The Destructive Trifecta: Social Media, Stress, and Laziness.

We've covered mindset and introduced some basic habits to increase your productivity for the day, but what about free time? Are you someone who spends most of your "downtime" on TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook? Do you feel that this benefits your productivity? As a teenager and someone who has these apps, I know that I spend too much time going down rabbit holes on social media. Hours can go by in the blink of an eye with a screen up to your face; vacuuming your attention to video after video. On average, people spend 2 hours and 24 minutes daily on social media platforms. 


Let's consider economics: opportunity cost. You may spend roughly 2.5 hours scrolling through social media per day, which is 2.5 hours that could be spent on reading a book, completing homework, meditation, or a wide variety or healthier activities. A multitude of ordinary people might themselves struggling when trying to divert their "down time" to something more healthy than staring at a screen for 2.5 hours per day. Do you?


I find that a lot of solutions to this problem are resolved with setting screen time limits, and tracking your screen time habits. Does this really work? Maybe it does for you, but I know a plethora of people, including parents, who find that it doesn't. You can easily override a screen time limit, and a lot of times it can be hard to want to do something better with your time. What if you also don't really want to delete the app?


One thing that is key to know in this situation is that a lot of social media platforms utilize an algorithm to show the users content that they want to see. Therefore, the user is more inclined to like the content, furthering the time the app may be used per day. Media also takes your focus off of your stressful to-do lists, deadlines, and emotional health issues. It can send us into a "blank" state of disassociating from these burdens, which feels nice at the moment, right? This can be compared to drug use; a lot of people turn to substances as a "distraction" during times of hardship. This doesn't solve your problem if you haven't noticed; it only procrastinates the emotional processing of your problem. Social media can be almost "addicting" in the same way. A multitude of people's days off look like bed rotting on their phones for hours. 


I will have some more content later this week to summarize this topic, but I really want YOU to sit and think about this information. Consider the statements above, are you affected by the destructive trifecta?

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