The Social Media Diet
This is the first effort at a “thesis” (that I shall hopefully turn into a book someday) on the present state of human development that is intrinsically dysfunctional in my honest point of view. The implications of the facts and opinions conveyed herein, make me feel deeply worried and cautious about bringing a tiny human into this world. (I’m presently in my 30’s and contemplating the idea of having kids in the near future).
Speaking to adults of many different generations (Gen Z, X, Boomers, and Millenials alike), I came to understand that these worries aren’t just mine. Consequently, I wanted to share my thoughts with all of you. My hope is that thinking about this TOGETHER, we can all share our own 2 cents on this matter and finally come to a conclusion that reveals a better way for us to develop our present and/or future tiny humans to be conscious of the colossal instrument that is Social Media — the ultimate “W.M.D.”: Weapon of mass DISTRACTION!
I hope you enjoy the read!
☝ First things first:
We are all animals. More intelligent than most, for sure, but animals nonetheless. We need only — from a merely physiological and evolutionary point of view — to eat, breathe, mate, and sleep (not necessarily in that order).
Asking the difficult questions
One of the most important things for the evolution of the species is to eat. This begs the question: What exactly is “eating”? A rather simple question really, not because of how it’s done but what it actually represents — its deeper meaning. It mustn’t be only to put things in our mouths and swallow them down. For me, it would be better explained somewhere along the lines of “consuming an exterior source of energy and absorbing it for our survival”. Now that is a much more graphic and, quite frankly, more disquieting explanation. Because that inherently means that, every single thing we “eat” is a matter of survival, of evolution; and, because of it, should be a matter of utmost importance. Our ancestors knew exactly what I’m talking about. But do we?
Not a year goes by where our friends, colleagues, or family tout another diet fad or new nutritional plan they are undertaking in order to become the new and improved version of themselves. As a doctor, I have the even more inconvenient task of making sure (or try my best) of keeping up with the uncountable trends of the nutrition influencer world — a potentially blind, deaf, but never mute world — and if they’re actually healthy for you. Needless to say, that’s an impossible task. Science will just never be able to keep up with the ever-growing creativity of the brilliant marketers behind those influencers, most of which, are just trying to grow their network and sell their own products. That’s our world and, although I’m not particularly fond of it, I understand it.
Well, I’d say I’m getting better at understanding it…
What makes me curious is that most of those people getting into new diets every month or week or 2 or 3 days are actually educated people. Worst of all, if you ask them to remember what were their grandparent’s habits when it comes to daily meals, they will almost instantly tell you the same exact thing:
- they cooked most of their food;
- sat down at the table to eat
- they ate seasonal foods (being the only foods they had access to, long before the advent of supermarkets)
- meals with mostly fruits and veggies
- would cook with lard! (I could almost feel you cringing while I write this, but bear with me now). Lard is a natural fat, thus, not processed — and actually better for you than most fats we eat today.
My point is: almost all of us, when questioned, will respond knowingly without much difficulty, everything we must eat to stay healthy.
Why then, more than a third of Americans (36,2% USA) and more than 1 billion people worldwide are obese? In fact, the World Obesity Federation, predicts that one billion people globally, including 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men, will be living with obesity by 2030.
How can that be true when most of us, including obese and overweight people know what they should be eating to be healthy?
What happens in our minds for us to know something is not good for us — for our survival — and settle for doing the exact opposite?
Glad you asked.
Keep reading!
We’re living in a digital world
It is difficult to pinpoint when did our lives turn from being mostly physical to the largely and ever-growing digital world we live in nowadays.
We used to go to the physical store to buy physical products, we went to college to learn in physical classrooms things we would apply while working in a physical office, and take coffee breaks with physical people. Now, we buy digital products to enhance our digital experience, learn from digital classes with digital teachers so we can work from digital offices (Meta-offices if you will, and yes, pun intended), and make digital money. A drastically different, scary, but very real trend.
Whether we like it or not, it’s all here to stay, and those of us actively learning to leverage all of this into our livelihood are one step ahead of all of those that insist that it’s actually “just another phase”. Period.
The digital world is being navigated by all kinds of people. The ones that understand it well and use it as a tool — for better or for worse — but most of all, by people that are completely clueless to its true power. So much so that, now more than ever, we have seen how it has influenced elections, changed laws, imploded businesses and maybe even started wars. I’m not naive as to think that our world has suddenly changed into a place where the well-informed, the powerful, and the rich thrive at the poor, uneducated, and powerless’ expense. That always happened and is likely to keep on being the status quo. But unfortunately, there is no discipline in kindergarten, elementary or high-school teaching us or our kids how can we survive on the internet, the mother-of-all tools. (Please, let’s not even get started on AI yet)
That makes us all very vulnerable in many ways.
Again, if you remember your grandmother, she most certainly said at least once that “children are our future”.
If we extrapolate all of this into a syllogism it would go something like: Children are our future; Our future is digital. Therefore, our children are digital.
Oh boy… Let’s keep going…
The social media diet
Diet (v.):”to regulate oneself as to food”, from Latin diaeta “prescribed way of life”; also from diaitan, originally “separate, select”; from Greek diaita, “way of life, regimen, dwelling”;related to diaitasthai “lead one’s life,”.
(From Etymology Dictionary Online — https://www.etymonline.com/word/diet
Etymology is tricky.
The same word can have multiple meanings whether you see it from the scope of one or another culture. That said, I think most would agree that the few I’ve selected are universally accepted as to what a diet is.
Regulation is an important thing in anyone’s life! Although our bodies are self-regulating machines (if everything is properly functioning), we can disrupt this genetically programmed skill by simply eating “wrong” foods. Too much sugar and you become diabetic, too much salt and it’s “hello hypertension”! Too little iron and you become anemic, too little vitamin C and you turn into a sick pirate lost at sea — scurvy; sorry I had to say it.
The same can be said for your mind and your mental health. When you don’t have enough serotonin you may become depressed; too much adrenaline and you’ll be hyper-vigilant, and so on and so forth. Everything is about balance, moderation, and what I think is the most important — EDUCATION. Once you know what you have to do, you just have to do it.
Simple. But not easy.
Every day we get online and start our daily regimen of content. Our “food” intake on the internet may or may not reflect our food choices offline but chances are, if you make bad choices on your plate, your choices on the world wide web are not going to be that great either. And that goes both ways. Healthy people follow healthy diets and “healthy” people on Social Media. Unhealthy people follow “unhealthy” people on Social media and follow unhealthy diets. If you don’t believe me, try taking a look at your own. Look at your friend’s choices as well and see if you can see the patterns repeating.
I’ll wait.
We’re living in a world where “PewDiePie” and “Mr.Big” are the most followed people on YouTube. “Lele Pons” and Dan Bilzerian have the most followers on Instagram. “Khaby Lame” and Charli D’Amelio are the winners of TikTok and Cristiano Ronaldo and Shakira are the top Facebook players. Such is the speed of growth of these platforms that the names I’ve written above might not even be updated anymore…
Let me say it right now before I get canceled: this is not an attack on any of them! I deeply respect the work of each and every one of these people.
Well, maybe not all of them but you get what I’m saying.
If they didn’t have some kind of value they wouldn’t be leaders of those networks. And still, when you think of what they are actually doing for you, your happiness, and your physical and mental health, I don’t think they are actively contributing to it. Nor should they. They are celebrities, not your friend, not your doctor. You shouldn’t be looking for their advice on how to live your own life.
Then why do you do it?
Why do most of us do it?
Consciously, or like most of the time, unconsciously.
I’ve never seen any guide on “How to go about the Internet” or an “Internet 101” class — which, even if there was, most likely wouldn’t cover this topic. This is all very “new” and unknown. Uncharted territory. We’re actually living on the “there be dragons” side of the map of human history.
Even though the internet has been around since 1983 and Social Media per se since 1997 with a platform called SixDegrees.com where you could set up a profile page, create lists of connections, and send messages within networks. Surely, it sounds very familiar by today’s standards but if you go to the website right now (yes, it still exists, although it had a brief hiatus) it feels like pre-historic.
Time to go one level further.
Brace yourself.
Government and health systems worldwide have been talking more and more about the risks and health problems that represent the consequences of being overweight and obese — as they should. It’s the real pandemic and I’ve shown you the numbers.
Most likely, just by writing the former phrase, I will be called fat-phobic, sizeist, and other made-up terms that will allegedly describe my “hate” for overweight and oversized people.
Gentle reminder: I am a medical doctor. My concern and preoccupation are within the health spectrum. And I’m terribly sorry for saying this but being overweight/obese is NOT healthy. Neither is being anorexic or underweight. Period.
Now self-acceptance and body-image issues are a whole other topic. And even those are being massively conditioned by the internet as a whole. We now have one of the most, if not the most, influential of industries — fashion — promoting plus-sized models and giving us many other “standards” that are doing wonders for the mental health of little boys and girls everywhere. I’m not going to argue if it’s a good or bad thing because as I said, my concern is with health and not anthropology, sociology, or any other studies I happen to know nothing about. But the fact still stands — the Internet is influencing all aspects of our lives. And the “internet people”, also called and seen as “influencers” are doing EXACTLY what their new-found hobby/profession calls for them to do. But if the influencers are acting as businesses and brands, their currency is not so much the money they make, but the people they’re influencing. That means you, your parents, your children, your friends, and all the people most of us know and socialize with.
Well, I guess if you’re an isolated monk that doesn’t really apply. But maybe it does.
Where I’m getting at is that if you’re not aware of what’s happening, there’s no way you can do better. I feel someone said it before: “If you’re not aware of your programming, you’re the one being programmed”.
That is unless you have a cool doctor taking the time to write an article (and hopefully, with your help, a book) on the topic and giving you solutions you can apply to your life and help you solve that problem.
The first step is to become self-aware.
Self-aware of what you’re “eating” on your plate and on your screens. How is that influencing you? Are you learning, growing, and educating yourself? Great.
Do you want to learn, grow and get even more educated? Great. Do more of that.
Are you depressed, constantly comparing your life to other people, and feeling trapped in your own life circumstances? Not great.
Do you want to feel more depressed, keep comparing your life to what other people display to you their life is and feel more trapped in your life circumstances? No?
Then why can’t you stop?
I’ll give you one more: Your best friend keeps banging his head against the wall for one whole hour. At the end of the 60 minutes, he says he’ll keep doing it even though he’s really hurting, tired, and can’t really think straight. He asks for advice. What do you tell your best friend? I know what you’re thinking. “Just stop, you idiot!” or something along those lines, right?
Why, then, can you not do the same for your best friend of all time in real life? — yourself.
Having so much more to unpack on this topic, but being mindful of your patience, I would ask you to remember once more the etymology of the word DIET, and kindly leave you with to digest (pun intended) three simple — but not easy — questions:
- How are you regulating yourself as to your “foods”? Either digital or physical.
- What “way of life” are prescribing yourself?
- How are you “separating and selecting” what you “eat” every day?
- If you had children, how would you educate them on how to navigate the perilous waters of the Internet, more specifically, Social Media? (If you do have kids, what have you done already to help them be safer while engaging with it?)
Those questions are not rhetorical.
None of them!
I would love to know your answers to all of them (and many more I’m keeping hostage for now).
I really believe that is only by having these conversations we can start paving the way to a healthy, thriving society.
All of us.
Together.
From all walks of life.
From all points of view.
Especially the uncomfortable ones.
Having the tough conversations we, as a society, have been avoiding because of the newfound “fear of being canceled” (guilty…) is the only way to dissolve the unconscious “Collective Illusions”, as Todd Rose (Psychologist; Co-founder of Populace; professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; literally wrote the book on the concept!) would say. It is only by leaving the apathetic passive hole of the “comfort zone” that we can strive for living in a world where we are safe to let our children go sailing safely into the waters of the ever-so-public network that bounds us all together — The Internet. And it is only by not getting offended at the first sign of disagreement that everyone can thrive and not just survive, choosing consciously and voluntarily what we decide to consume this rocketship to a new world that is Social Media.
