So I like plants and gardening. My appartment is full of plants and I have a small herb nursery in my window sill. I’m currently growing three basil plants and a pepper plant.
I go to social media for tips and tricks and as usual it’s full of people with grade A set ups producing lots of herbs and veggies and stuff. I started growing my pepper plant and after weeks I managed to produce a whopping number of 1 pepper. The weird thought that occurred to me was: I failed. I failed because my pepper plant isn’t as productive as the plants I see online.
Meanwhile: did I have fun doing this? Yes, I loved watching the progress of this plant. I did feel cool when I added my home grown pepper to my dinner. Isn’t that what hobbies are about?
How many people are out there quitting things because they aren’t immediately good at it because social media primed us to crave instant satisfaction through constant dopamine hits? Pick up hobbies, be bad at them, learn, have fun.
I cut back on my social media usage massively last year. I’ve played guitar since 2018 but about 70% of my progression as a player has been done in the last 8 months or so. I’ve become more focused on writing and art as well as other interests that I have. I personally just viewed social media as a distraction if anything and I pretty much only use it to keep up with friends and to look for help/advice on whatever I’m working on at the moment.
Same, deleted Reddit, Twitter and TikTok off my phone and am now way more productive than I used to be