussion was relevant a decade ago; now, it’s pointless. There are generations that have grown up on social media and have no clue what it’s like to live without it.
We can improve the way we consume content, though. Instead of consuming everything through video, we can train our brains to consume more through text. This works like a miracle. Spend more and more time on text-based social media like Substack and Twitter, and you will notice a dramatic shift in your thinking.
The algorithms operate differently. Of course, they still prioritise attention. But text-based content that captures your attention works differently from video content that does the same. On text-based platforms, the content has to do the heavy lifting. It could be a piece of shit, but you can change that easily. It doesn’t appeal to your biological impulses in the same way.
Video-based platforms lure you in by triggering your biological impulses. As a man, it’s impossibly hard to resist half-naked women on Instagram. You lie down, and all you do is scroll. Crass content keeps flooding your feed. This is passive consumption, whereas text-based platforms make you an active consumer.
This doesn’t mean everything on text-based platforms is good. There are political groups, ideological battles, racist posts, and enough rage bait to send your blood pressure through the roof. My point is that, of the two, text-based platforms have more merit.
Try this exercise. Spend as much time as you like on Twitter, Substack, or any platform of your choosing where text dominates. Notice how you feel after a week. Initially, it will be tough. You will feel that you cannot read, that you get drowsy and bored. That’s your mind struggling with comprehension. Your mind hates to struggle in any way possible. Stick with it for at least a week, and you will notice a change in how you process information.
You will notice that it becomes easier to go down rabbit holes because your threshold for absorbing information has increased. You will feel more elated when you discover that there are people out there with skills similar to yours who are doing wonderfully well by turning their expertise into consumable content.
Stop catering to your biological impulses. That will eventually turn you into an animal. Change what you consume, and your consumption will dictate how you think. After all, you are what you consume.