Don't take the (rage)bait

Going all-in ♠️

More than half of my career has been spent in social media.

In July of 2018 I got the call up to the big leagues. “We want you to be on the Twitter outbound team”

At that point I had never sold digital advertising before - I never even had a Twitter account.

Here’s what I did know:

• I have an associate degree from a community college

• I don’t have any notable internships on my resume or connections in tech

• Of the two businesses I started at this point - one failed and another one I gave up on to pursue a job on Wall St. (which was my entry point to a career in sales)

This was my opportunity to go all in and I made it count.

I inhaled it. I learned the platform and built a following. I used all the tips, tricks, tools, networking hacks, and growth hacks to build myself into a bona fide expert of the platform.

It paid off.

All that work compounded into sales - I only missed my monthly quota 3 times in almost 4 years and led the outbound team in total generated revenue. But, it also turned into friendships, long term clients, job opportunities, and ultimately became the launching pad for my most recent endeavor Influx.

My investment into understanding, using, and leveraging the tools that social media (and being in the right place at the right time) offered, afforded me a lifestyle where I got to live in amazing cities like Nashville, Atlanta, and Austin. It allowed me to travel all around the country experiencing things I had always dreamed of.

and then… something changed.

…continued in The Value Prop

Social Media became the most dangerous weapon of the 21st century

Forget drone swarms, energy weapons, space lasers, and nukes. Social media is more dangerous and has done more damage than all of the above combined.

This isn’t a doomer take. This is a warning, a wakeup call, and a call-to-action to take your brain back from Elon, Zuck, and the rest of the social media machine.

“Woah, Ty - that escalated quickly”

If I’m not being clear enough - I estimate that just shy of HALF the people in the United States have been socially engineered into 75%+ of their belief systems.

Yes. You read that correctly.

~140 million people have been socially manipulated into vehemently defending a majority of a belief system that isn’t theirs, but a product of the algorithm.

Ever wonder why everything feels like this?

This is by design. And it all revolves around the almighty dollar.

Social media runs off advertising dollars… to the tune of an estimated $234 Billion being spent globally last year.

¼ of a TRILLION dollars spent for the sole purpose to get you to watch, click, engage, read, subscribe, and buy.

If social media is making that much money why would they want to socially engineer and manipulate people at scale?

put simply: You’re more likely to engage with a post if your mood is sharply altered.

Those chances increase when you go from a positive mood to a negative mood.

Here’s how you’re being manipulated:

Here’s where it gets complicated: (so stay with me)

If scrolling social media made us feel negative all the time then it would create a negative emotional feedback loop which would - pretty quickly - drive people away.

So, they weaponize confirmation bias.

They put us in buckets with other people who think, feel, and engage similarly. Over time - creating a feed you genuinely want to see when you scroll.

Over time, these buckets and the algorithm become almost perfect. Every post, video, and meme reinforcing a worldview you’ve already told the platform you have.

To visualize:

So you scroll - every post making you feel good because it’s affirming an opinion you already have. Hit after hit of dopamine, escaping into a reality that’s tailor fit for you.

Here’s where it gets nefarious, fucked up, and borderline evil:

Social media platforms know EXACTLY how long you intend to stay on the platform. They understand your habits because they’re your activity down to the millisecond.

That’s when it happens.

Boom 💣 a post that makes you go “Wait - what the fuck? How could someone possibly believe that?”

Something that completely rips you out of your comfort zone and makes you angry, uncomfortable, fearful, or just personally attacked. Like someone ripping VR googles off your head but instead of just being back in reality, you’re immediately thrust into a world that’s not just imperfect, but everything you don’t want it to be.

It’s the equivalent of your doctor prescribing meds that make you feel euphoria for 29 days but on the 30th day makes you feel awful. Virtually guaranteeing that you will go back for another 30 day supply.

The same pattern happens with our social media feeds. We get angry, comment with our feelings, tell someone in the comments that they’re an idiot and then realize - I’m uncomfortable.

So where do we go?

Right back into our feed to feel comfort again. Rinse and repeat.

It’s the perfect drug.

…continued in Adding Value

How to protect your headspace

If you use social media and don’t feel like the above is applicable to you I have bad news:

Knowing that your brain - which was designed to pick berries and hide from tigers - isn’t built to handle the nonstop onslaught of content? That awareness alone is 95% of the battle.

Understanding the reinforcement patterns is the first step in breaking them.

Then do yourself a favor and take the time to curate your feed:

• Unfollow and block accounts that constantly post ragebait.

• Find people you genuinely want to follow and then just set your feed to be only followers (if possible)

• Stop scrolling past content you don’t want to see. Block the account and close the app. Remember - you are building your own algo.

• Go through the accounts you follow and be honest with yourself: “does this person suit my feed or do I follow them because I went to high school with them 15 years ago”

• Add blocked/muted words and phrases.

I still genuinely believe that social media can be a positive force for good. I believe that instant access to information, and perspective can genuinely make us better.

We can learn from each other.

We can build off each other.

We can perpetually iterate off each other’s ideas until we build a better world for everyone.

We can use it to build friendships, nurture our relationships, find love, find purpose, and elevate ourselves.

We can use it to improve our place in life - climb the socioeconomic hierarchy.

Or, we can stay stuck in the cycle of comfort and ragebait.

It’s your life. You decide.

Share your thoughts:

Agree? Disagree? Why?

Know someone who needs to read this?

Share this with them. Read it together with them.

We can’t fix the problems in the world until we start having the hard conversations.

I’m here if you don’t have anyone else to talk to about it. Hit me up on any platform.

We got this. 🫶