It's OK not to have an opinion on everything
My three-week breaks each year, usually in Spring, Summer, and Winter, are rejuvenating. One of the things I most enjoy about them is that I give myself permission to come off social media for a bit. While I’m not a user of TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, or the like, even Mastodon or Bluesky can be an easy thing to reach for instead of doing something more interesting or useful.
There is no narrative to a social media feed. It’s just one thing after another, ordered either chronologically or algorithmically. Either isn’t great for trying to build a coherent picture of the world, especially given how emotionally-charged social media posts can be. As a former Nuzzel user, I’ve found Sill useful for avoiding FOMO. It creates a digest of the most popular links that your network is sharing, which is pretty useful.
What I’ve found myself leaning more into recently is experts making sense of the world as it happens. Two good examples of this are The Rest is Politics and The Athletic which make sense of the world of politics and football (soccer), respectively. Whether or not I agree with what the podcast host or article writer is saying, engaging with longer-form content provides much better context and helps me figure out what I think about a given situation.
Sometimes, of course, it’s OK not to have an opinion on something. This is not always understood or valued on social networks.
A 2023 study… [showed] how internet addiction causes structural changes in the brain that influence behavior and cognitive abilities. Michoel Moshel, a researcher at Macquarie University and co-author of the study, explains that compulsive content consumption — popularly known as doomscrolling — “takes advantage of our brain’s natural tendency to seek out new things, especially when it comes to potentially harmful or alarming information, a trait that once helped us survive.”
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The problem, says the researcher, is that social media users are constantly exposed to rapidly changing and variable stimuli — such as Instagram notifications, WhatsApp messages, or news alerts — that have addictive potential. This means users are constantly switching their focus, which undermines their ability to concentrate effectively.
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In December, psychologist Carlos Losada offered advice to EL PAÍS on how to avoid falling into the trap of doomscrolling — or, in other words, being consumed by the endless cycle of junk content amplified by algorithms. His recommendations included recognizing the problem, making a conscious effort to disconnect, and engaging in activities that require physical presence, such as meeting friends or playing sports.
Source: EL PAÍS
Image: Kelly Sikkema