Beware: You Are What You Watch.

You are silently being shaped everyday by the things you are consuming on the internet.

Every viral video, podcast, Netflix movie, has made you who you are today.

Are you being influenced positively or negatively?

Do you like the person you are becoming?

Are you moving towards the right path?

Are you filled with passion?

Or just following trends?

Recognizing The Pattern.

“Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts” - Marcus Aurelius

I was first exposed to the internet around 2006.

I was in 6th grade at the time and my mom had purchased me my first desktop computer.

I remember this being a very exciting moment in my life.

This was going to be the first time I had access to the internet whenever I wanted.

Specifically YouTube.

Back then, YouTube was just homemade comedy, music videos, and crazy things caught on video.

One YouTube channel I couldn’t stop watching at the time was one named “Smosh”.

Their videos were simple yet complex and magical.

What was their formula you ask?

All they did was just lip sync a background song, dance around, and just be silly and in the moment.

Sounds pretty cringe honesty, but at the time I thought it was the most hilarious thing ever!

And apparently so did a lot of other people. Their videos went viral and they eventually became the #1 creator on the platform.

This eventually inspired me to make my own videos in the same style.

Just throw on a silly song, have some props, lip sync and have fun doing it.

And I did just that.

(First video I recorded with my cousin.)

(Smosh’s first hit w/ over 24 million views).

I thought this was going to be the start of a new YouTube career for myself.

I had found something I enjoyed making.

And I had my sights to be just as big and popular as “Smosh”

Until eventually I got distracted and my focus shifted.

After my “silly video” phase, I later found some YouTube channels focused on fashion.

I was a freshman in high school now and the next YouTuber I was hooked on was a rising star named “Timothy DeLaGhetto”

He had the perfect blend of being cool and stylish yet funny and entertaining.

He also performed skits and did most of videos around his fashion and the outfits he wore.

Once again I was consuming every little bit of content I could on his. He influenced my style so much in high school. I dressed and talked just like the guy.

This inspired me to start uploading YouTube videos again. His influence on me was clear. I was sharing my outfits and style just the way he did.

(Showing off my Nikes that went along with my “fit”).

(Timothy DeLaGhetto, over 4 million subscribers).

I uploaded 14 videos over a 1 year stretch and gained 600 subscribers. Helping cement this new found identity I had.

It was great!

Until it wasn’t.

Through the power of the internet, my focus shifted again. I became obsessed with a new thing.

Video games.

Growing up I have always enjoyed playing video games, but watching it on YouTube took it to a whole new level.

The YouTube community for video games at the time was exploding!

I felt like I had finally found where I belonged. I was a gamer.

And I ramped up the YouTube channel once again and started making gaming videos.

I started making content from a game called “Halo” all the way to “Fortnite”.

And this lasted for many years to come.

Not only was I making videos, but I was competing in tournament’s and even live streaming on Twitch for my small viewership!

And as the cycle continues after being consistent with only a few uploads on my channel.

You guessed it.

I completely stopped uploading.

By this point, I felt lost.

Every time I felt I found my passion. I was ready to move towards it. But, something else always came along and stole the spotlight.

I could never stay consistent with any of it.

It always happened like this…

But looking back at all these “phases” in my life, I did start to notice a pattern.

Everything that i became obsessed with on YouTube with was just another trending person or topic at the time.

I started to realize that my whole life was just a series of trends till this point.

As the trends changed, who I was as a person, changed with it.

Like a mirror, everything I was watching was reflected back into my life.

It influences all my decisions growing up, and it ultimately molded my character.

But is this this the character I wanted to become?

Were these things slowly guiding me towards my “purpose” in life?

Or slowly leading me down a downward spiral of never finding anything meaningful.

New Best Friends.

“Through others we become ourselves” - Lev S. Vygotksy

Before the “social media” era, the people who influenced us the most growing up, was the people in our “inner circle”.

People like our parents, teachers, and closest friends.

If you pay close attention, it becomes very obvious where you got your habits, manners, and mindset from.

From the moment we were born, we are like sponges. Just soaking up ideas, behaviors, and habits. We mold ourselves after those we spend the most time with.

Now fast forward to the present day, these are NOT the people we are spending the most time with anymore.

The average daily screen time is now up to 6 hours and 58 minutes a day.

We are now spending 1/4th of our lives watching other peoples lives.

Our screen time is our main circle of influence now.

And we are watching anything and everything that just gets thrown at us.

95% of the content we watch is being curated through the platforms algorithm.

Meaning we have no control over the things we watch.

We are letting these algorithms dictate our screen time. They, in turn, dictate our lives.

Everything online is telling you what you should become.

Social media is others telling you what to think.

The news is telling you what to read and watch.

Your inbox is others telling you what to do.

If we dont have a plan for our online experience, then our online experience will have a plan for us.

And we are not going to like the direction it leads us.

Misuse Of The Greatest Invention Of Our Time.

“Social Media is a Mass Mentorship when you scroll intentionally.” - Dan Koe

The trending advice I see everywhere right now is to “stay off social media”.

Get rid of all your screen time and go live in the “real world”.

Which MIGHT be a temporary fix for those who genuinely need a break.

But I think this is horrible advice.

Our devices will become more crucial in our daily lives. This is especially true as jobs shift from physical to digital.

If you dont know how to use your screen-time to your advantage, you will get left behind. And you will miss out on great opportunities.

People everywhere are starting to use the internet to pursue their true passions. They can now make money that was not possible before.

With the technology that we carry around in our pocket. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be using it to live a happier and healthier life.

And doing so with authenticity!

Not just chasing trends for the rest of our lives and making no real progress.

With a few taps on our screen we have access to some the greatest minds in history. From Mozart to Socrates and yet we just default to scrolling through TikTok.

We have our priorities all mixed up.

In fact, the problem is that we dont have any priorities at all.

Taking Back Control.

“By planting the information of your choice, you control the game.” - Robert Greene

If our screen time is dictating the direction of our lives.

Then we need to be the ones dictating our screen time.

Sounds simple enough right?

But we can’t successfully do this unless we have a clear vision for our lives!

And that has been the problem this whole time.

We have been mindlessly consuming content in hopes of finding our “purpose”.

But we are never going to just “stumble upon it”.

We need to actually put some real thought and effort into our future.

We need to be the ones deciding who we want to become, and not let these social media platforms do it for us.

Only then can we align our screen time accordingly!

The real winners in this "digital age" are the people who take the time to get to know themselves.

They know what they want for their future. They gain clarity, and they act on it.

The moment you gain clarity on future, is the moment you can make real progress in your life.

I am not perfect in my own journey, but I have made some serious progress and I want to help you do the same.

Down below I wrote down 5 different steps that will help you:

Gain clarity on your future.
Act with authenticity.
Create meaningful goals for yourself.
Be able to use social media, “Guilt Free”.

Take Your Identity Back and Use Social Media to Your Advantage.

1.) Self Awareness.

Having self-awareness is just getting to know yourself better.

Your true-self.

Not some fake image you created from combining different internet celebrities.

It's fully knowing your personality, strengths, weaknesses, emotions, and desires. Then, you can use them to your advantage.

When you become more self-aware through these things, you start to notice the things that you need to work on.

So how do we develop self awareness?

A great place to start is through self-reflective practices.

These are things like

Journaling.
Meditation
Taking a personality test.
Reflecting on your childhood interest.

These are all great places to start to learn about yourself better.

I recommend experimenting with journaling first and taking the personality test.

The first time I took a personality test online, I was mind blown of how many things it “knew” about me. It was definitely a good starting point to start my curiosity to learn more about myself!

The best part is its free and it only takes about 10 mins!

Ill leave the link right here on the best one to take online!

https://www.16personalities.com

Just know that you’ll never fully know yourself. But, that’s okay. We are meant to change and grow with time.

The goal is just be MORE self-aware.

The more self-aware you are, the more you can align yourself with your current purpose in life.

2.) Determine Your Real Goals, Not Your Desired Ones.

After you learned a little bit more about yourself, you should get a pretty good idea of your weaknesses.

And this will be a good starting point to start your journey!

Biggest thing to note here is, “what your goals SHOULD be”, not what you want them to be at the moment.

We cant jump straight into running a marathon when we haven’t even ran 1 mile before.

When we think too far ahead that’s when we get overwhelmed. And that overwhelm keeps us from taking action. Start small and start with whats in front of you.

Feeling anxious? → Journal

Out of shape? → Work out.

Financial issues? → Get out of debt.

Lack of knowledge? → Read a book.

Start small, and build that momentum forward.

And the best part is, you’re not alone. Once you figure out what you should be working on, then we can align our screen time effectively!

3.) Replace Stimulation with Education.

When we’re clear with what we want we want, we can move towards it.

Now we can channel our focus into consuming the right content for our desired future.

We want to lean into the platforms that have high quality information. The information that aligns with our new goals.

From my experience, this higher quality usually resides in long form content.

These are a few of my recommendations.

Youtube App (Unique knowledge, filled with tons of longer form content and lectures).
Spotify App (Great for podcast and access to TONS of audiobooks if you have premium).
Medium App (Great for reading articles with high quality information).
Kindle App ( Great for reading physical books, digitally).

Avoid platforms that focus on short-form content. They just want to steal your attention with constant swiping and dopamine hits.

You can still get good knowledge from these other short-form platforms. But, it's just a little harder to do and stay focused.

4.) Consume With A Purpose.

Everything seems important to watch when we don’t know our priorities

We need to have a specific reason before engaging with content.

The things we consume should add clarity to the new goals we have.

Social media can be a mass mentorship if we choose to scroll intentionally.

Asking myself one of these questions before I dive in helps me ensure I am consuming content with a purpose.

Is this piece of content adding clarity to the goals , or is distracting me away from them?
What question am I trying to answer by watching this video?
Do I actually have time to watch this video, or am I trying to waste time in the moment?
Am I in the right environment to pay attention to this video?

The goal is to choose 1 of these questions that resonates with you. Ask yourself that question right before you start consuming content.

This automatically forces you to reflect and gets you aware in the moment.

You’re not going to be perfect and you’re going to slip up from time to time. But the goal here isn't to be perfect. It’s to be able to catch ourself in the middle of the act and adjust accordingly!

5.) Take Action Immediately.

You can have all the knowledge in the world, but if you don’t take action with it, it is useless!

The best way to take action on big goals is break them down into daily actionable steps.

Break it down so clearly that it’s hard NOT to take action.

For example, if you want to lose weight.

I would say that just “losing weight” is not a good goal.

Thats because we are not specific enough. This doesn’t make us want to take action.

Instead if we said “I want to lose 15lbs in 3 months”.

Then now I would say that is a GREAT goal. Because it’s specific and we can break it down into smaller actionable steps.

Now we can focus on losing 5lbs a month for 3 months in a row!

The more effective we can track progress the better.

and..

Progress = Happiness.

Remember if you want to take action on your goals don’t forget:

Take the big goal and break it down to smaller actionable steps.
Be hyper specific with the daily/weekly actions we must take to get there.
Track the progress daily.
Set deadlines to keep us going at a steady pace.

To Recap:

If you’re ever feeling lost again..

Take a moment to evaluate the influences in your life.

Find new mentors, books, and communities that align with your newly discovered values and goals.

By intentionally curating the influences in your life, you will experience a meaningful shift.

You will become more focused, motivated and determined to pursue your true purpose.

The distractions will slowly fade away as they will be replaced by a new sense of direction.

What are you wating for..

Your purpose awaits.