You don’t want to do this at home

Countless times I’ve witnessed that I’ve started my day with the brief check of social media. I’d wake up, check my phone, and than waste anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes. By that time I would have so much noise in my head, that anything that would come after would be pointless to great extent.

Why is this important for creators

As a person who aspires to create more, this is a determent to my productivity, as any original thoughts of my own, are stomped in the hum of the internet noise. And this is my 3rd attempt of “going clean”, or at least lean. And if I start in the morning, it is going pretty great.

The world has a completely new dimension. The peace and calm is letting me pause and reflect. Be more decisive about the things that I truly want to do. Even now, despite sitting at the computer, I am still not facing the internet. I deliberately shut down my wifi access, to make absolutely sure that I won’t be interrupted. And it works. All I have is a blank piece of screen in front of me, and I am managing to fill it out with words.

Despite writing being a natural habit for me at this point, quality that I deliver when I am disconnected is on a way higher level.

Doing your own thinking

I feel free, yet connected at the same time, but not with the rest of the world, this time I feel connected to myself, and my original thoughts and ideas. Which is in line with my school of thoughts related to Alpha Efficiency: “Doing your own thinking”.

If I would read this sentence from some self help book, I would think it’s an utter bs, but this one came out as a product of my own thinking. My own thinking, about doing your own thinking, get it?

Which is exactly what I am doing right now. And it is quite empowering to give yourself permission to do so. Because the ultimate reason why people aren’t doing their own thinking is fear of coming out with their own conclusions. And it perfectly makes sense, because that lack of confidence is pushing people into always relying on what others have to say about that. And ultimately you have no power over your thinking process once you “outsource” your own thinking.

How is this related to social media?

Social media is a catalyst of global consciousness, and people started deepening their world bubble, instead of expanding it. We always resort to the thoughts and ideas of the people that are more like us, yet we are also exposed to the thoughts and ideas that are dramatically different from us.

In order to understand this, we have to imagine and pretend for the moment, that we are the person who doesn’t uses the internet. I will give you a few seconds, yes. Tune into the mind of the person that is completely offline. What kind of world does that person have?

He is having coffee, he is being bombarded with the propaganda from the television. He goes out, talks with the neighbors, that are similar to him, and to certain extent share his world view and reality. And the whole world feels like a unburstable bubble, as the environment and reality are tight. There is not a lot of room for critical thinking, because it’s real, while it’s not.

But what happens when the internet and social media come into play?

Now you would think that internet would solve this problem? But ultimately internet doesn’t stop this pattern, it actually pushes it further ahead, because now there is ultimate freedom of choice over what kind of informations we want to consume. We are being empowered to create reality that is more in line with what we have deep within ourselves. And this bubble becomes even bigger, as people are plugging into their own little echo chambers, that don’t allow them to look further ahead from their world.

The ultimate result of this devolution is creating even smaller world. Because internet is closing down on us. That same neighbour without the internet, is now on Facebook, and he is connecting only with the people from his immediate surroundings, and while he is shutting of further from the new, he is plunging deeper into the world of social media.

But when he exhausts the immediate surroundings, and if he is social and brave enough to venture into the world, he is going out and he will look for even more people that are like him. Makes sense?

That is why I am made a conscious decision to plunge off social media as much as I can, yet I will remain online. I will not be a snob, I will reply to your comments on social networks. But the only difference this time around, is the fact that I won’t be connected. I won’t be there in real time, as I have the urge to disconnect and create.