facebook detox

It's like one friend of mine said "it's junk food for your brain."

And it's totally true.  Don't get me wrong.  i LOVE junk food.  potato chips, doughnuts, cheetos, soda, tortilla chips, popcorn, dark chocolate kit kat, ice cream, kettle style potato chips... the goes on and on.

And it's coincidental that I have had to seriously cut back on my consumption of junk food because my metabolism has finally hit a wall.  My mid-life tragedy is almost complete.  So I have had to also cut back on my consumption of this one really bad brain junk food too: facebook.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't totally 100% taken facebook junk food out of my diet yet, but it's been seriously curtailed.  And yes, I love my seeing my friends and family too.  But there are limits to everything in life.

I've been running some self-experimentation, in the style of Tim Ferriss to figure out what works for me.  And ever since Nov. 8, 2016, I have found that participating in facebook, especially on mobile, is not healthy for my brain.  Along with making me impatient and angry, when I am on it, I want more of it.  Like a casino and its slot machines that practice variable ratio reinforcement on you, if I don't see a post that entertains or informs me, then I look for another.  After the satisfaction of consumed, it, I seek more.  And so on and so forth.  

I also realized that I also continued to think of fun, clever, and entertaining or informative posts to share.  It felt like I was in a self-contained coopetition with my friends for fun, clever, informative, and entertaining shit to share.  So not only was I wasting my time consuming brain junk food with variable ratio reinforcement, but I was also contributing to the consumption of it by others.  In my spare brain cycles, I would constantly be thinking of taking this picture or that picture and making a joke or sarcastic comment.  AND YES, while very fun and engaging with my friends, it was a hamster wheel.  It didn't help me to earn more money, it didn't help me to be better at my day job, it didn't help me be a better husband or father, it didn't help me get more accomplished in my nights and weekends jobs, and it didn't make by body more healthy.

I am happy to report that for me, I am back to reading great books, and listening to very short snippets of national and local news to keep me informed about what is going on and I FEEL and THINK more clearly now.  CLARITY.  I am more focused on an exciting possible new side business venture involving bitcoin too.  FOCUS.  Just like the song goes, "I can see clearly now, the rain is gone."  I don't allow myself to facebook on a mobile device.  DISCIPLINE.

I will not participate in a drone-like existence to further the maniacal efforts of The Zuck to take over every aspect of the online world, to mine what I do, to sell my information, and to profit while not making the world a better place.  Here is an interesting critique of his manifesto.

Anyways, if you read this far, then thanks for making it.  Hope to see you IRL soon.
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