NoFap Social Media: The effects of social media on your NoFap

You should be aware of your NoFap social media usage.

The social media companies have—with the use of sophisticated algorithms—hijacked our dopamine pathways.

So, you mindlessly engage with that post. You buy that product (that you don’t necessarily need).

You watch that next recommended video.

And end up spending the better part of your day staring at your phone—clicking away, wasting away.

These days, these algorithms are our overlords.

They control the way we think, what we think is important, spend our time on, and what we act on.

The side effects of social media on your NoFap (and your life)

1. Social media can trigger your NoFap relapse

Social media is filled with revealing (sexual) contents (and people).

You don’t even have to intentionally look for these contents (and people); the algorithms will make sure you run across them.

Because the algorithms know it’s these types of content that will make you stay longer on their platform.

As a recovering porn addict, the danger in seeing as little as a picture of a girl showing a little bit of skin is that it can trigger your cycle of addiction.

When you’re on NoFap and your brain sniffs a little bit of dopamine (on social media), it goes in search of more.

And before you know it, you’re on a porn site relapsing on your NoFap.

2. Social media messes with your dopamine pathway

The main goal of doing NoFap is to rebalance your dopamine pathway.

NoFap helps you do this when you go on a porn-dopamine fast.

What can hinder your dopamine rebalancing is if you don’t stay true to your porn-dopamine fast.

When you’re doing NoFap, it’s important not to start using other sources of—unhealthy and unnatural—dopamine to get dopamine hits.

And this is where social media affects the NoFap journey of many people.

So long as you go on social media to look at people (and contents) that spike your dopamine in a sexual (and unnatural) way, then, you’re low-jacking yourself.

The implication of this is that while you’re increasing your odds of relapsing on NoFap, you’re ALSO torturing yourself through your NoFap journey.

As bad as that is, you’re also chipping away at the benefits you’re supposed to be getting on NoFap. (More on this later).

3. Social media gives you a messed-up belief that you’re missing out on life

With the daily increase in the number of social media apps, there are now billions of people (and companies) to follow up on.

The more the number of contents to follow, the more difficult it is for you to keep up with all of them.

Information and events on social media occur (and vanishes) at the speed of light.

Even if you’re glued to your phone all day, you still can’t keep up with all the events happening on all the accounts you follow.

The fact is you’re not supposed to keep up with everything happening with everybody, in every country on the damn planet.

In the grand scheme of things, 99.5% of the events you see happen on social media are irrelevant to your life.

The messed-up part is that social media won’t make you feel like most of the information on it is irrelevant to your life.

Instead, it leaves you with a feeling that you’re missing out on life because you can’t keep up with everything happening in everybody’s life.

4. Social media can damage your self-esteem

Social media ALWAYS blows negative events out of proportion.

I know a lot of people that have become depressed because of their constant social media usage.

Social media has turned them into pessimists as they now believe there’s no more hope in the world.

And if we look at the other side of the spectrum (the spectrum of positive events that gets propagated on social media), the people (and things) that trend for excelling, for achieving a feat, are people on the extreme end of that spectrum.

In other words, it’s the extraordinary that trends on social media.

When ordinary folks like us are viewing these contents, we tend to subconsciously judge ourselves as inadequate.

Why wouldn’t we?

I know I didn’t wake up this morning running in the Olympics, winning a Nobel Prize, and start shitting gold all in a day’s job.

So, why wouldn’t I feel inadequate?

When my morning was so ordinary it pissed me off.

I woke up procrastinating on the important things I needed to do for the day—just like ordinary folks do.

But social media will make you feel like everybody else is supernatural and having an extraordinary day.

And let’s not forget about the social media bullies. Those that have made it their life’s mission to rip anything anybody says (or does) apart.

If you mistakenly land in this arena, they have the power to spoil your day.

5. Social media alienates you from your world

As a society, the more connected social media has made us, the more disjointed we’ve become.

The more accounts you follow on social media, the more irrelevant your views and values become to others.

The more accounts you follow, the less you’re heard.

There’s no real community on social media, there’s just a sense of community.

Humans are social animals that need to have tactile (physical) contact with other human beings now and then.

So, having just a sense of community won’t cut it for us humans.

If you want to test this theory, stay on social media all day and make sure you’re connecting with as many people as possible.

Participate in as many forums and online communities as you can.

No matter how positive your experience on social media was for that day, there’ll still be a feeling of emptiness attached to your day.

All that time you’ve spent with millions of online people is time you spent alone in reality.

Compare this experience with how you’ll feel if you go for a 30-minute community council meeting at the city hall.

You’ll have real interactions with real people, and you’ll feel good for the rest of your day.

6. Social media is a time wormhole

Social media is a giant vacuum, where time goes—never to be seen again.

I mean this in the most literal sense of it.

We have our algorithm overlords to thank for this. They make sure you come and never leave.

Now, be honest with yourself: How many hours are you logging on social media per week?

Be honest!

I’m sure the number will be an unhealthy one.

Time you waste browsing social media are hours that can be spent doing something worthwhile like; creating a business, reading a book, spending time with your loved ones, going out there and making new friends, and every other thing normal people used to do before the advent of social media.

But sadly, the reality is that the majority of people spend a ridiculous amount of time on social media and have nothing to show for it.

7. Social media messes with your NoFap benefits

All the ranting I’ve been doing in this post is to get you to this point.

If you’re a hardcore social media user, know that your social media usage will affect your NoFap benefits.

From the dopamine you get from social media to the ridiculous amount of time you spend on it, social media in one way or the other hinders what you’re trying to achieve with NoFap.

If the time you should be spending bettering yourself is spent on social media, you’re wasting good NoFap momentum.

If the time you’re supposed to be socializing and meeting new people is spent alone in your room browsing social media, then nothing has changed from the time you used to watch porn alone in your room.

…………………….

The Remedy to the NoFap Social Media Plague

I know you’re probably thinking that social media usage is NOT all doom and gloom.

After all, some aspects of it are beneficial to humanity.

And you’re right!

Social media has its days. And it can be quite useful at times.

But, with everything else in life, it’s when you can no longer control the way you’re using it that it becomes dangerous.

When you feel you can’t live without social media, when you have the compulsive urge to use it, that’s when it becomes problematic.

So, if you’re in control of your social media time, and the contents you access, you don’t have a problem using social media when you’re on NoFap.

But, if you’re that guy that feels social media is affecting your NoFap by;

• Orchestrating your NoFap relapses,
• Affecting your dopamine pathway,
• Taking up your time to do anything productive when you’re on NoFap,

then, you need to do get your social media usage in control.

How to get your social media usage in control when you’re on NoFap

You can either cut social media off for the duration of your NoFap, or, drastically reduce your usage.

If you need social media for work or some other important things, or, you’re already so addicted to it that you can’t quit cold turkey, here are some tips and best practices to help you reduce your social media usage:

1. Delete 80% of the social media apps on your phone

It’s time to choose the most useful of all the gazillion social media apps on your phone.

What you need to know is that all these social media apps do the same thing—bar some little variations.

Your favorite celebrities are on all these platforms: Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and so on. Your friends are also on all these platforms.

And it’s what they post on one of the platforms, that they copy and paste on the rest. They recycle the same content.

So, it’s time for you to get need-specific.

If you need a dating app, retain only one. Delete the rest.

Believe me, the rest are useless!

If YouTube is the video platform you like, delete TikTok, Vimeo, and every other video apps.

You get the gist!

2. Unfollow, Unhashtag, Unfriend 80% of the accounts you’re following

It’s time to trim down the type of content you’re getting exposed to on the remaining (20%) social media apps on your phone.

So, it’s time to ruthlessly unfollow, unhashtag, and unfriend accounts not serving you positively.

And I’m sure this will amount to more than 80% of the accounts you’re following.

Believe me, more than 80% of the accounts you’re following (including your families and friends) add nothing but grief and a feeling of inadequacy to your life.

So, only retain the accounts that;

• adds something positive to your life or,
• their content really resonates with you on a deeper level or,
• their content relates to what you’re deeply passionate about or,
• serves your positive purpose for going on social media.

3. Batch your social media time

After the rigorous pruning process, it’s time to batch your social media time.

Batching your social media time makes you conscious of your social media usage.

So, if you want to go on social media for just 2 hours for the day, then, pick a specific 2-hr time frame to browse social media.

Any period outside this time frame should be free of social media.

As you’re following this practice and becoming more disciplined around your social media usage, you become more intentional.

You’ll no longer be like the mindless zombies in the world that go on social media whenever they get the urge to do so.

And eventually, this conscious practice will give you the ability to successfully go on long social media breaks without losing your mind.

Conclusion on NoFap Social Media

The whole world is suffering from a social media-induced attention deficit syndrome.

The average adult (that’s always browsing social media) now finds it very difficult to focus for more than 15 minutes on tasks that require higher mental functioning.¹

The average adult now finds life extremely boring and finds it difficult to stay alone with their thoughts.

The implication of this is that it’s now more difficult than ever for the average adult to do deep work.

The first thing you’ll notice when you reduce (or cut off) social media is an increase in your ability to focus.

Clarity of mind to focus on goals that are important to you.

Apart from that, you’ll see that your NoFap becomes way easier than when you were constantly browsing social media.

1. The goldfish effect: why social media shortens our attention span