Nir Eyal released his book Intractable: Control your Attention, Choose Your Life!In August 2019, the world appeared to be relatively stable. Mid- to late summer saw the economy roaring (the GDP rose by 2.1%), unemployment rates had fallen to 3.5 percent and major wars weren’t raging across the globe.

Eyal was an author and speaker. He has also taught courses at universities and worked as a consultant for major corporations like Google and Microsoft. Eyal was a vocal critic of the way apps such as Instagram and Facebook use methods that were not dissimilar to how a Las Vegas casino slot machine operates. He wanted us to keep scrolling, clicking, liking and sharing. Tristan Harris (another expert) uses the same analogy for the slot machine.

Eyal used an acronym to explain how users of social media tend to develop unhealthy habits and get obsessed. This he called “The Obsession.” Scroll infinitely. (I like the expression). Doom scroll.) Imagine a full-grown adult standing in the line at Starbucks flipping through countless photos of people celebrating birthdays and posing in front of beaches, and you’ll know exactly what it’s like. Even if the photos are of babies with cute hair and teens showing off new styles, our brains constantly seek these microrewards. Eyal talked about the way these apps can hook users. He suggested that we develop routines and habits to help us be more disciplined with our app use.

Everything changed when everything was reported to be COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, January 2020. Everyone was shocked when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Wuhan (China). Many of us, myself included, thought it was minor. It would eventually recede. It wouldn’t make an impact on the world.Our mistake. The result was a pandemic. The unemployment rate in America soared to more than 11 percent, which meant that approximately 23 million Americans were without work by August 2020. According to Bureau of Economic Analysis, the economy plunged by almost 40 percent.

You can easily see, it created new levels of stress. Eyal told me by phone that he noticed a quick spike in book sales during this time period, surprising everyone involved—especially his publisher.

“We all started searching for some form of escape,” he told me, explaining how the normal methods of managing our time, controlling our tech urges, and even scheduling our time tend to blow up during periods when our mental well-being is under attack from all angles. These times are difficult for us to maintain consistency, so we turn to social media as our last resort. “We all have internal triggers,” he says. “When we’re suffering and more anxious, we turn to social media to relieve the pain.”

This was something I observed in my own body. The United States saw a rise in coronavirus infections in Texas, California, Florida and the Midwest while I was writing my book. …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer