Tactical Psychology

Why social media is a problem!

Yes I think we can all gather from our collective time on social media whether it be Facebook or instagram, that some days it just makes you feel like shit.

Yes I know its ironic I’ve prob posted this on instagram myself but social media has its benefits, like getting your ass over here to read this master piece 😉

Now why does it make us feel like shit I hear you ask? Well for many reasons.

But for now I want to focus on something Alan Watts referred to as the “backwards law”, which in simplistic terms focused on the idea that the more you focused or pursued greatness the less satisfied you become, as this constant pursuit of something just like that brand new BMW such and such influencer on Instagram received this week for no particular reason other than they have a million followers, subconsciously reinforces the fact that you lack it in the first place, because if you’re being honest with yourself, you most likely wouldn’t have thought about any BMW before seeing that post, you would’ve went on about your day drinking your latte all happy in your bubble.

Furthermore, the more you desperately want to be rich, the more poor and unworthy you feel, regardless of how much money you actually make. The more you desperately want to be sexy and desired, the uglier you come to see yourself, regardless of your actual physical appearance. The more you desperately want to be happy and loved, the lonelier and more afraid you become, regardless of those who surround you. The more you want to be spiritually enlightened, the more self centred and shallow you become in trying to get there.

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

Do you see where this is going? 💭

Back in your grandads day, he would feel like shit and think to himself, “Jesus, I sure do feel like shit today. But hey, I guess that’s just life. Anyway, back to shovelling hay and laying bricks”

But now? Now if you feel like shit for even five minutes, you’re bombarded with hundreds if not thousands of images of people totally happy and having amazing fucking lives, and it’s impossible to not feel like there’s something wrong with you and alas you start chasing happiness once again.

It’s this last part that gets us into trouble tho. We feel bad about feeling bad. We feel guilty for feeling guilty. We get angry about getting angry. We get anxious about feeling anxious. “What is wrong with me?” You might even say.

We joke online about “first-world problems,” but we really have become victims of our own success and innovation. Stress-related health issues, anxiety disorders, and cases of depression have skyrocketed over the past thirty years, despite the fact that everyone has a flat-screen TV and can have their groceries delivered right to your door.

Having the Internet, Google, Facebook, YouTube, and access to five hundred plus channels of television is amazing.

But our attention is limited. There’s no way we can process the tidal waves of information flowing past us constantly. Therefore. the onlv zeroes and ones that break through and catch our attention are the truly exceptional pieces of information those in the 99.999th percentile.

All day, every day, we are flooded with the truly extraordinary. The best of the best. The worst of the worst. The greatest physical feats. The funniest jokes. The most upsetting news. The scariest threats. Nonstop.

Our lives today are filled with information from the extremes of the bell curve of human experience, because in the media business that’s what gets eyeballs, and eyeballs bring euros. That’s the bottom line. Yet the vast majority of life resides in the humdrum middle. The vast majority of life unextraordinary, indeed quite average.

This flood of extreme information has conditioned us to believe that exceptionalism is the new normal. And because we’re all quite average most of the time, the deluge of exceptional information drives us to feel pretty damn insecure and desperate, because clearly we are somehow not good enough.

Our crisis is no longer material; it’s existential, it’s spiritual. We have so much fucking stuff and so many opportunities that we don’t even know what to give a fuck about anymore.

Because there’s an infinite amount of things we can now see or know, there are also an infinite number of ways we can discover that we don’t measure up, that we’re not good enough, that things aren’t as great as they could be. And this rips us apart inside.

So if you’re going to do anything this week let it be this. Turn it the fuck off. All of it. YouTube, Instagram, the entire lot. Go outside reconnect with nature, meet actual people in a cafe or for a walk, smile, embrace life outside of the digital prison we sometimes find ourselves in.

If you can do this, I promise you, you will be a much happier and fulfilled individual, who will be rejuvenated to tackle anything in your life both professionally and personally.

Happy Monday!

Oh I nearly forgot, CRUSH THIS WEEK! And drink your coffee 🧠🫡

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