I’ll start this by saying I only use three forms of social media. Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube (which I almost don’t really count because most of what I watch is generally insightful and thought provoking). I’ve reached a point where Facebook is no longer on my phone and instagram routinely gets deleted for a few days at a time. I will redownload instagram because that’s where the bodybuilding community is for the most part.

The reason for the deletions is due to the fact that if I’m not mindful I can end up lurking in comment sections of provocative and perspective altering content or scrolling bullshit reels for a disgusting period of time. An hour can fly by in no time. When I finally pull my eyes away from the screen I not only feel like a lazy piece of shit but I feel the my ability to think clearly and organize my thoughts has been disrupted. I also feel like chronically my ability to communicate in a clear and effective manner has been affected.

As bodybuilders as well there’s the aspect of how we view ourselves. Most of us typically feel smaller than we are. We know all the areas that need improvement. And the constant barrage of the “attention economy” in our faces is an easy way to skew that view to the point of being potentially disheartening for some and dangerous for others. If someone feel “less than” they are more likely to seek out and try ill informed or extreme methods in their pursuit for external validation. Also the effects on attention are absolutely detrimental to training. How often do we see people sit on a machine for five minutes scrolling?

I was curious everyone’s experience with this. Personally, to try and combat these things, aside from just getting the shit off my phone periodically, I’ve begun making reading a priority again. Like a physical book not staring at another screen reading a kindle lol I’ve also started writing as a way to force myself to learn how to organize my thinking. I’ll pick a subject and write my opinion on it. Then I’ll edit it and eventually record myself saying what I wrote from memory. Now I don’t do that as often as I should but it is something I’ve found interesting to try. Is it overkill? Maybe. But it lets me parse out my own thinking and put it in a way that actually makes sense. A lot of us think things but don’t actually know why we think it. Social media can inject an idea straight into your brain then the algorithm reinforces it.

Whats everybody else noticing when it comes to this and what have you been doing about it?