Spending an hour (or twenty) doing absolutely nothing has never been easier. I routinely find myself “doomscrolling” on social media for hours on end without any care in the world. It turns out that TikTok is Gen Z’s version of alcohol, letting us drown all our worries in the never-ending dopamine-inducing brain-numbing consumerism of short-form videos. But how did we get here? More importantly, how do we get OUT?
Did you know that the average person spends about 3 hours on social media (TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat) every day? This is not healthy, yet we are addicted to our phones, relying on them every day to get that boost of dopamine. You might not have thought it, but all our time spent on TikTok is by design, though. The big companies controlling our social media, and by extension, our lives, have a vested interest in keeping us hooked. They want, no, they NEED us to keep watching, keep engaging, keep scrolling, all so they can rake in those sweet, sweet advertising bucks.
If it sounds like a conspiracy, well, that’s because it is. All of them rely on the same advertising companies to track us and profile us everywhere we go. Google and Apple secretly record our conversation, so they can serve us targeted ads that tug at our heartstrings. You’ve probably been there: talking about needing new pants, only to find a plethora of ads on Facebook, Insta, or TikTok about all sorts of new pants. You might have thought it coincidence, but in reality, it is anything but.
Over the past 20 years, the social media industry has been carefully built up around tracking and advertising. They offer these “free” services, leaving consumers like you and me entirely unaware that the service isn’t the product: we are. By contributing to their algorithm: consuming their content, watching their videos, we are feeding a hungry beast – one that will never be sated. They in turn are taking our content, our ideas, and selling them to the highest bidders, to train AI’s, to profit off OUR humanity, OUR souls. We must not stand for this.
The Way Out
Well then, how do we resist? It starts simple. Turn on an adblocker. Turn off the phone. Don’t engage, and don’t contribute. Starve the beast, and it will be tamed. But we can’t do this alone, my friends. Tell everyone you know to break their addictions; save them from the beast of social media; save them from themselves. Instead, go back to in-person. Go back to physical talking, and physical interactions. After all, they can’t reach you there.
How do you stay safe from social media? Let me know down in the comments!
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