The Dichotomy of the Doom Scroller
A take on the future of social media in networking, influence and distribution.
I'll be honest, a step into publishing articles is a relatively new domain for me. Generally speaking, I'm very much against social media. The downsides are well documented in the literature; showing the damages and negative effects to our mental states. Unattainable and endless comparison. Degradation of social skills. Reduced attention spans. Sleep quality and eye health. The list seems to be never ending by this point.
Although the arguments for eliminating all involvement with the platforms are numerous, it must be accepted that there’s also a dichotomy it presents.
We’ve got to accept it’s now a fundamental part of how we interact with other humans - professionally and personally - and also largely parasocially. This is to suggest that other party may not even know that we exist, or we are taking interest in them or their updates.
Herein lies the dichotomy: The tension that must exist between being virtually present enough to be remembered by those within your wider network; yet sufficiently absent enough to not bear the negative effects of doing so.
I'm not going to profess to have all the answers with regards to this, the best way of managing it, or the best way of balancing it, within your life. However, I can tell you how I do it in mine. So these are a few rules that I set to myself in order to ensure I get all the benefits of these platforms without any of the drawbacks.
1. Curate Your Feed
You may have heard the old Jim Rohn quote which broadly states that you are the sum of the 5 closest people around you. The thought process being that what you surround yourself with for the majority of your time is going to have the greatest impact and effect on the way you personally act and show up. To that end, I would regard it as equal importance to ensure that as much effort should be placed in curating your feed. And so that the 5 sources that you absorb the most, have the least bias, or personal opinion as possible. Ideally as factual and healthy as possible.
2. Download the apps, but don't have them on your home screen.
A while ago, I took the decision to delete all the apps off my phone screen. Effectively meaning that every time I unlocked my phone, there was never a temptation to open the social media app, and any indulgence in such apps required a conscious effort.
The apps are effectively built around facilitating limbic hijack, and there are very few creations in the modern age that have managed to achieve it better. This cannot necessarily be helped; you're going to be exposed to some of these psychological tactics by virtue of even using these platforms.
However, for a few times out of ten - when you unlock your phone and you're staring at the home screen wondering why you opened it, that extra barrier is often just enough to put you back on task and avoid you opening up social media and falling into a doom scroll trap.
3. No more than one message
I try to stick to a rule of no more than one message with any one person through social media messaging. If I wish to continue a conversation thereafter, I try to follow up ideally in an in-person meeting or phone call; or at least an emails or WhatsApp. The idea is never to use these platforms as a crutch or a substitute for the way that humans were intended to interact in the first place.
I accept this is not always practicable. Everyone has their own personal preference as to how they wish to communicate, and sometimes people would prefer to communicate over a message or comment section than they would in person. But if possible and if the other party is willing, I try and limit direct messaging as much as I possibly can. It all comes back to spending as much time off them as possible.
4. Denotify
When you first download these apps, all of the notifications are automatically on by default; and anyone who has downloaded them realizes how ridiculous the default settings are.
You're pinged every time there is an update on your feed;, someone changes something on their profile; you have a new follower; a new message; you have a like or reaction; and other notifications for basically any form of interaction with any piece of content that you've ever looked at when you’ve been using it.
The way your phone notifies you is to reward you with a dopamine hit. So after downloading, turn off nearly all notifications, other than for direct messages. All of the others can wait until you open the app, and you can reply to them then.
5. Only share what you want to remember, not what you want to be remembered for.
It’s a slippery slope as soon as you start posting content for the sake of it, and it’s even worse when you start posting it for someone else’s benefit other than your own. At that point, you’ve lost control of your regulation when it comes to these platforms.
My rule is that I will only ever share what I want to remember - using my posts as a anthology of things I enjoyed or found interesting. If you stick to this rule, your feed will never become infected with something that you’d be embarrassed of. It also leads to more genuine interactions - people who resonate with you will reach out to you - so it’s better that they resonate with the person you actually are, rather than the person you’re pretending to be for your followers.
I’ve got more drafts in the pipeline on this topic - algorithm entrapment and how the marketing industry has oversaturated the effectiveness out of the platforms; and another on how to post authentically to stand out amongst the rise of the AI tools being used to make content.
TH