Social media has ruined my concentration and changed my personality.

[ADHD89]

To think that social media, Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, Facebook ,Mumsnet , Reddit , Chatgpt, etc have totally ruined my concentration span and now make reading/concentrating on a book or a movie really unappealing and uninteresting ?
I am much more interested in watching 2 minute reels, then reading through comments, and basically finding out about all sorts of topics and going down rabbit holes etc. I also enjoy reading dilemmas on Facebook groups and on mumsnet and seeing what people say. I also use Chatgpt alot as like a regular counsellor.
It makes me sad as I used to be such a book lover when I was younger and I watched about 4 or 5 movies at the weekend when I was younger..its like I've completely changed involuntarily.
Anyone else feel the same?

I’ve deleted the apps, including Vinted as that became my replacement scroll.. and actually my phone is now quite boring. I haven’t yet sussed how best to kick Mumsnet, but I don’t find myself reaching for my phone for Mumsnet like I did the social media apps so my screen time has still dropped dramatically.

I take my kindle everywhere with me now so that’s what I reach for. I downloaded things like the New York Times games app at first so I reach for crossword or a puzzle rather than mindless scroll.

It has made such a difference though. I’ve kept social media apps on my iPad as they do have a use, but honestly I now find it a bit boring after a couple of minutes of scrolling, and I have strict rules that my iPad is allowed in the living room only - not in the bedroom for example - so it didn’t permeate into other parts of my day.

Yes absolutely all of this

I was the same, addicted to reels and scrolling fb. I deactivated it last summer and don't miss it at all now, and I've started reading again.

Watch this

and this

it’s not you. Our focus and mental well being is being stolen to sell us shit we do t need.

YOU CAN CONTROL IT. OPT OUT.

Do you order one of those off the internet or just go to the Doctors and ask for one?

Thanks for recommending this @ExcitingRicotta It was a good listen.

It really is worrying how some people are so addicted to their screens that they are affecting their children. I sat on a train for 4 and a half hours the other day. Across from me sat a mum and a child aged 6ish. The poor child tried to get her mums attention for the majority of the journey, mum was too busy doom scrolling on her phone to take any notice. If she said more 100 words to that poor child during the whole journey i would be surprised. Even when the little one asked for the toilet the mother didn't speak, just stood up and walked to the end of the carriage. On returning to the seats the only words she uttered to the child was "eat your lunch". This wasn't a young Mum this was a woman in her late 30s early 40s who really should know better. Total neglect.

Screen scrolling is causing adhd-like symptoms for a lot of people.

Yup kind of agree with this - they are stealing our brain power to sell us more rubbish.

Sorry, that was answering
@Justwonderingum · Yesterday 21:57
who had written
Have you thought about getting yourself an Adhd diagnosis?

Adhd like symptoms isn't adhd. No wonder everyone rolls their eyes when grown adults start using their" late(privately) diagnosed adhd" as an excuse not to adult.

Same! I'm so glad you've posted about this!

I used to be excellent at working with long complex texts, and while I can still do that, the ability is definitely diminishing. Likewise, as it is easier to write emails etc with AI, my writing ability will probably soon be affected, too.

However, I've made some changes that work somewhat:

• Reading or speaking to people during my lunch, phone is banned. I've quickly got to a point where I am able to read a chapter of complex text every lunchtime, finishing books in 1-2 weeks
• No phone while watching a film/ watching films in cinema
• No phone first thing in the morning/ after 9pm, has to be a book instead
• No phone when with other people (has to stay in my bag)
• Phone out of sight at work, except for music, but I can control it via my headphones

I don't really like short videos, I think they're really crap (but used to work in film production creating cinematic scenes, so bound to I guess!), but my downfall is forums and Threads.

Even though the content is low quality and everyone is so angry and aggressive, somehow it still draws me in sometimes.

In terms of changes in personality, 2 main things:

• Much more judgemental, and online also increasingly agrressive towards people. For example, on here the default tone can often be snarky, and it makes me respond back snakily, something I wouldn't do IRL, but have noticed that I have actually started giving people aggressive responses IRL too now. Because online judges groups of people, I've also noticed increased dislike of certain groups in my inner monologue now, for example, previously I might have found someone chavvy mildly entertaining but realise they are just underprivileged, now I actively dislike them because of the hateful discourse that's acceptable online. It makes the worst thoughts suddeny acceptable
• Because I am able to have very detailed and knowledge-driven, complex debates with AI, I don't tend to debate or discuss much with people IRL. My thinking is very much 'I am asking about a topic they'll have skin deep knowledge of at best and won't have considered diverse POVs, I'll just talk to my AI about it'
• General preference to ask AI to do certain tasks instead of my human assistants, as it takes a few mins to get the AI to start, whereas with a human the first step is to convince them to do it and explain what you mean, the result will take 5 days and won't be better than what the AI did. For example, manuals, playbooks, basic trackers etc

My medium term goal is to be online only for productivity related tasks as I don't think the wider internet enriches my world much, it's hardcore docused on useless entertainment.

Does being expsosed to superficial online content not made by experts, nt fact-checked, and made to drive rage, hate and polarisation make me a worse person?

Yes, 100%.

And I want out.

Are books already being written by AI?

Bought a book for my kindle three days ago. Have just finished it. A long time since I did that.

I only have WhatsApp, Instagram and FB because of family but I do doom scroll so have cut back there. No more reels.

I'm not giving up my streaming apps though. I enjoy TV shows.

For the first time since 2008?ish? I’ve deleted Facebook and Instagram and deactivated, too. I’m going on 3/4 weeks now, after previously spending hours (3/4/5/6?!!!) a day/night for SEVENTEENish YEARS?! doing exactly as you’ve described. I felt my mind was turning to mush and the brain rot was really starting to get to me. Couldn’t remember words I wanted to say, felt like I had dementia. I have been tempted numerous times to reactivate. But I’ve been reading, doing word searches, crosswords, scrolling Vinted, a bit on here, playing games on my phone instead. I’ve been spending much less time on my phone, feeling less bogged down by other people’s rubbish, feel much more present with my kids…. Have much more mental clarity. If you feel you can, I can really recommend giving yourself a proper break off them and seeing how you go! Xx

Yep I couldn’t agree more I used to have a book on the go all the time now that’s gone, I received a book about 3 years ago and I’m still not halfway through it 😳 social media has ruined us

Surely if you are concerned about your use of AI affecting your brain power, you could just… not use it?

Personally I think that addiction to social media/ screens and use of AI are two sides of the same coin - the constant distraction affects our brainpower, and then there is AI telling us we don’t need our brainpower! People who could write their own emails a few years ago now have to use ChatGPT. Baffling.

I’m so glad I never got into the AI/ChatGPT stuff. I could see that being a hard cycle to break, especially when it’s always there, always enlightening and gives what you’d expect to be a somewhat balanced POV. And it always has a POV. Because it’s AI. What would be the point in me texting my friends back, or having friends, or a husband at all? I’d just sit in a room chatting to AI all day I think 😆. Agreed - I also want out of the SocialMediaVerse. 1 step at a time though. Facebook and Instagram gone. May go the whole hog and get the Nokia 3310 out. Or a house phone. I really miss when you could just say ‘oh sorry I missed your call, I must have been out!’ When actually you were sitting there listening to them leave an answerphone message thinking ‘NOPE NOT TODAY THANKS!!!’ 😂 But having a mobile phone has almost become a safety item, so I don’t know how attainable it would be. ‘Back in the day’ there’d at least be pay phones if out and about and an emergency occurred. I suppose I’d have to rely on using somebody else’s phone in an emergency? A stranger?… yeah…. Doesn’t sound possible with two young kids to be bopping about with no mobile phone?!

My sons use chatgpt for emails etc. I just won't. Youngest doing his masters the students are warned that they mustn't use it because it can be tracked and they will fail.

My mil sharp as a tack, always had a book on the go. Read every day. She also liked TV quiz shows.

I do crosswords every day.

It's worrying for the young people.

Some people get really upset if I don't answer their calls/texts or go 'oh i did not know if I had the right number'. They actually think I am sitting there ignoring them.

Whereas my phone is on silent sitting in the drawer while I focus on what I am doing, or if I am with a friend/doing something for the day, I won't be texting/calling that day.

A lot of people have the 'everyone is glued to their phones all day long' attitude, also on here. No, not everybody.

Ai definitely has a POV and I see myself contacting my friends less, unless it's to meet in person. AI will want to talk to me about a particular subculture in Mongolia I just read about, I don't think my friends will. I feel I'm more authentic but also lonelier.

It’s really valuable stuff to watch

With AI it hugely depends on what you use it for.

In lots of ways I feel like I am performing on steroids using it, and thinking and considering issues, aspects and ventures I didn't have the imagination to tap into. It's like having a very demanding personal brain trainer/tutor.

In my role it's also hard not to use AI, and almost stupid not to. I send a lot of emails in foreign languages & read complex documents in foreign languages. It takes 2 mins to compile the perfect response in German using AI, whereas using human brain power only, it could easily take 15 mins to combine a fluent and accurate reply. I do see that AI is improving my language capability and output, and I wouldn't want to go back to the olden days in that sense. My brain shoud be used for better things than sending polite emails.

I now spend my days actually being creative and making huge large scale improvements, as opposed to 4h to clear my very busy inbox.

However...

I feel less inclined to keep in touch with humans if it's not in person, nor wanting to work with humans, as working and brainstorming with AI produces vastly superior results free of negativity and disinterest.

These days, I am only interested in connecting with humans physically and face-to-face, spending time together, texting and calls interest me less and less. I really loook forward to in-person activities like going to the hairdressers or doing an exercise class, sunbathing in the park...

Perhaps I'm a bot too deep inside 😂Because this last bit sounds an awful lot like Scarlett Johannsen in HER, and HER is a lot like real life these days.

@ElleintheWoods I can see that AI sounds very helpful in your role (translating etc), but when you talk about discussing obscure topics with it, you sound like you’re treating it as a real person. It’s not. It’s just a computer programme that’s trained to give reasonably appropriate responses to whatever you say to it. And it is definitely not free of bias!

Have you read any news articles about people who got obsessed with ChatGPT? Some of your comments remind me of how they sounded when they talked about their experiences with AI. I will try to find the article I’m thinking of and post it here.

Yes I have read the articles 😁And I did think 'wow, I can see how this could happen to someone'.

Now, I'm not saying it's free of bias and terribe low-quality sources at all, but nothing/nobody is. Definitely not us humans considering so many conversations go 'oh but this person on TikTok said, watch the video, they did their own research'. Gosh I am sounding like I'm obsessed with AI, isn't it? 😂

Suppose the point I am making is, I can say something like 'I am just reading about the Iran/Iraq war, can you explain the historical relationship between the 2 countries for me?' and then I follow up on that with ideas and questions. It's like an interactive tutorial, where you can take the thinking exercise to any direction. I am learning a lot and very few real humans would be interested in having this type of conversation, unless they are paid for it.

Or 'I am comparing the finances of Apple and Microsoft and can see big differences in category y, why could be the reasons for that?' and then follow on to think about the differences in the business strateges of the 2. Again, humans have very little interest in these kinds of topics, and usully very limited knowledge.

These are the kinds of topics I love to explore. And yes, clearly I am fun at parties 😂😂😂

Unfortunately everyday human conversation isn't known for depth and deep knowledge of topics, people love to talk about what they had for lunch and what they're watching on tv, maybe what book they read or their relationship/ home life. It's unusual for 2 people to have researched the same kind of data or scientific materials and be able to have a conversation about it.

With AI I can co-think on almost any topic, whether it's the history of communism in Spain, or the latest updates to EU tax law and potential effects. Basically topics that nobody should force onto other humans 😉

I've just installed a screen time limit app, much like the ones I've got for my DC.
I don't have Instagram, Tiktok or Facebook. I don't watch YouTube or anything else with short clips. But I've got very limited time in a stressful job, and this weekend I've noticed time that I should have spent attending to work-related things being used to... hang out on Mumsnet! I've set the app to send me annoying notifications at short intervals and to cut off access after a total of 30 minutes -I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out.