Social media is a loop. We all know that, and yet we rely on it.
The suggestions that you get on all your social media handles are liked by you once, and the AI (artificial intelligence) and algorithms flood your feeds with the same type of content to keep you hooked on their platform.
This applies to all platforms YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
The algorithm thinks you like this type of content and puts it on your feed with similar content to just test it. The fun part is you consume that content without even considering if it is your actual interest or not.
Just because you liked it once doesn’t mean you still like it.
It is all right that you’re on an addictive platform, and I already talked about why it is so addictive and how to get rid of it.
In this post, I’m going to show you a few ways to rewild your attention and interests online and offline.
Let’s dive deep into it.
Lemme tell a story
Once upon a time, I used to consume more personal finance and productivity content because it was needed for me at that time. Still, I write about them in my blogs from my experience, but I am no longer consuming those content.
I always thought of doing affiliate marketing as my side gig. As a result, I reduced my consumption of financial and productivity-related content and started spending more on affiliate marketing content.
For affiliate marketing, I started up a website called “youfitness.com” and wrote my first post on the “best whey proteins out there in India” full of affiliate links.
Do you know what happened then? That was my last post with affiliations.
I changed the site address to peranesh.com. I ended up writing blogs on whatever things I liked to share – like the one you’re reading now.
After 3 to 5 posts, I realized I have an interest in writing and I like it a lot. (doesn’t matter if I am good at it or not… I like doing it)
What’s the point I am making?
I would never end up writing if I hadn’t tried affiliate marketing apart from finance and productivity.
It made me start a website to write about Amazon products for affiliate income, which I no longer do. Then it took me to “peranesh.com” and here I am writing my 30th post.
I am trying to say, you’ll never know where your interest lies until you try them.
You’ve convinced yourself that the one you’re doing now is in your interest, and you’re not making an effort to try something new.
Start rewilding from social media
Let me take you to an innovative approach to diverting your social media usage in a unique way.
This starts with the automated social media feed which you consume.
I recently came across I blog post called “small b blogging” and it took me to these lines in a page linked to it, which inspired me to write this post.
“If you want to have wilder, curiouser thoughts, you have to avoid the industrial monocropping of big-tech feeds. You want an intellectual forest, overgrown with mushrooms and towering weeds and a massive dead log where a family of raccoons has taken up residence.”
Read it twice.
By sticking to the one you already like, you are reducing the room for dissimilar content to enter your zone. It’s like a tunnel vision.
Who knows, your true interest may be in those contents that you’ve never seen yet. Until you try that content, you will never know it.
For starters,
- Log off from your personal Instagram account and create a new one and try to rewild there.
- Unsubscribe from all your favorite channels on YouTube and make the videos you watch usually as “not recommended” and you’ll find a hell lot of content that you have never seen (the algorithms have no other option now)
Everything that is popular (more views or likes) is not valuable all the time. Sometimes it’s covered with sauce and other stuff to distract you from the fact that you’re eating a portion of dog food.
Search offline
Rewilding can not only happen on social media, but it can also start with your habits too. You can even try this offline, in these ways
- Chat with the elderly person at the gym during rest time instead of putting on earphones. He may even have an interesting life like Jimmy McGill and now is laying low as Gene Takavic.
- Go for a walk without a smartphone and observe the scenarios around you. (Must-try)
- Instead of buying books from amazon by seeing the review, go to a physical store and just buy if the title of the book intrigues you.
I am not saying that social media is not recommending good stuff, but you’ve got to stop the automated feeds sometimes and rewild your interests somewhere.
Closure
Try doing multiple things and fail multiple times. But be in search of your interest, never settle and declare to yourself as this your interest sooner in life. You’ve all the time in the world.
Until next time,
Peranesh xx
Some websites I came across that can help you to rewild: Redditmap, Feedly, and Marginalia.
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