Learning: Overcoming The Brain Rot Of Social Media

The digital world created for the young Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha has become hard to escape and turn away from which has largely affected our growth, mind function and energy levels. The social media world has taken over our way of life, while it is a great way to connect and network with others, it has also affected our in real life communication. Learning has become a thing of hard work while we feed off of peoples opinions on social media.

Brain rot means mental dullness that can be as a result of excessive social media use. We crave instant gratification by mindless scrolling social media while we consume things that really does not help our mental growth or health. It makes harder for us to engage things that do help us stay productive such as reading a book, working on a skill, learning a course, listening to a friend’s conversation, writing or even just going out on a walk. Social media hits the dopamine in our brains, which is a chemical messenger which plays a role in our learning, memory, reward, mood and motivation, which causes us to get addicted to mindless scrolling and decreases our attention span, critical thinking skills and makes it even harder to retain information in our heads.

So how do we overcome the brain rot of social media and become learners again? The first step is to, Know what you want, when you have set your mind on what will help your health best, you can then continue reading this blog post

-Focus On What To Do
-Reduce Screen Time
-Delete Apps
-Learn Deep Work
-Use Social Media With Intention

Focus On What To Do
Keeping your mind on what you want and not do want will help you achieve this goal faster.Focusing o the negatives like what you would miss if you go off for a little while or the messages that might come in will definitely not let you off the grid of getting off social media. Focus on all the peace of mind you will get, finally noticing the little things that matter, boosting your creativity and getting your head space right again.

Reduce Screen Time
Setting boundaries around social media will help improve your time management skills and help improve your thought process as a person. Brain rot has turned us practically into zombies with no opinions of our own. Take off time to learn new things from other sources such physical books and written papers, get out of the house and experience the outdoors, pick hobbies that are not social media related.

Delete Apps
I know this may sound very hard but delete apps that do not add to your growth or build your mental capacity. The brain is a muscle that needs to be trained especially with the tools that will keep it sharp and not addicted. People over time have began to switch to smaller cell phones, limited social media apps which helped them own control over their time and feeds.

Learn Deep Work
Deep Work by Cal Newport, he writes on the ability to focus intensely on a cognitively demanding task without any distractions, for a prolonged period of time especially in a digital world like ours. Embrace the boredom that comes with doing the work your brain doesn’t want to do. Choose productivity over pleasure.

Use Social Media With Intention

Know why you are using the social media platforms you are on. Why you choose to be on Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Facebook should be for an intended positive and productive reason. Knowing why you are on a particular platform will help you focus on why you need to be there and when you should be there.

Social media has become a part of our life and trying to get it out of the way might be harder that it already seems, but instead of letting it win and control every function of your life, it is best to start now and limit it’s hold over your learning, your thought process and your mental health.

Book recommendations:

Digital Minimalism- Cal Newport
Atomic Habits- James Clear
Keep Going- Austin Kleon
Deep Work - Cal Newport
Steal like An Artist- Austin Kleon [For your creative work]