A bit of a rant on social media

I love to love/hate social media.

I really only pay attention to two social media sites and one of them is more of a brain melter site. Buzzfeed and Facebook.

Borrowing a term I read on Mr. Money Mustache both sites have marginal utility.


(Side note: this is a fantastic blog that I've been following for a couple of months. He's inspired me to invest, put more down on my mortgage, and write this blog.)

I'll start with Buzzfeed because it's the one I use the least. Other than finding entertainment news, I feel like Buzzfeed exists to keep me distracted from doing things that matter, like writing this blog, getting my job done, cleaning my house... I feel that if I could just break up with Buzzfeed I would free up brainpower, but beyond that I would become a more positive person. Let me explain.

Buzzfeed has entertainment value. I will give it that. It has quizzes, videos, articles, top ten lists, you name it. Despite all the nice looking things there, it's just as bad as the nightly news. There is no avoiding the fact that violence sells. It puts negative, depressing news stories right in your face. For the same reasons I avoid other clearinghouses of news that make me feel bad, I should avoid Buzzfeed. I have, unfortunatly, read some of the most disturbing news stories I've ever read on this site and the mind has an uncanny ability to remember the worst.

If you subscribe the Low-Information Diet a la Tim Ferris, which I first read about in his book The 4-Hour Work Week, Buzzfeed is a no brainer.

Before I launch into my tirade on Facebook, let me point out that I've cut Buzzfeed and Facebook for Lent before and never missed either one the entire time. They both crept back in and before I knew it, I was fully hooked.

When Facebook started at my college, I was a senior and had no interest in the site. One of the few good ideas younger me had. The same holds true today. I've been on and off Facebook at least 4 times citing different reasons each time I quit and rejoined:

It's gotta be cool (joined).
I don't want to see my ex-girlfriends posts, pictures, mentions, etc. (quit).
I'm over her (joined).
I spend too much time here (quit).
I want to stay in touch with family (joined).
Wow, younger me sounds like an idiot. Did I really write that? (quit).
I have to manage social media for work (joined).

This leads me to where I am today. To manage a Facebook business page, a person has to have an account. So I do. I also hid every person who has friended me from my timeline (other than my wife) and I only use it for work purposes.

That doesn't stop me from thinking that social media unnecessarily complicate things. Beyond the obvious time and soul sucking scrolling people seem to do for hour at a time (think of all the other things we could accomplish!), social media sets up unrealistic connections and friendships. I don't care what people from high school are up to. If I did, we'd still be friends. It used to be that when you parted ways with someone, you did just that. If you ever saw the person again, you met up for drinks and caught up. But now you know all the minutiae about their lives already so you literally have nothing to talk about.

Other than my own personal biases, there have been studies done on how chronic Facebook users (and nobody ever admits to 2-3 hours a day of scrolling) tend to be less happy that everyone else because they end up comparing their lives to the best lives everyone else portrays on social media. Or they get angry about political posts or whatever else.

So, I will continue to avoid Facebook, work to remove it from my job, cut Buzzfeed, and refrain from signing up for other social media sites.