The Battle for Your Time: The Hidden Costs of Social Media
The Battle for Your Time: The Hidden Costs of Social Media
Summary
Table of contents
Social media is consuming an alarming amount of our time, with 18-year-olds in the US on track to spend 93% of their remaining free time on screens.
Excessive screen time has severe consequences for our mental health, including an increased risk of depression and anxiety, as well as cognitive impairment and chronic distraction.
Social media platforms carry inherent messages that shape our self-perception and worldview. Instagram promotes a culture of self-comparison and social validation, while Snapchat emphasizes the quantity of communication over quality.
Twitter reduces complex issues to arbitrary character limits and encourages superficial engagement.
Traditional technologies like books and letters convey different messages, promoting deep thinking, empathy, sustained attention, and meaningful communication.
The opportunity cost of excessive screen time is impossible to calculate, as it deprives us of these essential experiences.
Social media platforms are free because they monetize us by collecting data and showing us targeted ads.
Social media companies are in a constant battle to capture as much of our free time as possible, as their profits are directly linked to how long they can keep us scrolling.
Most of us are drastically overpaying for social media, as we value our time much higher than the actual value these services provide.
To get a good deal out of social media, we need to determine its true value and how much of our time that value is worth.
Social media can be a valuable tool for fostering relationships, introducing new ideas, and sparking social movements, but it's crucial to use it in moderation.
Detail
Social Media: Consuming Our Time and Compromising Our Well-Being
The dots on this screen represent an adult life in months, assuming a life expectancy of 90. If you're 18 years old right now, this is an optimistic estimate of the months that you have left. Take a second to take that in—probably not as many as you would expect. And I'm sorry to say that it does get worse because about a third of that time is going to be spent sleeping. On average, 126 of those months will go to school and your career, about 18 will be spent driving, 36 cooking and eating, 36 doing chores and errands, and about 27 in the bathroom and taking care of personal hygiene. That leaves you with 334 months, optimistically, for everything else—ticking the boxes on your bucket list, pursuing your passions, traveling the world, and leaving your mark. How you spend this time will determine the quality of your life. But this time isn't just something that you spend; it's also something that you invest, because what you do with it will quite literally determine the kind of person you become. The body, mind, and character that you will have in the future are being actively shaped by how you choose to use your time today. So take a second and ask yourself: What do you want to do with that free time? What things do you want to do that you haven't done? Who do you want to spend that time with? What is worth investing it in? Now, I would be willing to bet that scrolling through TikTok, binge-watching Netflix, and playing video games probably did not come to mind. But today, the average 18-year-old in the United States is on pace to spend 93% of their remaining free time looking at a screen—that's not counting time for school. Wrap your head around how sad that is. Imagine getting to the age of 90, seeing this visualization of how you spent all your time after the age of 18, and thinking about all the things you could have done that you did not do because you got distracted. And I also want you to ask yourself: What do you think over 26 years of screen time would do to you? What is that an investment in? How would it change you?
The Cognitive Consequences of Excessive Tech Use
It's well established that there's a link between high screen time and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. But recently, we've started to unveil the cognitive consequences of excessive Tech use as well. When we're staring at our screens, we are constantly switching our attention between different pieces of information. The average TikTok is about 15 seconds long, and over 55% of web pages are viewed for 15 seconds or less. And if you're switching your attention every 15 seconds for an average of 8 hours and 39 minutes a day, you are training yourself to become chronically distracted. Think about what that will do to your career, to your relationships, and to your ability to pursue the things that matter most to you.
The Hidden Messages of Social Media Platforms
Unfortunately, the consequences of screen time are not limited to our mental health and our cognition, because every social media platform carries a message that affects what we believe. They influence the way we see ourselves and the way we see the world purely based on how they are designed. Instagram inherently says that your worth is largely defined by what you look like and what you do on vacations. It compels you to capture all the most meaningful moments of your life on camera and share them with your entire social network. And it implicitly says that it's more valuable to have a thousand people that will give you transient social approval than a few that deeply care about you even when it's not your best day. Snapchat inherently says that the quality of our relationships is best measured by the frequency of our communication, regardless of what we're actually saying. You get a point added to your Snapchat streak even if you just send a picture of the side of your face with the caption "streaks." Twitter says that anything worth saying can and should be reduced to an arbitrary number of characters. It says that the world is black and white, that it's more important to be updated about everything than deeply informed about anything. And when you start to compare the messages these platforms are sending with those of Technologies from
Frequently asked questions
How much of their remaining free time do 18-year-olds in the US spend on screens?
- 93 percent
What are some of the cognitive consequences of excessive Tech use?
- Chronic distraction, impaired attention, and diminished ability to focus
How does Instagram's design influence our self-perception?
- It promotes the idea that worth is defined by appearance and social approval
What is the inherent message of a letter?
- Communication doesn't need to be frequent; it should be deep and meaningful
How much are we effectively paying for an app like TikTok?
- $1200 per month, assuming a value of $20 per hour for our time
