I stopped my Social Media.
I forgot where I first read it. Must’ve been one of those “Don’t do this first thing in the morning” posts. or “Avoid this One Thing.” Something like that. And the “one thing” was get on Social Media. Twitter. Instagram. Facebook. Reddit. Imgur. Any of it. These were marked as mind killers.
What I had found by my own experience was that if I did get on twitter, or reddit, or whatever, likely from a notification overnight, or worse, something–“just one little post”–that came in while I was beginning my day, my entire morning routine would get derailed. I would read that one post, look at the comments, maybe reply, look at another post, and on and on. And before you knew it, my actual responsibilities–making lunches, transporting children, team meetings–were hammering on my doorstep. I’d fallen into a hole that was hard to dig out.
What happened to me? Why is Social Media so addictive? Each link, each post drives us towards the hope of new discovery, of new engagement, and when we find it, our brain releases Dopamine. I started reading about Dopamine Detox, like this blog post. I tried to regulate it. Just click on a few people. But it’s too difficult. At least for me. If you can view just a few, you are stronger than I am.
I once read that technically, you don’t like anything in life. You like Dopamine. It is the neurotransmitter on the internal side of every drug that gets you high. (I recently saw an ad for a game, claiming that it created such intense Dopamine bursts that it would enhance your orgasms.)
So I quit. Didn’t tell anyone. No grand “This is my last post!” posts. I just left.
One day, by accident, I saw I had 16 notifications on twitter. I guess they are still there. That nobody reached out–my email and twitter are closely linked–tells me they weren’t that important. And I have a LOT more control of my morning routine. Not to mention the rest of the day.