Trick Facebook has been added to connect us all on social media

Did you know that Facebook doesn’t use tagging and Like to support?

When apps like Facebook first debuted, they didn’t allow users to “like” other posts or tag users. Needless to say, the Like button was one of the best inventions of the last decade, but probably the worst at the same time.

Tagging and liking on social media was not part of the original business model, as author and productivity expert Cal Newport explained.

These are invented after the fact that they are known as “approval indicators”. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that the “Like” button was not added to Facebook until 2007, three years after the social network was launched.

In his books, Newport states that the iPhone (published the same year) was not intended to be an all-day device where we scroll through Twitter like zombies.

When Steve Jobs announced the product, he suggested that it be like an MP3 player that can double as a phone. Newport says that social media has created a frenzy of activity where we scroll relentlessly throughout the day. It is now, as usual, doing billions upon billions of funneling into the treasury of business, social media platforms.

Newport equates this reckless, robot-like doom scrolling with how people use a slot machine in Las Vegas. She’s not kidding. Experts from social media companies have studied slot machines and how they became so addictive and then created models of choice and tagging after gaming machines.

You will “win” when you see likes on your posts Curiously, we rarely know that this is happening. Facebook recently modified their interface in the browser and made it look even more attractive with bright colors and extra white space. In short, they make it look more like a slot machine than ever before.

We are constantly engaging in unorganized conversations, and yet our brains are not designed to function in this random way. We want to focus on the short term — let’s say seven minutes at a time — and get one thing done. We feel productive and thus find meaning and purpose. We did Something. The whole idea with social media, by contrast, is to constantly change focus from one thing to another. Pictures of the baby for a few seconds, then a wedding shot, then a picture of Grandma. It is a willing, constant, obsessive, and chaotic overload of our senses throughout the day.

Our brains need peace from time to time. You can take a test now to see how it works. Since visual information is responsible for 30 percent of the brain, the simple act of closing your eyes can create a feeling of calm. (Better a good night’s sleep.) Just try to close your eyes for seven minutes, take a deep breath like you. You will feel relaxed and calm because your brain got a quick rest.

One thing that is critically important for understanding the constant use of social media is that it is a way to relieve pain. We may not know what pain we are trying to relieve. It can sit so deep in us that we are not aware of it. Pain due to conflict at home, depression due to overwork. We want false stimuli and a dopamine reward in our brains, and we don’t know why. We are seeking approval and credibility from our colleagues, but we have never met half of those so-called colleagues. We “like” because we want to like.

The desire to influence others is a broad psychological pursuit known as Sociometer. We have social radar and they are always on full alert. Another embarrassment is that when we try to reduce the stress of life by using social media, we are actually creating more stress in our pursuit. We do not measure up to everyone else. That false feeling of stress relief creates a vicious cycle because we want more false rewards.

None of this works.

Once we realize that social media will not provide the answers we are looking for, the next question is, where do we look instead?

Good question, I’m glad to ask you.

That means you have to come first, then work. Purpose must dwell within us before we begin to strive for something fleeting, such as job satisfaction. Whenever we try to find the meaning and purpose of the work, we find that the work will not satisfy us completely.

I have tried to find money through my work. Sad to say, it doesn’t work. Working hard will not make you feel good about yourself. Good productivity will not change your life or improve relationships.

What works? Look for meaning and purpose first. Then you will see nothing but the way to finish the job (and social media) because you are working on the purpose you have already found. It changes everything about how you work.

Social media is just one of the most obvious examples of how some of us try to make money by clicking, liking, sharing and commenting. Maybe if we keep scrolling through Instagram we will get rid of some worrying thoughts. It tends to think that we are “working” towards certain goals when in fact it is an illusion of work.

I like that author Emily Gold explains that she has spent years writing a novel and deceiving herself that she is being productive by posting on Twitter. He felt productive, but it was actually an escape from work.

Aren’t many of our quests for success like that? We try for work and we fight for money, and suddenly we realize it was a waste of time.

Social media is the most obvious waste of time right now.

While many of us use social media as a reserve while waiting in line at Starbucks, we can be more intentional about how we use these apps. We can use social media a lot more purposefully. Determine your meaning and purpose first, then look at social media as a tool to help you do your job.

Quotes from my book 7-minute productivity solution.