The Social Media Trap - Instagram, TikTok etc.

[freddyteisen]

Each time you step on Instagram, TikTok or any other shortform social media, you get quickly sucked into the dopamine hit of stories, reels, posts, likes and trends.

Everyone is trying to grab your attention, hook you and grow — EVEN if the content is good & touches on important topics. The problem is the platform is designed for short attention span.

Yes, it’s fine once in a while to get some inspiration, and see what’s going on. But it’s a double edged sword. You get more out of being there less, and instead, digging into deeper stuff that requires longer attention span.

Personally I do use Instagram for my brand The Vital Fred, but I’d like to move my health and personal development content to YouTube, because I see There’s a trap in falling into the reel race. 

Having to post constantly to survive. Having to grow one’s audience. To reach wider and bigger. You get addicted to the growth, and you get attached to more followers and status.
You feel pressure that you must post.
You get information overload just being on the platform, because it quickly sucks you in.

You don’t really go in depth, it’s helpful—but It’s not profound enough. You don’t take the time to read, study and create something profound, because you get information overload, shortened attention span & lower consciousness.

This insight makes me naturally want to be less on social media, and spend more time letting go, researching, contemplating and building profound, deeper stuff (For me health and personal development related, because that’s my life purpose). I don’t disregard it completely, I’m just using it less.

Curious on what you guys’ relationships are with social media—how much time you spend on it and how it affects you. Let me know your take.

Edited May 11 by freddyteisen

[Flowerfaeiry]

I’m trying to grow on social media and yeah I thought that if my content is good enough then it will simply be watched. But you’re right. Instagram is unique in that it IS fueled by dopamine and these quick hits. So you HAVE to grab attention quickly. I don’t really like it…I think…still figuring that out. I’ve been posting every day for 2.5 months. Check me out.

[BlessedLion]

Totally agree, Instagram and TikTok are no mans land, it's not the place to teach anything meaningful or deep. And even worse if you yourself are trying to go deep and understand topics on a deeper level. It will scatter your attention and focus. 

What's better

5 min of porn addiction vid, 7 min of healthy eating, 3 min of how to talk to girls, 4 min of non dual insights, 10 min of work out tips, etc for 1.5 hours

 

Or

 

1 hour of a book on self mastery plus 30 min of contemplating/journaling what you read in silence?

[integration journey]

I use Instagram and Facebook to mainly check news about my native country Syria but I agree it’s so bad when you open it everyday. 

[integral]

You can't get everything you want in life. The game is deeply rooted in low Consciousness corrupt activities and you have drag your feet through the mud to get through it. Now you can do your best to follow your life purpose in a high conscious way but you still have to deal with the real world, which is dirty, messy and not ideal.

What brand are you building? Tiktok and Instagram are built for shorts so you're going to be redirecting them to let's say your course or whatever products you're pushing and you're going to create short form content that showcases what you're all about for those platforms. On YouTube you could create more long-form content.

[LordFall]

I use it to post content but I always found it profoundly boring to consume at lenghth. I mostly check on hot girls I know that post their butts to cheer up mankind a few minutes a day. 

I'm much more of the Youtube long form content type of social media consumer. 

[integration journey]

1 hour ago, LordFall said:

I use it to post content but I always found it profoundly boring to consume at lenghth. I mostly check on hot girls I know that post their butts to cheer up mankind a few minutes a day. 

I'm much more of the Youtube long form content type of social media consumer. 

Lol. I don’t understand why some of them love posting their butts. Do you know why? 

[LordFall]

@integration journey Simple biology, gets them attention. You gotta be thankful for small things like that, hopefully not too small though 😏

[freddyteisen]

@Flowerfaeiry Yea, I checked it out I love your message — well done for posting consistently for so long, I know it’s not easy at all.

As I mentioned it can definitely be helpful if we use it consciously, and post valuable stuff.
But yes, a big part is hooking the audience, and knowing what the intent of one’s content is: is it networking, dating, to inspire, express art, create a coaching business, a brand etc.

I like the idea of combining it with YouTube. Which is my plan.

@BlessedLion exactly. And I like that thought-experiment. Longer periods of focused attention is hard, but much more fruitful than dabbling from one topic to the next constantly—something I’m working on improving.

@integral I’m building a health & personal development brand—you get the idea when you see my instagram. I’m building on a course everything related to improving one’s health through mainly diet & functional movement.

[Basman]

18 hours ago, integration journey said:

Lol. I don’t understand why some of them love posting their butts. Do you know why? 

Girls like the feeling of being desirable.

[Lila9]

I agree.

I use Instagram only as a platform to showcase my art, as a sort of portfolio for those interested in my work, but I’m rarely active there. I don’t have the mental health or the desire to invest energy into promoting myself or playing the cruel marketing game crafted by greedy tech bros.

I usually post once in a while and then log out. I can’t stand the atmosphere. Everything feels fake and shallow, and it’s like my body is screaming in protest.

My heart fills with a deep, aching sadness. It feels dystopian. 

Apocalyptic, even.

So I teach my brain to resist the fear of missing out. I remind myself that in this era of overwhelming information, I don’t need to know everything, especially when so much of it is low-quality, fragmented, and deeply biased.