My addiction on watching videos which adress the dark side of social media is just something else

Entertainment becomes addiction when you don't use it as a source of entertainment, but to escape the present, the reality.

I've started reading & studying again to widen my deceased attention span. It's a struggle I never imagined.

It’s been 2 years since I left social media. I have no regrets at all. I got sick of people gossiping, drama, negativity & people faking their lives & friendships and sharing everything that should be private or craving attention with provocative pictures & selfies. A number of things I realised: 1. People who added me as “Friends” didn’t really care about me. They were “So called Friends” just to increase their friends list. 2. When people were going through their hardest times of anxiety, trauma and upset, I went out of my way & made an effort by helping & supporting them. But when I was going through my hardest times, including anxiety, trauma and stress. The people who I helped & supported never reached out to me to help or supported me even when I struggled. Everything has become one sided. 3. Certain posts or videos get blown out of proportion or completely taken out of context even if it’s nothing negative. 4. People lie about the amount of friends they REALLY have. Who in the REAL world has 100s or 1000s of friends WHO?? 5. Communication is very one sided. The same person had to make the first move to start a conversation as the other person doesn’t make an effort themselves or just can’t be bothered. 6. People lie about their lives, they only show the positive side of theirs lives which doesn’t show the real truth about the person. You can’t tell and don’t see if someone is REALLY depressed, upset, isolated, lonely, feeling suicidal or what’s actually going on in their actual lives. Even if people post how they really feel, people don’t always care or not interested. 7. It makes people fake and insecure. It’s not just school kids or teenagers in schools, colleges, universities or workplaces doing it, but adults as well are also being fake & insecure, especially managers. 8. People compare themselves to others just to get loads of “Likes” & comments. 9. Social media has increased loneliness, isolation, anxiety and depression which can be severe. 10. Due to social media and the increase in technology, it’s causing destruction & destroying peoples lives in the sense of their is no sense of unity, community, love and nobody wants to help each other. If they see someone doing something constructive and productive and they’re doing well in a community or society, people will laugh at them in an act of ignorance, and cannot wait for them to fall down. Social media is dividing people, not bringing people together. 11. Having a proper conversation or being real is considered not normal and people think it’s creepy. People don’t like having real conversations. 12. It’s made people to be narcissists, self entitlement, ignorant, prejudice and bullies. 13. People can say things or make comments that are abusive, racist, sexist, ignorant, prejudice, misogynist, homophobia, xenophobia, discrimination openly online, rather than to your face. People troll others on social media. 14. I have seen Boys & Girls take provocative, selfies / pictures to get attention from so called friends / strangers, sometimes in a negative way, for example, woman having their boobs / chests hanging out, body image, men & women showing off muscles, six pack & more. 15. With social media & the young generation with regards to friendships, people feel that if they add someone as friend request and they accept it, or meet someone & they click with them they automatically think that’s “friends for life” people need to realise that’s not how friendship REALLY works. Friendships are & should always be a 2-way street. Real friendships would make the effort to support & be there for each other through the good times, fun times, hard times, sad times, upsetting times & more. Communication & making an effort should be equal on both sides. Not the same person who always makes first contact. The other person should also make an effort too. We need to ALL learn the skill set of when we suffer from stress, anxiety, trauma, facing problems & more, that we should reach out to our friends or professionals for help & support, NOT social media. 16. Our young generation has grown up addicted. They have been addicted to mobile phones, alcohol, drugs, social media & more at a young age It’s very sad. I never had TikTok, Twitter or Instagram. Glad I didn’t sign up to any of them. Facebook was the only social media platform I had and it was recommended to me back when I was in my teens. I only use KZfaq as I can look at interesting things like cooking recipes and motivation videos and music videos of festivals & concerts and more fun stuff. I enjoy going out in nature walks, bowling listening to music and learning new hobbies and watching movies. Since leaving it’s been the best decision of my life. I enjoy life more, I can now enjoy doing the things I do or want to try without being judged or told what to do without being made to feel guilty. I feel more happier and a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I think if social media disappeared forever, I can guarantee people will spend REAL quality time with friends and family. People will know who their REAL friends are and that they will do things together and have a good time doing it. I also feel that people will have proper conversations and listen and engage. I do feel sorry for our young generation. The young generation is lost. There is so much talent and ideas in young people and they need to show that in a positive & constructive way. We can make change for the future. The young generation needs real positive role models to look up to, for them to succeed in life & beyond.

During a rough time with my ex girlfriend, my Instagram reels feed changed to partners cheating and lying to eachother. This is literally fd up

TikTok has taken the absurdity of social media to new heights, fb was bad, but TikTok was the final nail in the coffin for humanity. Game over chaps

One of the dark sides of social media is the non stop bombardment of advertisements rammed down ur throat, tv was and still is bad enough but cant even listen to a 3 minute song withput listening to 2 ads at the beginning and then one at the end then all over again for the next song.

I've watched 7 minutes of this video so far and I'm going through and deleting all my social media, I'm so tired of the damage it does to my mental health.

People are incredibly cruel on social media, to the point where it's ridiculous. I have been cyber bullied relentlessly by simply commenting on a meme. Not a political meme, not a controversial meme, just like...a damn SpongeBob meme. It's absurd.

I was a young teen when social media appeared like Bebo, MySpace, and then FB. The way people faked their own personal lives and fought about pointless things taught me to stay far away from it. I truly feel bad for kids these days...as if commercials, movies, magazines, and normal teenage life isnt hard enough already.

The dark side of social media can be unsettling. It's where cyberbullying and toxic comparisons thrive. I've felt the weight of negativity and the pressure to curate a perfect image. But it's a reminder to use social media mindfully, focus on authenticity, and prioritize mental well-being. Choose positivity :)

Never been on tiktok Never been on Twitter Used Facebook and insta a little but mostly on youtube watching interesting videos. I don't have any complaint against social media but MYSELF. I used to write songs,poetry even draw just few yrs ago but now I've lost control of myself and have let these side elements like social media rule me. So the fault lies within me.

A few days ago I redownloaded tiktok, I deleted it because I knew how bad it was, and I couldn’t believe how addicting just scrolling is. It’s always ‘I’ll just find one more good video’ then it just keeps going and going

I also saw myself spiraling into this addiction n feeling like I couldn’t pay attention or even read a book but now I read daily and am on my phone less and less so I’m doing a better job

I had to take TikTok off my phone because my algorithm was full of red pill, women bashing, man haters and fake relationship gurus. It made me so anxious and triggered all my old fears It really gets addicting watching bitter people. I’m more peaceful now that I’m not on there and limit my Instagram time too

When life gets hard that's when you bite down on the gum shield, you get back up n you fight for your life. You don't just move forward when it's easy, you crawl forward if you have to when it's hard. That's how you grow, that's how you win. I've been in alcohol n cocaine addiction for 22 years. This ruthless opponent almost took my job, my home, my wife. I attempted suicide as I saw no way out. Now I walk the dog, workout, meditate n study stoicism every day. Now I'm 6 months free from alcohol & drugs. Now I'm thriving in work, my wife is proud of me n we're stronger than ever. Now I love myself. If you're struggling n you're reading this please know youre not alone n you can do this. You can beat your demons too, whatever they may be. You CAN do it.

Banning TikTok will be good for the greater good of human kind.

We appreciate how well you've articulated your thoughts on this topic. I too have no shame in admitting that I'm addicted to scrolling a lot. Pretty sure I get distracted quite easily by everything I see online.

We all have so much more potential than we realize. We are meant for more than flicking our thumbs at blinking screens. Our time is MORE valuable than money ever could be and we are being harvested. It truly makes my heart ache. Today i decided that ive had enough. While it may be unrealistic in todays social climate to completely null social media, there ARE things that can be done. I didnt delete my accounts but i deleted the apps off my phone. I started a progress journal, and have it marked every 2 weeks on my calendar where i may check sm for under 30 minutes. My social media addiction is embarassingly bad but thats how its designed to be. 5+ hours a day for years down the drain. No more.

I hated social media since MySpace. The last 20 years have only made me think it's been a net negative for humanity. I wish I wasn't right. I dint have any SM. Never have never will. Have sone self discipline, and respect. Train yourself to enjoy challenge, and delayed gratification, reject short term dopamine hits, and emotional manipulation from all sources. Be on guard, and learn critical thinking. Turn off your notifications. Turn off custom reccomendations on everything. Engage on your terms not thiers, the companies that turned humanity into a commodity

I gave up all social media about six months ago and it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

I'm glad there wasn't social media when I was in high school. I had social anxiety.

Keep your kids off social media.

I mainly waste time on YT. Shorts tend to keep me mindlessly scrolling (dopamine lever)... I have to not start scrolling or I can fall into an hour+ scroll binge and see zero useful content. There are so many news & documentary channels on YT, it's a shame that shorts steal attention.

doom scrolling is what my wife and I call it. Also typically we find that we will land on horrible stuff that is meant to piss us off instead of inspire or actually entertain. We deleted tiktok, and stopped doing reels and IG. We use FB for messenger only now. AND YT for entertainment, where at least for now we can manipulate our history to manage our feed.

It is so incredibly obvious that Tiktok is designed to shorten the human attention span.

You started talking about "hey you've stuck around long enough to watch this video" and I had to move my mouse to make sure I hadn't just blanked out on everything due to lack of attention It's definitely a line that caught mine for sure, thanks man I know people that have had to step away from social media for longer and longer periods of time just because when they go back the constant stream of posts (both positive and negative) starts to get insanely overwhelming Tiktok is definitely a factor, and so is the way that you're fed posts. Even FB will start to hide peoples' posts if you don't talk with them often in favor of someone who you may actually rarely talk with but they post so often and get so much interaction that you just HAVE to see it or you're missing out. Even just thinking "god I'm missing out on their lives so much" when in reality you go back and everyone's still talking about the same stuff (plus or minus some life events) and really it's just that you were missing out on a constant stream of posts by them for the same level of dopamine that you get from seeing new Tiktok/Snapchat/KZfaqshorts/Reels it's a whole separate level of FOMO in the worst way

Not only do you get a shot of dopamine from each scrool,but it also makes you do it again and again.Its such a complexs process that keeps you hooked.By the way i love your ideas for videos

social media has turned us into zombies.

I am so happy to be born in the 90s we had none of that. Thank god

The one thing I noticed about me being constantly online, mainly since recently I've moved countries and and haven't quite settled down and financially a bit strapped. I cannot for the life of me pick up a book and read through its entirety. I used to read and reread books constantly, even just back a few years ago when I was a bit more settled. But since my transitions the last 3 years (I'm 47 now), internet is everywhere ans a super cheap form of entertainment as its almost available anywhere... I am going to cut off for a bit once I find regular employment and get back to the library again. I can't imagine being a child and growing up with this constant stimulation, how their minds are actually able to focus on anything long term.

The choices we make using social media define our mental and physical well being. Thanks for more information, growing my knowledge in this specific topic. Blessings

Lets be real. Social media can bring laughter and knowledge on the table. And social media can bring insecurities and depression on the table. So its not about spending to much time on the platforms, its about spending too much time on watching things that does not help you. For example, if i spend 90 minutes watching educational content then it is 100% beneficial. However, if i spend 90 minutes watching women being inappropriate, watching useless cooking videos which your never going make, following useless social media influencers then it can have a negative impact and lead to mental health issues.

That was a good piece on OF. I roll my eyes every time someone says they’ll just go on there to make money. You’re so right the outliers that make a good living are either celebrities or people with large social media followings from something else. Even then, you still need to do outrageous publicity to stay relevant and drive traffic to your content. It’s not easy money at all

It's youtube shorts for me. I avoided tiktok but youtube took the same concept.

Dude, you did a perfect job keeping attention of the exact target audience you are trying to educate. Massive kudos to you. I love your videos by the way, keep creating cause you are one of the best creators out there right now.

I feel so strange about this "can't watch a video that's more than 10 minutes" because I formed an opposite habit where if a video is less than 30 minutes it's not worth my time because 10-20 minutes is too few to fully explore the topic. And every time i watch a 5 hour video about some topic I know nothing about I feel so dissapointed because I want more. :(

Ihe never used filters for the very reason you explained here: I don't want to create a false idea of what im supposed to look like, im happy wirh how i look. ❤ You should be too.

With two years of being jobless...social media has taken a toll on me, instead of working on myself i tend to mindlessly scroll through Instagram. It's absurd, addicive. It's more bad than good. Hope people understand this and live a more fuller life outside of their phones.

I love how well rounded this video is, and how it considers both the positives and negatives of each platform. Thanks for this balanced take :)

i deleted tiktok off my phone earlier today and i swear to GOD watching this video is giving me a craving! the same feeling as when i try to quit nicotine kind of craving its insane

Very informative and well made. It’s like watching a movie.

This is very well researched, thank you !

Million props to you @aperture You are the voice of people that are awake and aware of the devious plans of these hungry for power people on top. May your videos always be available in the social world and reach endless people to help them snap out of this wretched delusion.

The thing i realized throughout the video, social media is never for our good unless it is balanced. Sadly the creators built them up to be as addictive as possible eliminating a realistic happy life.

Great video! I watched the whole thing. I am so happy this channel exists and that I happen to stumble upon it one day. Haven’t stopped watching since! Have a wonderful day!

This is a great documentary on the history behind social media. People think that starting something should immediately be shared online. Social media has only become a recent thing, 14 years ago. And you begin to notice over the years, that none of these companies let their family use their platforms, because of the intentional addiction. They have a successful business model, and you are the product of their product. Funny how that works.

Unironically have to finish this incredible work you've produced later because I'm overstimulated from work.

Fantastic production and well narrated! Great content. Nice one

Amazing documentary. Thank you 😊

I feel blessed I don't have the urge to use social media. I am however, hooked on KZfaq ♿♿♿

Right. This is why I never understand why folks in relationships use it. I prefer text or DM. I like "receipts"

Masterworks is total BS. The maintenance fees are absolutely absurd and then there's the additional checkout fee on sale.

Thank you for this wonderful work :)

oof... the vid was great, but i do think the first part could be related to munchausen's or it only happens on extreme cases. i feel like it's more prone due to isolation, attention seeking behaviors or a need to belong in a community which could lead people to fake a disorder or attempt to get a diagnosis to grasp a sense of belonging online if they're already isolated in real life, as you've stated later on with teens misdiagnosing/self diagnosing only because they've found a few symptoms related. mass psychosis is quite radical to define these types of things. it's not my intention to disregard people's identities, but something similar happened during 2020 on tiktok with xenogenders. since it's happening mostly on teens it leads me to believe it's mostly to seek belonging rather than psychosis induced thanks to social media. and regarding filters.. you are SO right. i don't film tiktoks or anything, but every now and then i'll get videos on my fyp about how "this filter makes everyone great!"... and it does. why? because it changes your nose, eyes, face shape, etc. and it bothers me beyond hell because if everyone's using it.. what's their real face? what's the purpose? sometimes i go on tiktok to find a filter with a certain color tint that i may not find on instagram and all i find is filters that contour or diminish your nose or face. it's quite sad when i think about it and sometimes i might not tell before switching to another filter and it feels especially horrible because i may have some form of body dysmorphia where i can't tell how my face & body look most of the time, so it does feel kinda odd or disappointing to find i look a certain way in a photo then completely different in another sorry for the rant :( but i felt like i had to address at least the first part. as a teen i've met multiple people online who've done that (primarily during quarantine, isolation, etc). maybe it's not tiktok induced psychosis but it may be a need for a sense of belonging

As bad as social media can be, the real travesty is the fact that Bella Thorne and CardiB make over $10 million a month on OnlyFans. That's more depressing than any statistic about depression rates caused by social media. Then again, the fact that the person who runs this channel is only 24 years old, has over 2 million subs and is already more successful than I'll ever be is far more depressing than motivating to me.

Snapchat is not good at all, the only reason I have it is because it’s the only app I have where I can talk with my friends. Every morning I get a picture of a wall with no subtext, how is that communication at all!?

The irony of this video having an unusually wholesome comments section ❤

I deleted all my social media apps after watching this video. Oh boy am i already struggling so bad. I really loved to scroll reddit and interact with people on discord even though i know these so called friends are fake. Social media and the people with it have brought me great suffering. So this is where i call it quits. I think about it but i know i shouldnt do it. Im going to put more effort into more meaningful hobbies from here on out.

I really would not know. Ive never had tiktok or its like apps. Neither has my kid. We just never felt the need for it.

Infinite scrolling feature I’ve seen first appear on blogs then on social was probably the dumbest invention from the coders. Also what annoys me is I’ll have my Facebook on my desktop browser and have it idle for hours then to come back and have it automatically refresh and I miss what was just on the screen! Clearly a design to manipulate people. I compare quitting social to throwing disco records at Shea Stadium in mass opposition to the genre but that makes people feel good destroying things instead of building something better without total nuclear opposition

Literally ALL of these problems could be solved by ending the monetary system entirely and permanently! We need to change the incentive to change the behavior that results. Sadly, I'm not sure we are smart enough to realize it. We have ALWAYS been lied to about the reason money exists. Money only exists to keep the wealthy, wealthy. From the very beginning. If we all knew that, money wouldn't exist. We would have been done with this system that deprives so many of so much many years ago. But, better late than never, right? End the monetary system and, instead, adopt a natural resource based economy. Before money ends us all.

This is one of the best videos i’ve ever watched

I’ve went through a psychosis episode that sparked from TikTok ended up checking myself in hospital blaming TikTok as the cause

Watching these kind of videos became new addiction...😢

I do appreciate social media showing me how much of a God awful species we are.

I like the way you are bringing this knowledge! However, the video would be better with subtitles.

What's wild is without social media this information and important video wpuld not be as accessible

This is an amazing video! So in-depth and accurate. I especially like how you touch on the scary subjects of governments using the social media regultion as an excuse to get more power over people. I agree whole-heartedly that they must clarify what they CANNOT do. That was the point of the Constitution.

Loved it!

Social contagion - this is why the new surge in identity crisis is problematic - treating children with puberty blockers or surgery for gender confusion/insistance when it could be a phase brought on by influential trends, as teens have always been influenced by exposures around them in formative years.

It's a dream, within a dream, within another dream.

wow u really came for all of us

This just pushes the boundaries of generational gaps even more than what was already a problem. I’m 31 and have watched this unfold from my teens on FB all the way until this garbage started happening when I was 25. I deleted every social media app except YT and have never looked back. 31 will seem old to all these kids, but I hardly feel any different than 21, with the sole exception of not being able to communicate or interact with anyone under say, 23-24, it’s actually infuriating in a work setting, as these kids simply cannot fathom how an authority figure in the workplace HAS to have some control over their lives. The worst part of it is, if you try and discipline one of these kids for being 40 minutes late (happened this week) … they go to HR with some absolutely horrendous complaint, and YOU end up in bother. It’s absolutely infuriating tbh, I hate what has become of the west and our youth. How can society function if you can’t even tell an employee not to be late, for fear they will falsely accuse you of something. Also, I don’t care what anyone says, young women are 10x worse when it comes to this. As a manger, I have FAR more problems trying to deal with these attention seeking, entitled young women, than any of the male employees under me.

Can we just appreciate aperture not having ads besides in-video sponsorships?

yo thank you for this I'm literally working on a research paper for school about social media's affect on mental health

At the beginning of all those social medias was fun, entertaining, people were rational, I was in most of all of them. Then, trashy people started coming in, new generations with new mindset, or just the old ones that changed theirs for various reason... Today I have only KZfaq because of videos like this. Nor even Twitter that I had for 10 years was forgiven. But what can we do, right? Humans are humans... Always doing '*'. We can be anything but omniscient

if your head starts hurting .... put it away

My addiction is KZfaq. And it’s purely because I cannot stand to be alone with my own thoughts anymore. I work from home, self employed and there have been days I could not find a video to listen to while working and ended up doomscrolling on shorts. I sort of hate how KZfaq is now a meme feed and every other video suggested is a short. I love shorts don’t get me wrong. But I get all my work done when I find some good long form content.

I appreciate u good videos 🎉

so glad i never got tiktok

i really liked your the devil you know vs the angel you don't line (i'd say its more complicated than that but still)

Tbh I don’t buy the narrative that there are more recommendations for more educational content for Chinese tiktok users than the US. I think it’s more of a problem of kids in the US less likely to be interested in academic or educational content, because my for you page is filled with either music theory content, music, engineering and animal facts or sometimes literature. Idk maybe I’m wrong but I feel like the average person is just not inclined to go out of their way to actually learn something and see the internet as more for entertainment

My gf is in tiktok watching makeup and relationship videos that last 5 seconds and I'm on KZfaq watching veritasium, various gaming streamers, vsauce, Tom Scott, Arvin ash... It's a fundamentally different type of content. Tiktok has no real "content" from my point of view

speaking of TikTok, i watched a few videos about people and their experiences with living with Autism, i related to most of the things they said but i brushed it off because i don’t like to use the internet to diagnose myself, but since i interacted with those videos, it kept showing me more and i related to more of the things people said about Autism so that made me start doing research, after 2 years of research i found out that there’s a possibility that i could be on the spectrum, but unfortunately i can’t get a diagnosis because of financial issues so i’m basically stuck, i’ve also talked to my mom about it and after doing research with her she believes that i may be on the spectrum too, maybe about a month after i started doing research i deleted TikTok just to make sure i wasn’t tricking my brain into thinking i have autism and also because it’s extremely toxic and it made my mental health decrease RAPIDLY

Ha ha 18:58 got here because I am reading a book had you on in the background I will get back to this, there is more to this tho..

Let’s be real here: 1. nobody called Reddit blackout “reddark” 2. The moderators were criticized more than reddit itself in the end 3. It accomplished absolutely nothing 4. The moment reddit admins said they would oust moderators blocking subreddits, the mods were very quick to comply, they like their “power” after all.

the short time span is so true. when i was addicted to tiktok, i couldn't watch 10minutes video. i always skip it so it end fast. after i stop tiktok for a year, my time span bcome normal again

That's interesting that you mentioned a fable from the Aeta people. As you may know, they are the original inhabitants of the Philippines akin to the Aboriginals in Australia.

great video

Nah bro I love your videos. The part talking about world being better than it seems was so comforting. And then bang why tik tok is evil lol.

Haha, when the sponsors message gets interrupted by KZfaq ads…. I’m out. Decide for either.

I’ve been addicted to my phone for a long time and what has helped me was working on getting in the habit of taking a few minutes or an hour reading, sketching/drawing/coloring, going for walks, the park, library, bike rides, going to the pool, getting together with friends, calling/video-chatting/texting close friends, getting out in the community at events, roller skating, going to carnival/festivals. Even volunteering for something. I’m an introvert who’s trying to become an extroverted sociable person. If you read this to the end I hope it helped. I’m a young adult who is wanting to better herself. I believe in you!!! ❤️🫶🏻

It's not an addiction to social media or literally anything. It's a lack of people who love you. You have nothing else to do.

The dark side of social media is the back of your phone where the screen and backlight ain't.

amazing video

I do like a good topic that not allot of people are talking about being it's like it is interesting and something we could learn about or how to fix some of the issues we might have

I'm glad I quit TikTok, if involuntarily (because my shitty phone couldn't run it) because I scrolled for hours every day and I hate myself for liking it

I completely quit all social media a few years back. I’m 43 years old living with Tourette’s since the age of 4.

For me, if a video on a heavy topic is only like 10-11 min long I don't watch it. I don't like short videos in general. I can detect really fast when something is made to be heavily monetized. there's just no way you can cover a deep topic that can take hours to discuss in just 10 min. You can't speed run everything. You can't explain shit in 3 minutes.