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Hello everybody and welcome back to the psychology of your 20s.
The podcast where we talk through some of the big life changes and transitions of our
20s and what they mean for our psychology.
Hello everybody, welcome back to the show, welcome back to the podcast.
New listeners, old listeners, whatever you are in the world, it is so great to have you
here back for another episode as we of course break down the psychology of our 20s.
To begin with, I have a new microphone.
My last one broke, I feel like a few of you noticed it in a few of the last episodes.
It was just like not doing its job.
It wasn't working out for me so I have this new one.
I'm hoping that from here on out there is less crackling.
This is a funny story but I recently moved to us and I accidentally moved underneath
a international flight path.
So yeah, that has been a factor in recordings recently whereby every time I try and sit
down to do an episode suddenly there is like a Boeing 707 flying over my ceiling.
This microphone will hopefully stop that from filtering in because I feel like I want
these conversations to be nice and peaceful and not interrupted by loud obnoxious noises.
So that is my first update.
My second update is not an update.
I'm just going to introduce what we're talking about today because today we're going to
be discussing social media.
Arguably one of the biggest influences in our lives and I think society to emerge in
the last 10 years and what I really want to do today is just have a discussion around
how potentially harmful it has become, how little we tend to consider its impact on
our health, on our beliefs, on our confidence, our self-esteem, our relationships, our friendships,
and our careers to an extent.
It just seems that social media has become this all-consuming influence in our lives.
It's become so ubiquitous that we don't really sit with the feeling and the thoughts and
the psychology behind what that might be doing to us as a species.
For so many of us I think it's honestly so strange to imagine a world before social
media became part of our lives.
You know when we took pictures just for ourselves in our photo albums and we got our news from
a newspaper and we picked our restaurants from the local guidebook rather than going on
TikTok.
It really is just completely changed our way of life and I think for all the good that
it is created, yes we cannot deny the benefits.
I think it's also time that we start talking about the societal, cultural, and individual
impact of our social media consumption and how it continues to dominate so much of what
is important and priceless in our life.
Our time, our self-esteem, our self-perception, our beliefs, our understanding of the world.
We are really seeing in front of our eyes a complete shift in how we interact with each
other, how we connect, how we date, how we establish our identity and I don't think
that we think about it nearly enough.
What do we take the time to identify when our social media usage is taking over and perhaps
even making us sick in a way?
It has made me sick mentally and then emotionally and finally physically it all kind of took
its toll and I think also when you come to that point of realization of like social media
is ruining my mental health.
It is making me so tired, so burnt out.
It is turning me from a very optimistic person to a negative person.
What do you do about that?
How do you move forward?
I feel like you have a diagnosis and there isn't necessarily a solution and you might be
rolling your eyes right now thinking no one's forcing you to stay online.
Just log off, just delete your accounts.
But I also think that that is a lot easier said than done when we begin to really examine
how addictive these platforms have been designed to be.
There is intention behind capturing our attention.
Let's not deny it.
And also how you really, by choosing to not be present on social media, you kind of lock
yourself out of a lot of possibility for interaction and to create friendships and to maintain
friendships as well.
The only way I can kind of describe this impact, the impact that this has had on me is that
my brain has begun to feel very rotted.
Kind of from the inside out, something has been getting rewired in my mind for a while.
And I think there have been certain things that have just made me snap recently, certain
experiences.
There is this spotlight that seems to be constantly on us on social media.
Anyone can find out anything, anyone can say anything that they want with really
no repercussions.
And that is just so strange.
It is a huge difference from the environment, our brain and all of its neurological systems
originally developed and evolved in one of limited mass group contact and small communities.
You know, we aren't meant to have this much exposure to so many connections and be aware
of so many people and have so many opportunities to judge and to be judged.
But only do I think it really skews what we see as normal and it promotes a sense of inadequacy
innate social comparison, whether that is to do with our bodies, our lives, how many
friends we have, our jobs, but I also think sometimes there is just too much information
for our brains to process and we just experience and overload at times.
Everything just seems a little bit too serious and real online when it's not social
media is not real and I know it's insanely cliche to say that but seriously if you were
to base your perception of reality on what you saw online, I would not want to live in
that world.
Okay, I know I'm sounding so pessimistic but that has just been my experience as everything
in my life has gotten progressively better and more stable and positive.
The one aspect that remains a source of real frustration and sometimes pain is social
media and all the secondary emotional states and reactions that it just seems to cause
within me and this has been especially exaggerated in the past three months and I want to talk
about it because how can we not talk about it?
As people in our 20s, arguably this is the most formative decade of our adult lives, how
much is social media impacting our psychology in unconscious ways?
Because it is more than we are probably willing to acknowledge or confront and what is
the solution there?
I don't think I'm one to complain about something whilst also not thinking about what comes
next, what else is possible because social media is embedded in our lives in so many ways.
I think it's kind of like alcohol or caffeine or processed sugar.
It's addictive but we can find ways to be healthier and more sustainable about our consumption
whilst also not completely limiting ourselves from some of the pleasure and some of the
good that it does give us.
To begin with, I'm going to talk through my own experience and what's kind of led me to
come to this revelation that social media is negatively impacting perhaps ruining my
mental health.
I think that I never imagined that social media was going to play such a huge role in my
life.
When I was younger in my teen years, I kind of stayed away from social media.
I think I quit social media for like a year at one point.
There's always kind of been this conscious part of me that's recognized that it is doing
things to our brains that we are probably not fully aware of.
And then I started this podcast.
When I started the show, obviously, if you have been a loyal day one listener of which there
are probably very few of you because it really was just like my parents and my friends and
my grandma.
I really just wanted to share my own experiences in my 20s.
I remember having this thought that this kind of project would be great for me to look
back on in the future and have like a catalog.
Like it almost diary like entries and voice memories of what I was experiencing at the
time, like a journal.
And then I just got so into it.
I was so passionate about it.
There was so much to talk about.
People started following.
And now social media has become a component of my career as the podcast has become my full-time
job, which I'm so lucky to be able to say.
It's interesting that social media becomes is hand in hand with that, even though I'm doing
something that is completely separate from Instagram, from TikTok.
You know, I'm making a podcast.
I'm talking into a microphone about psychology and mental health.
And our 20s, there is this expectation that you need to have an online presence to kind
of make your podcast or I guess like make your job in your career seem legitimate.
Right, like how can people know that you are doing good stuff and how can people find
you if they can't find you through the platforms that they spend their most time on through Instagram,
through TikTok, through X, through whatever it is.
Social media is now, I think, an equal part of my job as just content creation through
an audio sense.
I've even had meetings where people will be like, well, we want you to improve your numbers
or we need you to improve your online engagement before we can do a project with you.
Even though like the project has nearly nothing to do with my Instagram presence and my
follower account, like that's on an entirely different platform.
I am like a podcast guy.
I'm not an influencer or a content creator, but it just goes to show that if you want to
do anything that requires public acknowledgement for success, you have to kind of sell your
soul a little bit to the algorithm and it made me really obsessive.
It made me not want to create for myself.
It made me want to create for others.
And it kind of made me not enjoy the thing that I loved anymore, which is podcasting,
which is storytelling and information sharing through audio.
Right?
Like that was the main purpose from day one and it just felt like social media became
a bigger beast than I perhaps wanted it to be.
On top of that, let's just acknowledge that social media is such a time waste.
It is an absolute vacuum for our energy and our productive hours.
And I always think about this saying how you spend your days is how you spend your life.
And if you are spending five hours a day on your phone, on your screens, that is sometimes
a third of your waking hours, a third of your life plugged into this constant hollow
entertainment source.
And I just think that we can't help it.
It's addictive.
It is a whole way of life in itself.
And the thing that makes me really realize that is when I started contemplating how long
I could spend without picking up my phone when I was working, how long could I spend off
my phone before I started noticing the urge to automatically pick up and scroll for five
minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes.
It was like a 10 minute interruption system.
You know, even if I had left my phone in another room whilst I was working, I was like going
on Facebook in like my Google search, but who uses Facebook anymore?
Like there was nothing there that I needed to know.
There was nothing there that was like oppressing information source.
It was just a distraction.
It was just a source of a nice little dopamine hit.
And it made me realize what am I actually getting from this habitual behavior and action
of experiencing boredom or experiencing, I don't know, a bit of a rut or a mental rut
and just picking up my phone immediately.
This is a question I always ask myself and I think I've posed it on the podcast before,
but could you honestly tell me five things you've seen on social media today?
Could you actually describe to me five TikToks that you've watched in the last week?
And how did they improve your life?
What impression are these things really making?
More seriously, what is it contributing?
How much of what you are observing for sometimes hours on hours a day, an end on an end?
How much of that is actually permanent?
You know what I mean?
Like there was not like those hours that you spend on social media are dead hours to
me.
They are dead hours.
There is nothing that is sitting in your permanent long-term memory that is useful that
you are gaining from scrolling.
I will say there are certainly good things.
I do follow some creators that have had a really important impact on my life.
There is this New Zealander creator called Riley J. She posts running content and that
has really inspired me to like start running again and being really serious about it.
Keelan Monkrieve, she gives me a lot of things to contemplate my friend, Sal and Owl.
They are just like such a positive influence online.
They have great lifestyle tips, great saving tips.
I take their advice.
Those are people that I think are really worth following and I can consciously remember
things that they've said or questions that they've posed or content that they've posted
that makes me stop and contemplate or change something about how I'm living my daily
life.
The community aspect is also brilliant.
I love seeing one of my friends are doing who have moved to the other side of the world
without having to wait for them to send me a postcard every three months.
There is a lot of good but it is this weird trade-off.
The trade-off is do you receive some of those perks and those benefits of community, of
inspiration, if the trade-off is your time, which is one of the most precious things that
we have.
If the trade-off is your own, I guess, intelligence and your capacity to have original
thoughts.
The other element of this that I think we are speaking on a lot more is just the general
negativity that is everywhere at the moment.
I just started to see the world as a bad place.
I would be scrolling social media, scrolling Instagram mainly and I would go into the comments
section of Reels.
Don't do that.
There is nothing good for you in there.
There is literally nothing good for you in there.
It is just like a terrible hellfire pit of everyone's worst thoughts and worst feelings
towards another human that they somehow feel they have the right to express openly on
their platform.
There was just so much hatred and troll accounts and I think I began to anticipate what the
comments section was going to say before I was even opening the comments section before
I was even posting a video of my own.
So organically, I began adopting the negativity of those who were already negative without
them maybe needing to say anything.
My mindset had shifted into their mindset to be protective or preventative to kind of
anticipate what they were going to say but in as a result that made me a negative person
that is like talk about indoctrination that is just like a complete mind fucked me.
The hate that we have for each other is just like actually devastating and those words
have like a meaningful impact as someone who has like an online presence and I hate saying
that because I just feel like Ikey about it but as someone who does have an online presence
and it's something that I'm obviously I'm grateful for but it's kind of like the devil
I know.
Those words that people say that you might type out and be like I'm just going to send
that off.
That has a meaningful impact on someone that can ruin their day.
That can stick with them for months after you have already forgotten who they are, what
they posted, what angered you.
And there are just certain people who I see commenting on things where I'm like I would
hate to live in your brain.
I would hate to be in there.
That just seems so tiring.
That just seems so exhausting.
So negative.
So unhappy that you have these thoughts that are so powerful in your head that you can't
help but share them tangibly with others.
And I just started to believe that having seen all these people and all this you know this
like pattern of comments and troll accounts and whatnot that the world was a bad place
that the world was negative that people were becoming mean and cruel even if I can consciously
step back and say you know these people don't know me they will never know me.
They have never spoken to me they don't know what thoughts I have internal feelings, what
moral dilemmas I face, the guilt that I experience at times, the relationships that I have
the problems of my own that I'm trying to manage.
I just think that social media gives you like the highlight reel of course but also gives
you like just the film on top of the rest of life right?
Like just the surface level of everyone's lives and everyone's feelings and everyone's
feelings towards other people.
It's also been so interesting comparing this to my boyfriend who has zero social media
presence.
He has like an Instagram account he uses to follow his sisters in me and that's it.
And it's really interesting because for the last 10 years as we have most of us have
gotten sucked into basically a social media addiction or a social media dependence.
He hasn't had that experience and some of the things that I've noticed is that he experiences
a lot less phomo you know a lot less of the sphere of missing out.
He is a lot more secure in his opinion of himself.
He is on his phone a whole lot less.
He procrastinates less he is able to focus for more extended periods of time.
He has a greater attention span compared to me.
It's almost like an observational experiment right?
It's like I've gone through the last 10 12 13 years with social media being part of my
daily life and he hasn't and these are the kinds of people that we've turned out to
me and I can't help but think that it really just truly comes down to how unplugged this
man is.
You know his screen time is often less than like an hour or two hours each day and that
is just so much extra time like when you really think of it that is like three additional
hours sometimes four additional hours that he spends like actually looking at the world
with his eyes upwards.
Whereas a lot of us are trapped in what feels like a bit of a cult right?
All my connections are built around it slowly my career is tied to it.
It's at times where I get a lot of my news first you know if I open Instagram first thing
in the morning there will be like the New York Times article the variety article the BBC
article that will be the first thing that I see that is giving me like the headlines
for the day.
It's integral there is no way of imagining what life would be without it and yet everything
is pointing to us needing to take a step back nowadays we've gone too far and anecdotally
I can see that we've gone too far scientifically even legally on a global level we can see
that this is gone too far.
There are some papers that have come out recently linking excessive social media usage which
is over two hours a day I think a lot of us are hitting that.
It's links that that's what they call excessive with poor mental health outcomes that means
that you are more likely to experience chronic stress anxiety depressive symptoms and just
recently if you've been watching the news meta the company that obviously owns Instagram
and Facebook they had to like stand up before Congress and say yes we are sorry we know
that our apps are used for misinformation we know that our apps are used for cyberbullying
that has caused people to take their own lives we know that our apps have been designed
to be addictive we're sorry not that that really means much because they continue to do
everything in their power to keep you hooked their paychecks really rely on your inability
to say no to all the temptations that they are offering and it's not to say that you
have poor self control or poor self discipline like there are entire teams of neuroscientists
and data engineers and literally sometimes even psychologists who are helping them design
systems that are addictive.
You know it is hijacking the systems by which we experience and kind of administer and process
dopamine.
Essentially social media provides this endless amount of immediate information and immediate
reward in the form of attention from others or bright light slash colors information that
you see is important.
And so the brain rewires itself through this positive reinforcement either the pleasure
that we receive the dopamine that we receive from being entertained or from people's
likes people's views people's retweets people's reactions and that we get these like short
bursts of hits of dopamine that actually overall lower out sensitivity to not real dopamine
but sustained long term kind of healthy dopamine is what I would call it essentially we are
receiving a lot of instant gratification from these apps which means that we have a lot
more of this neurotransmitter to mean available to us in our brain and so our brain is like
well we have all this you know we have this like drug this happy chemical running around
in our brain maybe we should shut off some of the receptors because we can't actually process
all of this dopamine that's running between our neurons and passing through our synapses.
So basically what that means is that you have a lowered sensitivity so over time you're
going to need more hits more content more attention more time to receive that same level of
pleasure that you were previously getting that's before we even include the role of algorithms
in the equation my sister said something really interesting to me the other day she said
if you download tick tock you have about a two week period before it gets really addictive
so that is that two week period is all you have because after that time has passed that
is how long it takes for the algorithm to learn what you like and to start feeding you all
the things and the themes and the topics that are really going to get your brain specifically
your brain firing that are really going to sit within a niche that had already existed
beyond social media that you obviously are going to be attentive towards so I tested
this out I actually don't use tick tock anymore because like I said it's addictive it was
really negatively impacting me so I deleted tick tock about two months ago maybe a little
bit more now but right at the start of when I did that I re downloaded it and I couldn't
get into my account so I created a new account and what started off is like just general
content and like dancing videos and cooking videos and just things that everyone was kind
of like within two weeks I was getting boxing content I was getting Sydney restaurant
recommendations I was getting Taylor Swift updates I was getting a book talk reference
like things from book talk that were like exactly matching the books that I just read
I was getting travel recommendations for places that I'm not visiting for another three
months that is how good they are at capturing your attention by using your data to keep
you plugged in I know this sounds really like suspicious and very like I don't know hoaxi
and strange but there is all this evidence for this occurring and I think that as they
begin to form a monopoly over every aspect of our lives that monopoly also creates power
it creates power over our lives and I don't think that that is doing more good than harm
at least in my own personal life so what do we actually do about that right like it's
one thing to complain about something but I think that we also need solutions I'm going
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Alrighty so in addressing how social media is impacting our lives and what we can do
about it I want to talk about three aspects what we can do about social media as a source
of negativity what we can do about social media as a time waste and what we can do about social
media as a source of inadequacy and social comparison.
So starting at the top what can we do about social media as a source of negativity.
Number one I would say make sure that you are curating an online environment that makes
you feel comfortable.
If you notice that there is certain topics certain videos that really make you feel pretty
awful whether that is body content, gym content, online trolling content, celebrity content
that is just like avertly negative, set boundaries for yourself that essentially instruct you
when it's time to envelope those accounts or restrict your access to them.
Something that I like to do is when I see something where I'm like this is immediately
making me frustrated and angry and I know that that is like part of the technique to keep
me attached is like I'm going to disagree with this so I'm going to become more engaged
in what other people are saying.
I immediately press like not interested.
I scroll I like find the little settings area and I go not interested like don't show
me content from this person again.
Just in order to kind of limit my sense that the world is a bad place by constantly seeing
content from people who are pretty adamant on making it the same that way.
The other thing that I say is where you see negativity leave positivity.
Interrupt the thought process that is making you see everything is terrible by being the
good that you want to kind of see in the world.
So I've been doing this recently sometimes I'll watch a video and I'll be like all right
I just know what the comment section is going to look like here.
I just know I know that if it's a woman at the gym who doesn't look like most women at
the gym there are going to be thousands of men in the comment section just like absolutely
abusing her and being so cruel.
So I'm going to make a conscious decision to like leave a positive comment on this video
even though I don't normally like to you know I'm kind of like a prowler like even though
I don't normally like to like leave comments on things because I don't know it just feels
strange.
I always try and do it with those videos right.
Like the same thing I saw this video of this girl the other day who was like can you notice
my biggest insecurity like no you can't so you know move on with your life and everyone
in the comment section was like oh I can notice it it's this it's that it's your skin it's
your face it's your body what the heck and so I just left a nice comment and I think that
it just shows it kind of like we rewires your thought process whereby instead of thinking
like everyone is out there to be mean it's like no that's not true because I'm not out
here to be mean and there must be other people who are in the same boat and you see it people
start engaging with your comments because they're looking for something in that comment
section that's going to actually match what they feel which is that this person is doing
an amazing job this person is beautiful this person is kind this person does not deserve
criticism let's you know elevate those voices that are seeking to promote a more kind
compassionate empathetic mindset on these platforms that whereby you know the algorithm
does promote negativity and troll accounts above everything else because they capture
our attention next in order to kind of address social media as a time wasted for yourself
I think there are a few things that you need to do firstly try and break that urge to pick
up your phone whenever you are feeling bored lonely distracted frustrated see how long
you can hold off see how long you can ignore or suppress that immediate need to satisfy
an itch and urge a desire when you do that you're experiencing delayed gratification
we talked about this before essentially what you're doing is saying to your brain like
hey I actually have a conscious conscious voice here I'm a conscious decider a conscious
actor when it comes to the urges that you send my way I don't have to act on them I'm
making it a choice based on what I think is best I don't have to do what you say I need
to do you know it's not like an urge or it's not like a craving for water or a craving
for food or for sleep or for safety it's just a craving for dopamine it's a craving
for distraction that can be ignored and you can hold yourself back from fulfilling that
and see how long you can do it for is it five minutes is it for ten is it for an hour
and slowly train your brain and train yourself to recognize that you don't always have to
give in to what you immediately want it's also about identifying behaviors that cause
you to look for that quick boost right is it when you are bored is it when you are lonely
like we said before I think that knowing what the root kind of trigger is for this seeking
behavior this social media seeking behavior is really important in limiting it this is
where the idea of a dopamine detox often comes in detox meaning you know just just an opportunity
to kind of cleanse your body of a bad thing in this case excessive social media usage
the premise of a dopamine detox is that you reduce your brain sensitivity to dopamine
by removing that kind of like removing a behavior or a substance or stimuli or an experience
for a period of time so that your brain gets used to not having it ideally by the end
of the day talks you feel more centered you feel more balanced less affected by your usual
dopamine triggers however I do think that we should be a little bit suspicious of this
I do think it's important to take time away to step back to provide your your mind and
your brain with the place for clarity and for peace that is not constantly interrupted
by loud music and dancing and controversy I think a more accurate description though
of dopamine detox is actually just a period of abstinence or unplugging from the world
which just serves to minimize destruction and reliance to kind of show you that you
can live without this thing even if it's hard right you are essentially battling a system
that wants to keep you addicted and plugged in and I think it's important to sometimes
show ourselves that we can live without that that the world would not end that you can
take a step back and it might feel hard it might feel difficult but that very the very
reality that it feels difficult and then it kind of feels painful in a way feels like
you're in a state of withdrawal the very fact that it feels like that is probably a sign
that you needed to do it that there was something there that was borderline unhealthy
borderline dependent finally let's address social media as a form of inadequacy and social
comparison the very nature of social media in that it keeps us interconnected means that
we have thousands of not millions of opportunities at any time of the day to compare ourselves
on any number of factors we can compare our bodies to people we see on our full page we
can compare our careers on LinkedIn we can compare how many friends we have on you know
to TikToks that we say of people who seemingly have it all how fashionable we are how happy
we are like there are just so many opportunities to look at someone else's life and feel like
you are lacking and for that sense of lacking for that sense of having less to impact how
you enjoy your reality I just want you to remind yourself this is not real social media
is not real anyone can present or say anything without it being true without it being accurate
I think about my own social media presence right you know so many of those photos that
I posted from like ages ago or they're from like spread out over weeks or they're from
like the one day that week that I like looks nice I'm recording this podcast right now
and I am wearing a wolf shirt my hair is up in a bun I look foul I'm not wearing pants
I will say that's just little secret like I'm not going to post this on social media
but people I got this comment from some of the other day being like oh my god I'm just
like so jealous of you and how many friends you have and I was like that is not true like
that is this is just an impression this is your perspective I still am someone who is
like deeply lonely at times and who deeply struggles with the sense of permanency around
my friendships I am still someone who struggles with how I see my body in comparison to other
people but you can choose to kind of curate what that looks like for people it's not real
it's not real I also think that a really great way to counteract this sensitive is to
or not even just the sensitive is real but the sense that what other people are showing
you is important for your life is to spend time in nature we know that it's so healing
to be outdoors to touch and feel and smell and see something that matters and to see something
that is real and that you can confirm is real I think it really brings you back to reality
it's a bit of a perspective shift so often like we get stuck in this like the space between
our mind and our screen and that seems like the only thing that matters and it seems like
it is a lot more important than it is when going outside and being like there is a whole
world outside of this and nobody cares about what that person is saying nobody cares about
what that person is doing like they may do but is it really impacting like all the other
things that are going on in the world that require our attention probably not you know
it's just this I think an important practice to pull yourself out of Phantom Reality from
time to time either through what we said was a dopamine detox all through just making
a conscious decision to like put yourself in a situation where you are completely unplugged
outdoors enjoying fresh air enjoying the ocean enjoying the smells the sights the beauty
of nature and of your surroundings with the social comparison thing I will say one more
thing on that everyone who you are comparing yourself to is also comparing themselves to
somebody else it is this whole continuous cycle and loop of comparison I don't think anybody
is safe from it there is no single person out there who I would say is active on social
media and feels great about themselves all the time they just like to give the impression
that they are but there are so many sources for us to feel dissatisfied and nobody is immune
to that so you are only human you are fallible we are all insecure we are all battling something
behind the guys of our feed and what we post make sure that that you don't lose sight
of that make sure that you are aware of the ways in which you know everything is not as
it seems especially on platforms where there is an incentive to make things look better
when there is an incentive to post content that is aesthetic because it will be high performing
because it will attract people because it will get their attention because that is what
they want because that is the life that someone is trying to sell them all right I think
that is enough ranting for me today and I acknowledge that it was a rant obviously I think
that this has been something on my mind for some time and if you follow me on instagram
you will see that I have just put some things in place to make my online environment safer
some online boundaries some online rules it is important to talk about you know it is a
really big factor and influence and if you can relate to this to any aspect of this I believe
in you I am proud of you for at least getting this while you are having like conscious thoughts
around something in your life that might be unhealthy that being social media and I get
that it is really hard I get that it is really addictive in that you can really want to
you know that one thing is the right thing right you know that there is something that
you need to do for your health but you just can't bring yourself to do it it is not all
your fault that you said deliberately made to be addictive all so many aspects of our
lives are embedded in social media right now our careers our social lives our work so I am
rooting for you we are going to together I promise and just a reminder to be kind to people
be kind if you see negativity leave positivity if you want to say something don't you can
feel better anyways if you don't say it if you don't run somebody's day you never know
the sting that words leave and I think that's where I am going to leave it I think that
is a great final message be kind to others and be really kind to yourself as well because
you deserve to be happy and to be gentle with yourself and to create an environment whether
that is online or in your real life that doesn't leave you feeling shit about the world
and shit about yourself so thank you so much for listening as always if you enjoyed
this episode please feel free to leave a five star review on Apple podcasts Spotify wherever
you are listening I write your app I don't know what the other ones are wherever you are
in the world please feel free to also send me some episode suggestions I love hearing
from you we can't always do them all but it is great to hear what other people in their
twenties are going through and to then have the opportunity to look into the psychology
of those things it is so much fun and I also just love hearing from you I love hearing
from people all over the world who are you know listening to this content and relating
to it makes a lot of our experiences feel quite universal makes me feel less alone you
can also follow me on Instagram at that psychology podcast I get the irony of me saying
that after a social media episode but I actually no longer like actively running that account
so feel free to go and see what's going on there I don't really know just kidding I do
but it would be great to you know build out nice like actual positive corner of the community
of the social media community and as always we will be back next week with another episode
until then stay safe and be kind to yourself.
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