Chapter 313 - The Social Media Cleanse[4]

Apply the Law of "F.u.c.k Yes" or No to your social media connections – Go through all of your friends/follows lists, ask yourself two questions: "Is being connected with this person adding value to my life?" and "Does this person/group help me grow (i.e., overcoming fears and anxieties) or make me weak (i.e., amplifying fears and anxieties?)" If the answers aren't emphatic F.U.C.K YES's then you need to unfriend or unfollow them.If you get hung up on someone or something and wonder if they're worth keeping, the fact that you have to stop and wonder if they're worth following is a sign that they're not worth following. Get f.u.c.k.i.n.g ruthless. This is your attentional health we're talking about here.

Unfollow ALL news and media outlets (including sports and entertainment) – It's undeniable that news media is becoming more anemic, short-sighted, and inaccurate. Most articles are written for clickbait, not for veracity and utility.Social media plays into these worst incentives of the media. They fight for your clicks by upsetting you, by poking at hot-button issues that FEEL as though they matter a great deal, but actually don't. They create addictive cycles of outrage which not only fail to inform you about what you need to know but actually make you more resistant to facts.As citizens, it's our duty to opt out of this toxic system. And the first (and simplest) way to do that is to simply unfollow and unsubscribe from ALL news sources on social media. Don't worry, I will discuss better ways to stay informed and receive news below.

Uninstall any apps that feel pointless after doing the above – If you did the two steps above correctly, your social media accounts should be much leaner, and in some cases, almost empty. This is good. The beauty of unfollowing/unfriending masses of connections is that not only do you get rid of all of the toxic and unhealthy information hijacking your attention, but you also have maybe 10% as much content when you log on. You scroll your newsfeed a couple of times and voila! You're looking at the same shit you saw yesterday. Time to put your phone down and go do something useful.But before you do that, take another look at your social media accounts. Chances are at least one of them is so barren that there's hardly even a reason to open it anymore. The beauty of simplifying your accounts like this is that it really shows you which networks provide pleasure and which networks are just there because you feel like you have to be on them. For me, it showed me that I actually enjoy Twitter and to a lesser extent Instagram. Facebook is just this annoying thing I have to be on. So, I deleted Facebook off my phone. It felt weird at first, but I realized that I was needlessly checking it 5+ times each day. Deleting it freed me from most of those.