DISTRACTION CREATES NO ACTION

Social media distraction is at an all-time high. It’s to the point where people aren’t living, but instead choose to sit in isolation, all day, and view reel after reel.

By Brad Bowling

or generations, Americans expected to raise their children to do better than they did. They knew if they provided them with a certain upbringing they would get a better education, which would lead to a better job, which would pay a better wage, and ultimately create a better life.

But for the first time, maybe ever, the current generation of the population might not fair as well as their parents. Young adults and children are less and less motivated than ever. There are many reasons why certain demographics of people are underperforming. Distraction sits at the top of a long list of reasons why so many people seem to be unmotivated to enhance their own lives.

Social Media Distraction

The distraction of social media is real. It refers to the process by which social media cues draw an individual’s attention away from a task that they were originally pursuing (e.g., working). Due to especially mobile access to social media, distractions by social media can occur frequently and often.

Because people have smartphones, they can’t seem to escape the addictive behavior of scrolling through the phone, and watching reel after reel of mindless entertainment. The problem is getting so bad that experts have warned parents about how much time young adults and children spend on their phones.

Social media use can negatively affect teens, distracting them, disrupting their sleep, and exposing them to bullying, rumor spreading, unrealistic views of other people’s lives, and peer pressure. The risks could be related to how much social media teens use.

For adults entering the workforce, the problem of social media distraction is impacting their performance, ability to advance in the workplace, and overall focus. Smartphones have reduced the attention spans of people with quick and instant gratification, affecting the brain’s ability to focus on anything else people feel is less interesting.

According to the latest data, the average amount of time spent on social media worldwide is set to hit 147 minutes, or two hours and 27 minutes, a day in 2023. It is suggested that people spend no more than 10 minutes, per site, a day in order to mitigate the effects of social media distraction.

Fake News

Fake news was a term made famous by former President Donald Trump. During his election run, and during his tenure as president, he made many mentions of just how fake the press was. His assessment, while exaggerated, is not far off.

Today, social media, and sometimes the news will spread disinformation in order to gain views or attention. This tactic preys on those who might be susceptible to believing what they hear or read. Lies told on the internet are shaped as the truth, which impacts those who are less educated. This creates an increased sensitivity to a poor reaction, based on what information they’re getting.

Mass shootings have increased in America due to the spread of misinformation. If you hear about a mass shooter, you might not know who the person is, but you definitely can assume they fit a certain profile. Most often, they are a white male, age 20-30 years old, involuntarily celibate, socially awkward, and finally, they subscribe to some online following, which feeds their paranoia to the point that they act on their beliefs or fears.

Lack Of Sex And Touch

Never has there been a time when people are having such little sex. The invention of dating sites has crippled how people meet and engage each other. The statistics show that over 80 percent of women are only swiping right on 5 percent of the available men online. This means that the majority of men who are looking to date are not getting responses online. This lack of sex has become a real distraction for some men leading them to spend countless hours pursuing touch and physical satisfaction.

This also means that people are having less and less sex. This is creating a culture of men who tend to compensate for the lack of real intimacy by using the internet to fill their sexual void. Sites like OnlyFans, and other sites that promote naked bodies or sexual activity, are exploding. By not experiencing real touch, millions of young men have a skewed perception of what dating is like.

Rape, human trafficking, and kidnappings are all on the rise due to a lack of intimacy and touch and the distraction is impacting young people the most. Touch starvation can cause increased heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension, as well as one’s breathing rate to go up, with bad effects on the immune and digestive systems. These things can lead to poor quality of sleep and a higher risk of infections.

As always, it is hard to get the genie back into the bottle when it comes to discussing how to fix society lems. But if you are a person who suffers from a lack of motivation, you might want to try to reduce how much time you spend on social media.

The impact of being distracted can quickly be reversed with time spent away from the computer and phone, coupled with cultivating real relationships with people who genially care about your well regulation of how much time is spent on social media might be difficult, but the alternative might be much worse. ●