What Social Media Does To Your Brain

Summary

This video explores the impact of social media on the brain, highlighting the natural cycle of pain and pleasure. It explains how enduring pain through activities like exercise and studying leads to long-term pleasure, while instant gratification from social media can lead to guilt. The speaker argues that social media trains our brains for instant rewards, making it hard to focus on meaningful tasks. An action step is suggested: try deleting all social media apps for a day to observe changes in mood and focus.

Takeaways

• 📱 Social media use is often unconscious and habitual, like mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or TikTok.
• 🧠 The brain associates pain with pleasure, suggesting that enduring discomfort can lead to long-term satisfaction.
• 💪 Activities like going to the gym and maintaining a strict diet are painful but can result in a fit body, which is pleasurable.
• 🎓 Studying diligently over time can lead to academic success, which is a form of pleasure derived from effort.
• 🛌 Conversely, pleasurable activities like lounging in bed and using social media can lead to guilt and discomfort afterward.
• 🔄 There's a natural cycle of experiencing pain to achieve pleasure, which is essential for understanding the brain's reward system.
• 🚀 Social media encourages instant gratification, which can undermine the ability to focus and be disciplined over the long term.
• 🧘‍♂️ The concept of delayed gratification is the healthy way to achieve pleasure, which involves initial discomfort for future rewards.
• 👀 Social media has trained a generation to seek instant pleasure, which can be detrimental to developing skills like focus and discipline.
• 🛑 The speaker suggests an action step: deleting all social media apps for a day to observe the impact on mood and focus.
• 🌟 The script emphasizes the importance of recognizing how social media influences our brains and the potential benefits of taking a break.

Q & A

What is the main idea of the video script about social media?

The main idea of the video script is to explain how social media affects our brains by training us for instant gratification, which can make it difficult for us to focus and be disciplined in our daily lives.

How does the script describe the relationship between pain and pleasure in our brain?

The script describes the relationship between pain and pleasure as interconnected, where going through pain, such as working hard and maintaining discipline, leads to long-term pleasure, such as achieving a fit body or good grades.

What is the concept of 'delayed gratification' mentioned in the script?

Delayed gratification is the concept of achieving pleasure after enduring pain through hard work and discipline, as opposed to seeking instant gratification.

Why does the script suggest that social media can lead to feelings of guilt?

The script suggests that social media can lead to feelings of guilt because it provides instant but fleeting pleasure, and after indulging in it, one may feel bad about not using that time for more productive activities.

What is the term used in the script to describe the type of gratification that social media offers?

The term used in the script to describe the type of gratification that social media offers is 'instant gratification'.

According to the script, what is the natural way of achieving pleasure?

The natural way of achieving pleasure, according to the script, is by going through pain first, such as through hard work and discipline, and then receiving the pleasure as a result of those efforts.

What action step does the script suggest to counteract the effects of social media?

The script suggests deleting all social media apps from your phone for one day as an action step to see how it affects your mood and focus throughout the day.

Why might someone feel the need to scroll on social media apps without a specific reason?

The script implies that the need to scroll on social media apps without a reason may be due to the brain being trained for instant gratification, seeking quick and easy pleasure.

What is the potential impact of instant gratification on young people's ability to focus and be disciplined?

The potential impact of instant gratification on young people's ability to focus and be disciplined is that they may find it difficult to concentrate on tasks that require mental effort for extended periods of time.

How does the script define 'pleasure' in the context of pain and social media?

In the context of pain, 'pleasure' is defined as the long-term satisfaction gained from enduring pain through activities like working out or studying. In the context of social media, 'pleasure' refers to the short-term, instant rewards and enjoyment that one gets from using these platforms.

What is the script's perspective on the balance between pain and pleasure in achieving life goals?

The script's perspective is that enduring pain through discipline and hard work is the natural and healthier way to achieve life goals and find pleasure, rather than seeking instant gratification from activities like using social media.

Outlines

00:00

📱 Social Media's Impact on Brain and Behavior

This paragraph discusses the unconscious habit of mindlessly scrolling through social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. It explores the brain's relationship between pain and pleasure, suggesting that enduring pain through activities like gym workouts or studying can lead to long-term pleasure, such as a fit body or good grades. The speaker contrasts this with the instant gratification provided by social media, which can lead to feelings of guilt post-activity. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of delayed gratification and the challenges it poses in a world where social media trains us to seek immediate pleasure, affecting our ability to focus and discipline ourselves for meaningful tasks.

Keywords

💡Social Media

Social media refers to digital platforms that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking. In the video, it is portrayed as a tool that trains the brain for instant gratification, contrasting with the natural process of achieving pleasure through enduring pain or hard work. The script uses social media as an example of modern distractions that can lead to a lack of focus and discipline in pursuing long-term goals.

💡Pain and Pleasure

Pain and pleasure are two opposing states of feeling that are central to the brain's reward system. The video explains that enduring pain through activities like exercise and maintaining a strict diet can lead to the pleasure of achieving a fit body. Conversely, the immediate pleasure of using social media can result in post-activity guilt and pain, illustrating the brain's complex relationship between these two states.

💡Instant Gratification

Instant gratification is the desire to experience satisfaction or fulfillment without delay. The video suggests that social media platforms are designed to provide instant rewards, which can lead to a dependency on immediate pleasure rather than working towards long-term goals. This concept is used to highlight the negative impact of social media on young people's ability to focus and be disciplined.

💡Delayed Gratification

Delayed gratification is the ability to resist the temptation for an immediate reward and wait for a later reward. The video emphasizes that the natural way to achieve pleasure is through enduring pain first, which is an example of delayed gratification. This concept is contrasted with the instant gratification provided by social media.

💡Discipline

Discipline refers to the practice of training oneself to follow a set of rules or a pattern of behavior. In the context of the video, discipline is associated with the ability to focus on tasks that require mental effort over extended periods, which is challenged by the instant gratification offered by social media.

💡Focus

Focus is the act of concentrating one's attention on a particular object or activity. The video script discusses how social media's instant gratification can make it difficult for individuals to maintain focus on meaningful tasks that require sustained mental effort.

💡Guilt

Guilt is a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some supposed offense, whether real or imagined. In the script, guilt is mentioned as a consequence of indulging in pleasurable activities like social media, which can lead to a negative emotional state after the activity is over.

💡Hard Work

Hard work is defined as the physical or mental effort put into accomplishing a task or achieving a goal. The video script uses hard work as an example of an activity that, when endured, can lead to long-term pleasure and satisfaction, such as achieving a fit body or good grades.

💡Gratification

Gratification is the feeling of pleasure or fulfillment derived from achieving something. The video discusses gratification in the context of both instant and delayed forms, highlighting how social media provides instant gratification, which can be detrimental to the pursuit of long-term goals.

💡Action Step

An action step is a specific, actionable recommendation provided to the audience for implementing the ideas discussed. In the video, the action step is to delete all social media apps for a day to observe the impact on one's mood and focus, emphasizing the experiment's potential to reveal the influence of social media on daily life.

💡Mental Focus

Mental focus refers to the ability to direct one's attention and cognitive resources toward a specific task or goal. The video script suggests that social media's influence on instant gratification can undermine mental focus, making it challenging to concentrate on tasks that require sustained effort.

Highlights

Social media use often occurs unconsciously, with people mindlessly scrolling through platforms like Instagram or TikTok.

The brain associates pain with pleasure, where enduring pain through activities like going to the gym or maintaining a strict diet leads to long-term pleasure and satisfaction.

Conversely, indulging in pleasurable but unproductive activities like social media scrolling or watching porn can lead to feelings of guilt and pain after the activity is done.

There is an inherent relationship between pain and pleasure in the brain, which can be leveraged for either delayed gratification or instant gratification.

Achieving pleasure through pain involves hard work and discipline, exemplified by the delayed gratification concept.

Social media trains the brain for instant gratification by providing immediate rewards, which contrasts with the natural way of achieving pleasure through initial pain.

The instant gratification from social media makes it difficult for many young people to focus and be disciplined on tasks requiring extended periods of hard work.

Social media has conditioned individuals to seek instant pleasure, making it challenging to concentrate on meaningful activities that demand sustained mental effort.

The speaker proposes an action step to combat the effects of social media by suggesting the deletion of all social media apps for a day.

Deleting social media apps for a day is presented as an experiment to observe changes in mood and focus throughout the day without the influence of instant gratification platforms.

The action step encourages self-reflection on the impact of social media on daily life and the potential benefits of taking a break from these platforms.

The video aims to raise awareness about the psychological effects of social media on the brain and its influence on behavior and focus.

The content suggests that breaking the cycle of instant gratification from social media could lead to improved focus and productivity.

The video challenges viewers to reconsider their relationship with social media and its impact on their ability to experience pleasure through delayed gratification.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the brain's response to pain and pleasure to make informed decisions about social media usage.

The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to experiment with a day without social media to assess its influence on their mood and mental state.

Transcripts

am alaykum you probably use social media

every single day and in this video I

want to share what social media does to

your brain let me ask you a question can

you relate to the idea of just picking

up your phone out of nowhere and then

opening up Instagram or Tik Tok for no

reason by the way and just starting to

scroll for no reason and relate to this

at this point we do all of this without

even realizing it I'll tell you how the

brain operates I mean this is my own

explanation by the way it's Pro science

so the way our brain operates is with I

mean there's a relation ship between

pain and pleasure in our brain so

whenever we go through pain we achieve

pleasure for example if you go to the

gym consistently over numerous days and

you maintain a strict diet all of these

are painful activities by the way you go

through this pain and over time you will

achieve pleasure going to the gym

consistently and eating healthy

consistently will give you a healthy Fit

good-look Body over a long enough enough

period of time which is pleasure at the

end studying for extended periods of

time over a long enough time period will

get you good grades in school or

university that is pleasure at the end

basic point is when you go through pain

you achieve pleasure you can also flip

this around when you decide to go

through pleasure for example laying in

your bed and scrolling on Instagram or

wasting time on social media watching

porn all of these activities are

pleasurable in the moment whilst you're

doing it once you're done doing it you

feel bad about yourself you basically

have a feeling of guilt after doing

these pleasurable activities and that

gets you the pain so you will realize

that there is always this relation

relationship of pain and pleasure the

natural way of achieving pleasure is

through Pain by going through pain of

hard work and discipline to achieve

long-term pleasure that's the natural

way of going about it it's called

delayed gratification by the way

gratification is the sense of pleasure

that you get basically with social media

what social media is doing to you is it

is training you and your brain for

instant gratification it's training you

for instant rewards that is why the

majority of young people today find it

difficult to be focused and disciplined

on hard work for extended periods of

time because social media has trained us

to seek instant pleasure with anything

that we do that's basically you find it

so difficult to be focused on anything

meaningful that requires mental focus

for extended periods of time because

social media has trained you to look for

instant pleasure whereas the natural way

of achieving pleasure is going through

pain first and then getting the pleasure

here's an action step for you to try out

tomorrow delete all of your social media

just for one day just try it out delete

Instagram delete Tik Tok YouTube

Snapchat whatever time trining apps you

have on your phone delete all of them

just for a day just try it for a day

just see how your day goes just notice

how you feel throughout the day just

notice how your mood is throughout the

day just try it out once for a day