I’ve come across a number of videos and written pieces on the dangers of Social Media. How dangerous it is spending hours and hours on our electronic items consuming YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc.. It’s become as habitual as breathing to check your phone put it down and 30 seconds later check it again, when we know nothing has changed.

These warnings have come from the creators of the social media platforms themselves. They say they spend hardly any time on social media and technology king pins say they don’t even allow their children to have Ipads or televisions in the home.

We’re in the stage where we don’t fully know the effects social media will have on us til later on. It reminds me of cigarette smoking in the 20th century when they discovered the negative affects of the drug and yes, social media is an addictive drug.

It seems to be getting worse, the narratives we’re fed, political and corporate manipulation on all mediums and all we do from sun up to sun down is consume consume consume. We already know it’s causing problems with the younger generations. They’re outside less glued to technology indoors, having problems with socialization not to mentions problems like anxiety and depression is way up.

Social media was designed to consume our time as much as possible, a time pass, a time waste and now to get as many eyes fixated on advertised products for as long as possible to sell products. It’s become huge business and changed the way we interact with each other. So why not get in on the action?

Listen, we need electronics, we need smart phones we spend a lot of time working on them and then we consume for consumptions sake.

we need to changed our relationship with them.

Today, more than ever it is easier to create and work online. We have all the information at our fingertips and a global audience, we just need to apply ourselves and get down to the unglamorous hard work that you don’t see behind these Insta pics.

Shifting our Mindset

A person’s way of thinking – Mindset

The majority of us in the west have been raised with a TV in the home, from a young age we’ve been conditioned to consume, with the internet there’s so much more and we’ve become used to this lifestyle of consumption, with a lot in and very little out.

Switching over to Production

I take my son to BJJ I have to wait for an hour, we all get bored so what do we do? Sit on our phones obviously. I was sitting next to a man who had the latest Iphone X, he was looking at his phone, jumping from app to app the whole hour searching for something, anything to consume his time he wasn’t satisfied clearly.

I took my book and was reading and writing notes for my blog simultaneously trying to keep my daughter entertained, I didn’t have time to get bored but note the difference in mindsets.

An Iphone X, a £1000 phone and all we can do is watch videos, send tweets and texts? How can we make this work for us? A concept for an app? Research, think, how can I use this to benefit me productively instead of consuming what others are producing. There’s no difference between us and them apart from application of ourselves.

My Story

I feel it’s best to explain how I’m switching from a Consumption to Production Mindset.

I started writing blogs in the middle of 2016, it was an outlet for my thoughts and emotions then I started enjoying it. I set myself a target of writing two blogs a month and continue to do so. My mindset has changed exponentially. Now I have a schedule to produce monthly.

Creative writing takes thought process, research, writing coherently, addressing one’s emotions, being honest with oneself and putting yourself out there for criticism, praise and to be flat-out ignored.

In turn I created a website, I learnt, designed and grow.

My mindset has shifted in a period of a year. It’s become more production and less consumption. It’s creative not monotonous, I’m offering something to the world instead of always taking. My thinking has changed, I’m channeling negativity into a positive outlet, I look at things as an opportunity to write about and add my two cents to current events that I once believed I couldn’t make any difference in.

HOW to Shift

TV is putting us to sleep, social media is putting us to sleep, our brain is designed for so much more than watching hours of a Netflix series because the people creating them are certainly not doing that.

In the evenings I used to watch TV, days off I used to go shopping, restaurants, consuming and occupying myself through entertainment. Now it’s changed. I’m writing, researching, learning, creating, reading, coming up with ideas, being innovative.

I hardly watch TV nowadays and when I do it’s mainly cooking programmes because I’m an avid cook. Producing has cut TV out of my life and I’ve lost zero from it. Don’t get me wrong you need down time and I treat myself after I’ve done some work to relax for a few hours with something like Ertugrul.

How to make Social Media work for you

They’re great platforms for sharing work, networking, getting information but we have to regulate ourselves because it is time-consuming.

Cut down the number of social media apps you have and use them for a specific purpose. I have 2 Instagram accounts, one for cooking and one for photography. I have 2 Twitter accounts, one specifically for sharing work (my blogs) and the other I’ve kept for leisure but I’m using it a lot less and unfollwed many accounts.

Cut down how many you follow and who you follow. Cut out a lot of the news it’s toxic and makes you feel like sh**. I follow like 5 accounts on YouTube and 3 of them are our own.

REDUCE AND PRODUCE

When you produce you think differently, you have more clarity. Heck if you take away your phone, internet, TV, entertainment you will naturally look for something to fill your time, we’re so used to doing something we need to fill the void. If you did it for 30 days and you switched to reading books, writing, whatever your interest and craft is you will notice the difference within yourself.

We’re meant to be creative, creative thinkers, creative producers, pushing the society forward, when we don’t we become stagnated and frustrated because we have no creative outlet but we don’t even realise why, we just ply ourselves with entertainment trying to fill the void.

Muslims were forward thinking and innovative, pushing the society forward producing brilliant works now we’re stagnated on a phone on a couch being reactionary.

The scales between consumption and production has to shift, the production needs to weigh heavier.

We don’t go anywhere not to achieve something, we don’t go to school not to get grades and an education, we don’t go to work not to get paid, we don’t exercise without trying to achieve something, so why are we on social media? And online and watching television.

You have to ask yourself what value are you adding to social media? Or am I wasting time watching people, How can I use it to add value?

This also applies to our daily lives – What Value is my life adding to the world?

Until next time 🙂

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