What does it mean for me to live with my own thoughts?

Is it possible to live in an internet environment filled with content and advertisements without being influenced by them? Could it be that I am naturally mistaking the stimuli and thoughts that someone injected into my subconscious as my own thoughts? The book ‘Stolen Concentration’ became a bestseller the year before last by highlighting the problems that arise when big tech social media intentionally provides unlimited personalized short-form content that is provocative and addictive.

Even I, who has spent most of my career in the tech scene, strongly sympathize with this problem. At first, I started out out of concern for my children, but soon I found myself consuming this kind of shorts content uncritically. Algorithms magically figure out which content each individual will consume longer. It's so bad that I can't overcome it simply by refusing to accept it.

One of the characteristics of each human being is confirmation bias.

Rather than consuming stories that are true, humans digest and reinforce only what they think is true. Some anthropologists say that although there are many cases where these human tendencies are so wrong that they can be seen as errors, these human tendencies have come together to advance humanity. And social media relies on this human tendency to drive infinite content consumption.

Here, I saw both a crisis and an opportunity and decided to try an experiment. The hypothesis was, “If I first decide what to strengthen in my life, wouldn’t social media be a good device to strengthen what I want to strengthen?”

What I want to strengthen are the things I have established as life principles so far. For example, things like this.

1. Priorities in lifePriorities in life are me → family → surroundings → … → It is work. My day is sleep → exercise → nutrition → relationships → … → It's work. So, if you spend about 2 hours taking care of yourself, your family, and your surroundings as a morning routine, you can gain the freedom to spend the remaining time focusing on work. If you lose your health, you lose everything, and living as your best self is the best way to take care of your surroundings and work.
2. …

Then, I will write down the know-how I discovered through experimentation that allows me to consume social media as an agent and strengthen what I want without being dependent on social media.

Use calibrated social media.

Almost all social media have Like, Dislike, and Block features. Many people use Like. Events big and small, such as what content you looked at, how much time and scrolling you spent on focusing, and what you liked, are all logged and used to personalize content recommendations. Even the advertisements in between are calculated with great care.

So, take full advantage of the Block feature, which strongly rejects content you don’t want. It may be an individual or group account spreading fake news, a simple article that raises eyebrows, or a video that causes unnecessary stimulation. For example, I personally block all traffic accident black box videos that appear. This only stimulates my anxiety and anger and doesn't do any good.

If you don't actively use Block, you will eat what you are given. Additionally, the weight of this block is different in the content exposure algorithm for each social media. No matter how much you Dislike and Block, Tik So I don't use it.

The social media I currently use are Substack, LinkedIn, and X. On the good side, it respects the user's intentions. On the bad side, the algorithm is terrible (probably somewhere in between). Still, only a medium that can be calibrated like this can enhance content consumption according to my purpose.

It's also important to recognize that there's nothing you can do about what social media decides to do. For example, I block all accounts and keywords such as Tesla, Elon, and Coin. Combining my gender, age, region, and occupation, I think I want to show a lot of these things. To me, it was just noise and I didn't want to strengthen it, so I blocked it all and it was fine. One day, Tesla popped up on X and it was displayed as a community recommendation. Yes, the algorithm finds a way.

Countless contents in the world. Which side will win?

Whoever I feed wins. Before jumping right into consuming content to kill time, why not think about what you want and want to strengthen before going in? If you don't think so, try actively using Block without feeling guilty and get the reinforcement you want.

However, if you do this, confirmation bias may be repeated and you may have a narrower and incorrect perspective. So, don't forget that it is also essential to have people who can give you good advice in the real world, not the Internet, and to develop an environment/surrounding environment that allows you to accept it.

Thank you.