The Internet Is Ruining Your Life

The average young adult is spending:

• 3 hours watching TV and YouTube videos

• 1 and a half hours scrolling social media

• 1 hour browsing the internet

per day.

It's safe to say we are spending too much time on the internet. This isn't about lecturing you about your screen time. The internet is ruining your life in ways you don't even realize.

Please keep an open mind.

You are being manipulated. Tricked into believing problems that do not exist.

Your psychology is captured by things that do not matter and they distract you from what actually matters.

Reports of depression, uncertainty and stress has gone through the roof.

So, while your state of mind gets worse, the manipulators on the other side of the screen get rich.

The thing is when this happens at scale, to many people, the world gets worse.

Let me introduce you to the internet distortion theory.

How the internet is ruining your life

95 million photos and videos are shared on Instagram daily.

More than 500 hours of video content is uploaded to YouTube every minute. 

Think about the sheer of volume of all that content uploaded compared to the tiniest percentage you see.

Algorithms decide what to feed you. It does this in couple ways:

• What you have engaged with before

• What other people like you are engaging with.

It's all about engagement.

Here’s the thing I really want you to understand.

The internet is a business. The platform and the advertisers all rely on the creators constantly uploading content that grabs your attention.

Your attention is the most valuable currency in the world right now.

Your attention is the difference between a starving artist and a multi - millionaire.

Content designed to capture your attention attempts to resonate deeply with your pains and desires.

The better the piece hit your problems and goals, the better it performs and the most people it reaches.

But you only have a limited amount of problems in your life. You might have a bunch of little problems but it's the small number big problems that is most potent for you.

So, you have advertisers, corporations, big creators and small creators all trying to target the limited number of big problems in your life.

When you have something to sell: an idea, a product or a course — the game of quickly becomes one of who can create the most dramatic and sensationalized portrayal of the problem. And who can offer the biggest and fastest result.

If one type of content does really well, others will create it too and the trend begins.

You believe what you repeatedly see. Since, you continually receive exposure to the same idea, it becomes what you think is true.

What started off as a seed of truth has now become an overly dramatic situation which has distorted your perception of reality. Here's where the nocebo effect kicks in.

The nocebo effect is when a negative outcome occurs because of a negative belief held to be true.

Most people recognize that boys are doing poorly in school compared to their females peer. I wonder to what extent this exists because of the nocebo effect.

Schools are dominated are by women with the ideologies of a post me too culture. They would want to champion the girls while the boys are neglected.

Most people recognize the modern dating scene is fucked up.

I wonder if the dating scene is fucked simply because so many people believe it is fucked.

In dating context, girls are portrayed as opportunistic, entitled and demanding hoes. On the other side men are portrayed as insecure, toxic and disgusting boys.

Where are the good guys at? The girls ask.

Where are the good girls at? The boys ask.

Not on the internet.

When you bring such negative assumptions into your relationships, perhaps you shouldn't be so surprised that is what you find.

The nocebo effect is real and it's truly these worst assumptions we make about each other that does so much damage. We can easily bring something atrocious into the world that didn't previously exist.

Get off the internet

The most dramatic and perception distorting views rise to the surface.

Nuance and understanding is lost in a haze of marketing and engagement.

Jordan Peterson is a controversial public figure. What you think and feel about him is not the point. Despite everything we see online about him, he says "my life is unbelievably positive — the problems are only in the virtual world".

The Mr Beast Drama last year even reached me. In a recent podcast Jimmy said, "the problems are only on the internet".

So, the message is get off the internet.

[touch grass bro, you already know that]

I went for a walk in the sun one Saturday afternoon and when I looked around I couldn't help but think where are the problems:

• boys and girls were playing together in the playground

• the parents were laughing together

• a group of twenty-somethings were having a bbq — no phones in sight

• couples were having picnics togethers

• a dad was teaching his sons how to fish

It was peaceful — serotonin josh was in his element that day.

Internet Proof Yourself

Ignorance is bliss.

If you are oblivious to what is happening on the internet, it cannot have any effect of your.

Let's be practical though — you are are going to spend time on the time. You are going to see a lot of nonsense that resonates with you.

In the moment it will seem to make sense.

Here are a couple principles to remember:

1. Good news is not news

2. Don't concern yourself with things you cannot control. If something is happening and you can only watch, disconnect from it.

This is how I do it.

Question everything

There is one question i ask myself about my beliefs:

"Is this belief serving me and my goals?" If it isn't ,it has to be dropped immediately.

I have been rejected by girls alot — every guy who has put themselves out there has.

I could choose to blame the girls. Be bitter and resentful. Say they're all for the streets. It doesn't matter how right or wrong it is — i would still choose to reject it.

Carrying negative beliefs about girls with me is not helping me get my future wife. So, the belief has no part in my life

Tap into the infinite source of knowledge

Despite the complexities and problems that actually do exist now. I choose to believe I am living through the best time in history.

I have so much opportunity at my fingertips.

The internet is an infinite source of knowledge.

I want to understand my self and the world better. I can and have curated the algorithm to show me what i want to see.

Impactful Ideas is only on youtube because youtube is the only social media I use and enjoy.

So if you like the way I think about things — join me newsletter. You'll never miss an idea and it helps me protect myself against the algorithm gods.

Back to the point …

When I go on youtube I only see interesting ideas from Dan Koe, Chris Williamson plus some others that spark my curiosity. There's heaps of gym stuff from jeff nippard and RP. Of course, a whole heap of one piece content.

I live in a bubble.

I like it that way.

My huntergatherer ancestors was focused on finding food for himself and his tribe. There was no awareness of problems happening 1000 kilometers away. There was no internet to plug into. Only his own problems.

I am on the hunt for knowledge to solve my problems.

The single greatest advice I can give you to internet proof yourself is to have your own projects you are building.

It is so difficult for me to get swept up in internet drama because I don't care.

I'm selfish.

I have projects I want to build: my mind, my body, my relationships, my life's work — that's what I care about. That's where my attention is.

So my friend, if you were born between 1990 and 2005 give this idea a read — it will help you cut through the broken promises and know what deserves your attention.

Josh