ABSOLUTE ASCENDANCY

Commencing operation . . .

Overview

A dopamine black hole that sucks in the average human and drags them straight down to the depths of craving where there is no return. Social media is a tool which the vast majority of the population cannot wield appropriately. It is the very nature of the technology to be addictive as that is ultimately how such corporations make a profit. The true humanitarian objectives of social media, I believe, are two-fold.

1) To connect people, irrespective of physical distance

2) To support real-world interactions

The Problem

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, humanity on the whole lost sight of these purposes and social media has become a drug store where the misguided get their quick fix of dopamine and repeatedly overdose. Make no mistake; misuse of dopamine is equivalent to drug abuse. I have seen it over and over. People who fish for likes with their selfies or post drama with the sole purpose of attracting attention to their starved selves. Some people spend and waste their precious spare time on social media. In the end, these people gain nothing for the time they have spent. I believe that only a tiny fraction of the time spent on social media is of good use to the individual and the vast majority of the time spent is on fruitless, wasted ventures.

The only way to attain lasting happiness is through significant effort toward a meaningful end. 

The Solution

I personally only have Facebook, and that is to keep in contact with my friends around the world. It is also useful for me to keep an eye on any Karate events that may arise. The best way I have found to avoid getting pulled into the dopamine grip of social media is to get rid of it entirely.

If you do not buy into the dopamine quick fix system, you cannot get trapped by it. 

If you really cannot do without it, then set up ways to make it require extra effort to log in as a means of deterring frequent access. An example is to force yourself to type your password each time you want to access social media and then make the password long and complicated. In the case of Facebook, I have also found it useful to avoid posting anything publicly and keeping away from the home feed. Most circumstances, people will log onto their social media to see if anyone has commented or liked their post/picture. I will send private messages to my friends to check in on them and arrange meet-ups. Only on rare circumstances will I post publicly onto Facebook.

If you cannot tell by now, I am not an advocator of social media, quite the opposite in fact. Look at Absolute Ascendancy. You will not find a single social media sharing button. Indeed, I am likely losing out on much exposure by not including such methods for people to share my content, as well as weakening my search engine optimisation rankings, but I will stand by my convictions.

Conclusion

Remember that the real world is where the people you interact with really exist. Physical distance notwithstanding that is where you should spend your time with your friends and family.

The real world and not the virtual one.

Mission complete – Overlord Drakow signing out.