Episode 32: How Social Media Hijacks Your Brain (& What To Do About It)

Social media. That ever-present influence in our technology-obsessed culture.

If you are like Tracey and Cayly, you have found yourself wrapped up in social media a little too frequently and have started to wonder if your use of these platforms is, perhaps, not as healthy as it could be.

On this week’s episode of Curious & Curiouser, Tracey and Cayly are talking about how to start using social media more mindfully, exploring some of the ways technology can overtake our lives, and offering some suggestions on how to begin disengaging from your devices on a more regular basis.

This conversation also explores how Facebook and Instagram hijack our brains, why the developers of these apps are so good at enticing us, and what we’re missing out on when we fill otherwise empty space by visiting social media platforms and repeatedly refreshing our feed.

Tracey and Cayly wanted to talk about this topic because they, too, are guilty of over-engagement with social media and are seeking to create healthier habits in their own lives when it comes to their involvement online.

So, if you have anything to add to this conversation — including any tools or techniques you have discovered for keeping your own social media use in check — please send an email to [email protected] and share your insights!

As always, reviews and 5-star rating in iTunes are appreciated, so please hop over to the show page and leave one (or both) if you are enjoying the podcast! Tracey and Cayly would really appreciate it!

- Highlights from this episode:

- Episode 30 on habit change (http://organicacupunctureportland.com/curious-curiouser-podcast-episode-30-willpower-lie-truths-habit-change/)

- Do Tracey and Cayly get social media updates on their phones?

- Why social media is addictive and how it manipulates your brain’s reward center

- What happens in your brain when someone “likes” something you post on social media?

- Getting validation of our worth through social media

- Turn Off Your Phone. And Other Tips for Making Magic. (on Cayly’s website) (http://organicacupunctureportland.com/turn-off-your-phone-and-other-tips-for-making-magic-time/)

- Why it’s important to be bored and the lost art of waiting without looking at your phone

- The advice Cayly got from her astrologer this year (http://www.carolferrisastrology.com/)

- What life was like before cell phones and social media

- We are overly accessible to each other

- Social media and compassion fatigue; then dangers of emotional oversharing on social media

- Is social media replacing intimate interactions and in-person relationships?

- How healthy is it for us to be plugged in all the time?

- What Cayly has realized about how the relationship between her anxiety and her social media use

- Have Tracey or Cayly ever taken a significant break from social media since they started using it regularly?

- Using social media for work as a gateway to overuse

- Deep Work:  Rules for Focused Work in a Distracted World by Cal Newport and how we’re losing the capacity to focus on one task for extended periods of time (https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692)

- Why Cayly regularly unfollows people on Facebook

- How Tracey curates her social media feed

- What does healthy use of email look like? How do Tracey and Cayly use email?

- How Cayly is trying to restrict her use of social media

- Cayly’s advice for disengaging from technology, especially as a self-employed person

- Can you have a successful business in 2017 without social media?

- Alexandra Franzen (http://www.alexandrafranzen.com/)

- And more!