Breaking the News Cycle, Deleting Social Apps,
and Restoring Your Mental Health

The 5 AM Miracle Podcast, hosted by Jeff Sanders

Episode #547: Breaking the News Cycle, Deleting Social Apps, and Restoring Your Mental Health

Jeff Sanders
This episode is designed to last forever.

Sort of.

The content is evergreen, as long as our world consists of 24/7 news cycles and social media apps that constantly ping our brains for our undivided attention.

If that world still exists for you today, well then listen up.

It's time for an overhaul.

This is The 5AM Miracle, Episode #547 - Breaking the News Cycle, Deleting Social Apps, and Restoring Your Mental Health.

Good morning and welcome to The 5AM Miracle.

I am Jeff Sanders and this is the podcast dedicated to downing your day before breakfast.

My goal is to help you bounce out of bed with enthusiasm, create powerful, lifelong habits, and tackle your grandest goals with extraordinary energy.

I am a keynote speaker and corporate trainer specializing in delivering high-energy, interactive, and action-oriented presentations and workshops focused on productivity, wellness, and personal and professional growth.

To learn more, visit jeffsanders.com/speaking.

In the episode this week, I'll break down the role of addiction through the lens of mindless media consumption.

Why we opt into distractions we don't even enjoy.

And how to restore your sanity and mental health with a refreshing restart.

Let's get to it.

I used to watch the news every day.

I would consume hours of news updates at least five days a week and sometimes more.

I'm also the same guy who published episodes of this podcast called Selective Ignorance - How to Choose What Not to Watch.

And Why I Never Discuss Current Events and the Role of News in Personal Growth.

In other words, I have been on both sides of this conversation at least in terms of my habits.

Publicly, I have always denounced the news.

Privately, I've been a bit addicted, which is also why I have denounced the news.

I'm not here to point fingers, unless they're pointing back at me.

I'm here to acknowledge reality and then create a better one.

News is not bad, at least in theory.

Social media is not bad on paper.

In execution, however, these sources of information and definitely entertainment are volatile and almost always not worth it.

So this week, we're going to re-examine the role of news and social media in your life and try to determine if there actually is a better path forward.

I believe there is, which is why I'm here discussing this topic again.

To go back to those episodes I just mentioned, years ago, I had this very first stab at this content area discussing what I called "selective ignorance," how to choose what not to watch.

In that older episode now, it was probably eight, nine years ago, I discussed the fact that I basically flat out hated the news and refused to engage in it, which at the time was true, but only in that season of my life.

I've had various seasons where I have watched no news at all, tried my best not to consume anything, and other seasons where I consume news constantly, based upon my season of life.

Now the funny thing is, when I published that episode about selective ignorance, I got some heated feedback.

I had some people who were very upset with my perspective, mostly from this idea that I was training people, if I use that term, I was encouraging people to not consume important information that would actually help them if they knew what was going on in the world.

This idea of being an informed citizen.

And I basically rebuked that.

I argued against that point and made a pretty strong argument why I believe that was the case.

And yet, despite that season of my life, despite my very strong opinion that news is dangerous in many cases, of course I've consumed a lot of it myself.

And so this conversation this week is not about choosing one side or the other.

The goal of this is to acknowledge reality, and then if you decide for yourself that there is a harmful consumption habit going on in your life, and you can change, and you want to change, and you believe that if you changed, you'd be better for it, that I'm all on board with that.

That's my goal.

Personal growth is the goal.

Growth and the acknowledgement of reality is where we start.

And then from there we can make better choices going forward.

We are in a very hot news cycle at the time this episode is going live, but then again, we're always in a hot news cycle.

There's always an excuse to tune in to something, whether it is a television news program, radio, internet news, and of course social apps that provide all kinds of news updates, whether we ask for them or not.

And so the idea of hiding from the news in and of itself is a bit of a quandary.

How can you stay connected in our world today and not consume these things that you don't want to?

It's a bit challenging.

There's a nuanced way to get through it with blocking certain channels or certain boundaries in your life you can uphold.

But at the end of the day, all of this conversation comes down to a question that you need to answer for yourself.

What is the role of news?

What is the role of social?

And how do those impact your life for the better or the worse?

And then from there, be able to move forward with more intentionality, more purpose, and a better future.

So with all that in mind, let's go through a few key ideas to help you make these decisions better to really understand where we're coming from.

Number one, let's discuss the role of addiction through the lens of what I'm calling mindless media consumption. 98% of news and social media is just pure entertainment.

No I just made that number up.

Let's be clear.

But I think that's a true number.

I think it's real.

I think it's based in reality, based upon my own experiences and those who I know consume all of this as much as I do and more.

Now on a rare occasion, you may be able to apply something you learn in the news.

But I've come to realize that that is the exception and not the rule.

Yes, there are those extreme circumstances where maybe you have bad weather that's coming through that's actually dangerous and you need the weather channel here in the United States to figure out, okay, yes, I need to take action in the moment.

News there is actionable and is helpful.

Social media on certain occasions will play that same role.

For those extreme circumstances, there's a lot of value to these connection tools, these social tools.

They do bring us together and we can pass around information that brings value.

But you got to ask the question, how often is that actually happening for you?

How often do you leverage these tools, these apps, these consumption materials in a way that you can take action on now in the moment?

It's just not a thing.

I wish it was.

I wish there, and there are certain tools that are targeted for these kinds of things.

You can have a weather app, for example, that will give you those alerts without the need for Facebook and Tik TOK and Twitter.

There are ways to get what you want without all the baggage.

And so the question of the role of addiction here is really the important one.

Why do you look at Facebook?

Why Tik TOK?

Why Instagram?

Why CNN or Fox News?

Why are you tuning in?

What is it?

And the answer undeniably is entertainment.

That's all it does for you.

I wish it was more.

I do.

I wish it somehow allowed you to be more quote unquote informed citizen.

But guess what?

There are a lot of ways to get informed that don't involve this stuff.

There's a lot of ways to improve your career, help your family, help your community to know what's going on in the world without mindless media consumption.

Let's target that word mindless.

If you truly want to learn something, there are so many ways to learn something, to grow a skill, to become more knowledgeable in a certain area.

Even if that thing is more trendy in the news cycle now, you can learn a lot and be mindful of that knowledge gaining in so many different ways besides just hit the news channel again and watch whatever's on.

Turn on the radio and just listen to whatever's there.

Podcasting is actually a really phenomenal example of intentionality because a podcast doesn't just play arbitrarily in most cases.

You have to seek it out.

You have to find it.

You didn't find this podcast on accident.

I'm pretty sure you didn't.

There's a very good chance you intentionally tuned in to this episode.

That is it.

You want to be dialed in in your whole life with that level of intentionality.

If you find yourself in this mindless trap, you've got to stop yourself.

At least pause this cycle and ask the question, "Do I want to continue?

Is this where I belong?

Is this helping?"

I don't think it is.

I think it's actually a trap.

I think we need to find a more intentional way to pursue our lives that doesn't get us caught up in this just endless cycle of nonsense, this endless entertaining dribble.

Once again, I wish these platforms offered more value.

I wish there was a reason to stick around, but there really isn't.

Now, I'm going to circle back to that concept of being informed.

I have held this opinion for a long time, and this is the one most people will argue with me about, and that's fine.

I take feedback.

You could email me, jeff@jeffsanders.com.

I will happily discuss this with you.

My perspective has always been that being a "informed citizen" is on its face value a lie.

It's a lie that was sold to a lot of us for a long time that basically made the argument, you need to know what's going on.

You need to watch the news, read the newspaper, be informed.

There is some truth to it.

There is some availability of information that's going to benefit you in some way, but it's really indirect.

It's really surface level.

Honestly, that's what entertainment is.

That's exactly what it means to be entertained is just surface level, here's some stuff, okay.

If you want to go deep, if you want to really learn something, you're not going to learn anything in a five second news clip.

You're not going to learn something from a quick little hit.

You're going to learn something, grow in something, be informed in something by going deep.

Because once again, there are a thousand better ways to get the information you need to do what matters.

And there really is no such thing as being informed in a meaningful way.

It's just an idea that doesn't hold water.

Because once again, if you want to be informed, you will, you will find a way to do it.

And it's probably not going to involve these social channels.

Now, there is an argument to say that these social channels might ping you to say, "Ooh, that's intriguing.

I'll go dig into that deeper later somewhere else."

And that could work.

I'm not opposed to that either.

Then the question becomes, okay, well, maybe there is value here.

Maybe the news and social media apps have some value.

We can get a ping of information, a little hint of something cool, and go dig in later.

Then it's a question of boundaries.

How often do we need to tune in?

How often do you have to check Facebook to try to find this next hit, this next dopamine hit, this next thing that you're looking for?

And the honest answer is not very often.

Definitely not every day, definitely not every hour, definitely not 300 times a day, which is about the average number of times we look at our phones every day.

We are so tuned in, it's a problem.

We are so in the know.

It's our only operational way of living is this we think we have to be literally in the know in every moment, which is so far from reality.

It's just crazy.

We're going to make ourselves nuts.

It's not going to work long term.

We're just going to be addicted to the process and then try to defend it because we believe it's all we understand as a way to live.

What does it mean to not look at your phone all day?

What does it mean to not be tuned in constantly?

What does it mean to detach?

You have no idea.

That's the only way you've ever lived.

And so this concept of being an informed citizen of knowing what's going on, yes, I'm all for being informed.

I'm all for being a great member of your community.

But if that's the question, your answer to that is going to be different than just defending social apps.

It's going to be different than defending watching the news after work or all day at work and the weekends and the evenings.

You get my point.

If it matters, you will find out anyway.

That's the other key part too.

If there is a news story that truly matters, someone else is going to tell you about it.

Someone else is going to watch the news because they're addicted to it and they're going to tell you about it because then you need to know about it.

This happens to me frequently.

There's a lot of things I intentionally ignore.

There are a lot of social channels I used to tune into that I don't.

Facebook groups I was a part of that I'm now out of.

And guess what?

I ignore a lot of distraction now because of that.

And on a rare occasion, if I need to know something, I have friends who will tell me and then I know and then I move on.

And so I don't have to be the one searching that out.

It's not my job anymore, which honestly is super helpful.

It's super refreshing to think I don't have to tune in.

I don't have to do it.

I can just opt out and I'm going to be okay.

The best example of this is to take a break on purpose, to literally walk away for a while and see what happens.

I'll discuss more of that in the episode, but I do want to bring up that point that when you have the chance to take an intentional break, it's going to highlight something about your behavior you were missing.

It's going to highlight something that you just weren't paying attention to because it was so built in, so habitual, so normal that for you to break that norm, to break that cycle has to be intentional.

And then it might be a smack in the face moment of, wow, I didn't realize how tuned in I was.

I didn't realize how many times a day I picked up my phone to look at nothing, to get no value from it at all besides a temporary distraction from being in the present moment wherever I happen to be.

So consider these concepts as you ask these important questions about the role that these apps play in your life.

This is important reflection work.

This is important personal growth work.

The self-awareness piece is huge because at the end of the day, it's your life, your choice, right?

This is just my opinion.

I know I have a very strong opinion sometimes on certain key topics.

Usually I don't.

Today I definitely do.

So once again, you don't agree with me, that's fine.

It is your life.

It is your choice.

So that's kind of the point.

It's a choice, right?

You get to choose to opt in or not, to engage or not, to look at your phone or don't, to bury it underground and walk away forever or constantly look at it because you think something else there might be better than your current reality.

Checking your feed is an addiction.

That dopamine hit is very fleeting.

So fleeting you have to look at your phone 300 times a day to go get that hit again and again and again.

I know I'm laughing, but it's a serious conversation.

What are we doing with our lives here?

I love technology.

I love social apps.

This is not, I'm not against these tools.

I just know that this is a very slippery slope and the future of our behavior is based on our decision on how we want to live.

We have to choose what that looks like and then craft that vision.

And if we don't make an intentional choice, we will just continue down the path we're on and it will only get more of what we're getting.

It will just continue to grow into an amorphous monster of addiction.

That's the only direction it's going.

It's just more, more and more.

That's it.

Which brings me to my next point, this conversation around why we opt into distractions that we don't even enjoy.

Now this is a biggie.

Do you actually like looking at your phone?

Do you like looking at the news apps and social apps?

Do you care?

Does it bring you value?

Are you better for it?

I don't know if the answer is yes to that one.

I would actually argue the answer in many cases is just no, it was just kind of pointless.

I just did it again because that's what I always do.

And so my goal is to change that default expectation, to change this reality of assuming the best from these apps and actually assume the worst.

Assume they're going to be boring.

Assume they're going to be unengaging, uninteresting, not valuable, and then just be happily surprised maybe in the future if they are, but that's not the norm.

Our default expectation of this should align to what's true and what's true is the vast majority of those 300 times a day are pointless.

The vast majority of the times we're checking these devices, we're not getting that value.

So our default expectation should align to that, which is that this is not what we want.

We have trained our brains to expect media to be our forever drug of choice.

The lust for something that is so engaging here on your phone, on your device, well, it's no different than playing a slot machine at a casino, hoping for a jackpot, hoping for this magical, "Ooh, look what I found today."

But even if the thing is you found, what did you find?

Was it just some funny video?

Were you after that?

Was that the goal?

Was it just humor, comedy?

I struggle with this because I know that the vast majority of times that I look at my own phone, I'm hoping for that kind of stuff, right?

And yes, sometimes we need a distraction.

Sometimes we need to get out of our lives.

A little bit stressful, a little bit crazy.

Okay, I'll take a little bit of a break, watch a funny cat video on the internet.

Great.

But once again, is that the intention for each of these hundreds of daily touch points?

I think the answer is no.

We are expecting the technology to provide something that we're missing in our daily lives.

Whether that's engagement, connection, purpose, meaning, we are expecting this technology to fill a void in our lives.

Maybe your job is boring.

Maybe you're on a road trip and you just are staring at the window for too long and need a distraction.

Like, I get it.

There definitely are boring parts of life where this tech could have some value.

But we are expecting the tech to always provide that value to the tune of hundreds of times a day.

We are forgetting or never knew that there are other options.

Which brings me to, hopefully now, some solutions.

That's the goal.

I'm not here just to rant and say how awful these things are.

Once again, they're not 100% awful.

However, let's now pivot to this potential solution, which is restoring our sanity, our mental health, and if possible, beginning yet again with a refreshing restart.

The very first strategy here is to do what I mentioned earlier, which is take a break and just see what happens.

I, about a year and a half ago or so, deleted all social apps from my phone.

The only one that I actually left on was LinkedIn because for me, it's not social at all.

It's just for work purposes.

And so I don't view it as a social app for the way that I use it.

But that's kind of the point.

All of these tools can be used in different ways and you have to choose for yourself what taking a break really looks like.

What does that mean for you?

So when I deleted these apps, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all these different possible distracting apps on my phone, it was at first so difficult.

I'm not going to lie.

I was looking at my phone over and over again, expecting to click on them, expecting to get that distraction.

And then after about, I don't know, two weeks or so, it faded and I just didn't care anymore.

Now I still look at these apps on my computer on occasion, but definitely not nearly as often as I was on my phone.

So I've reduced my number of pings per day dramatically.

The last 18 months have been, I've been involved a lot less, which I'll get to in a second.

But I think that there is a very keen observation that can happen here when you are once again, self-aware, you can see your behavior, you can monitor it and then acknowledge what a break is going to do for you.

Now let's imagine for a second that you're not very good at taking this action.

You don't want to delete your apps.

You don't want to walk away.

That taking a break actually sounds kind of painful.

You have a more, not permanent choice, but a temporary one that's also very effective, which is to give your passwords to someone else you trust.

You log out of your apps, you delete those apps from your phone, you block them on your computer.

And now when you try to get back to them, you can't log in because you don't have the password.

And after 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, whatever the time period happens to be, then your friend, this person you trust, gives you the password back.

If you want it back, and you may not, you may not want it, but imagine that you get it back and you log back in.

What are you going to experience that first day?

What are you going to see there?

Well, it's what you see now, but your experience will be different.

Your perspective on what you're engaging with will have shifted.

The problem is you're not going to know how it's going to feel without going through this process, which I've done before one time.

And fortunately I'm at a place now where I don't feel the need to do it again, but I certainly might.

It's always an option for me to do so.

Especially at this very moment in time, there's an election cycle going on in the United States, and this would be a great time to tune out.

This would be an awesome time to walk away.

So I may do this anyway, just for fun.

And so from that perspective, taking a break to see what happens is a very powerful thing to do.

It is such a direct action to take that has an immediate impact on your life.

Because each and every day, as you pull your phone out to look at these apps and they're not there, you're going to feel it.

You're going to have an emotional kick in the butt, right?

It's going to be like, oh, I wanted to, but I can't, but, oh, and then you move on.

This is the funny part.

You're going to pivot right away to something else.

You're going to look for the next distraction.

You're going to look for the next thing to ping your brain because you're just expecting that hit.

We all are all the time.

So the question then becomes, what's your next vice?

What's your next addiction that's going to fill in that void?

Now hopefully, if your self-awareness is really keened up here, you can realize this and then make healthier and better choices and find good addictions.

Because those can exist.

Find healthier, better choices to make.

And then all of a sudden, this void is filled with something beneficial and you're no longer longing for what these apps used to provide.

So that's the first strategy.

Take a break and see what happens.

Now, the second strategy is one where you are still logged in, so it's not quite as hardcore, but it changes the way you behave.

And this is something I did years ago, long before the apps were deleted.

This is probably five, six years ago now.

And this strategy for me, which has worked like gangbusters, this is such a phenomenal recommendation, especially if this applies to you.

Do not engage.

Just listen.

Social media is actually very boring if you don't post, like, or comment on anything.

You just use it as a tool that's not interactive.

You choose for yourself to apply this boundary, to follow for yourself each and every day and see how it changes your behavior.

Because all of a sudden, if social media is no longer interactive, if you're not going to like things, not going to post, not going to comment, not going to add to the platform in any capacity, you're just going to listen, watch, view as a consumer only.

What you're going to notice right away, especially if you're the kind of person who posts all the time, is you're not going to need to go back to the platform very often.

You don't need to because you're not going to go look for, "Who likes my post today?

Who commented on my video yesterday?"

You don't care because you didn't post anything.

So that desire to find that level of engagement from your followers won't be there.

Now, there's a very strong argument here that if you are an entrepreneur, you're in business and there's social media engagement that's part of your business strategy.

This gets pretty nuanced because you in some ways cannot opt out of this completely.

And I get that.

There's a whole separate conversation about how to handle these things if you are doing this for business purposes.

This conversation today is really about the personal addictive nature of these things.

But I do understand that there are multiple sides to these arguments, lots of perspectives here.

Once again, these are just my views.

So with this conversation around not engaging, I actually started this years ago, like I said, five, six years ago.

And so I don't post nearly as often as I used to.

If we go back to the old version of Jeff Sanders 10 years ago or so, I was posting usually then on Facebook probably as much as three or four times a day.

I was posting all the time.

I was commenting, I was liking, and this is the bigger conversation.

I was arguing online.

Yeah, I was one of those guys who liked to not just pick fights, but also see the opportunity to correct someone's wrong and then tell them about it on social media.

Oh, what a disaster that was.

So you can see how there are so many opportunities to be involved in these platforms and to, because of your involvement, you want to then stay engaged and add your value in your way, your commentary.

And yeah, there are certain conversations online that are beneficial.

Once again, these are not holistically bad, but if you want to reduce your or reduce the impact that these platforms have on you, you have to reduce your engagement first.

Whether that means literally having your account deleted the most hardcore solution or blocking yourself from the platform or continuing to use the platform, but not engaging or then strategy number three, which is to engage, but be very intentional when you do.

So I want to go back to this idea of being mindless.

The mindless nature of social media and news updates is what makes them pointless and even dangerous.

The bad habit, I'm using the word habit very much here, but the bad habit of this is what this is.

The mindlessness is the underlying current here of saying, we're just doing something because we've always done it as opposed to, I am choosing to do something because I'm seeking something specific.

Google is a good example of this.

Actually, if your goal is to Google something, to search for something online, you are asking a specific question.

You're looking for a specific answer or search result.

That's actually intentional.

If you go to Google right now and type in something, it's because you want to know something.

You're looking for something on purpose, but if you just open a social app and look at the feed, what's intentional about that?

Nothing.

The answer is nothing.

There's nothing intentional.

And so the point here, once again, if you need a specific piece of information, you go get it and maybe you're going to look at a social app to get it, but then you log out and you move on and do absolutely anything else in the world.

So with this strategy, we're going to engage, but in an intentional way, if you comment, it's to offer value to someone else in a polite way, but only on a rare occasion.

And then you're gone and you bounce from there because it's just, once again, it's not doing it.

So at this point, we've covered three possible strategies.

You can take a break by giving your passwords to someone else.

You can choose to stay engaged, but only by listening and just viewing social and the news.

Or the third option, you do engage, but you do so intentionally and on a very rare occasion.

Now on a bigger picture kind of viewpoint here, I think a better perspective on this, on life in general, is to start something that captures your full attention.

Oftentimes we are seeking distraction out of boredom or habits.

That's where the social and news consumption comes from.

Usually because we want a distraction, we are bored and we think that these things provide some sort of value.

However, when we have something magical to pursue, something that just captures our attention, that draws us in so powerfully, we don't care about the minutiae because you are living your life for something bigger than your phone.

And that's a very big statement if you've never experienced it.

And once again, the easiest way to see this is to cut yourself off.

I told a story in this podcast for years and I'll tell it again right now because it fits perfectly, which is that probably 12, 13, 14 years ago, my father and brother and I went to Yellowstone national park.

We went backpacking.

We were in the woods for days on end, probably a full week, week and a half out in the woods.

And it took me four full days of being disconnected from my phone.

Once again, this is a long time ago before the apps were even good.

It took me four full days before I felt fully free from my phone.

That's a lot of Fs.

But it took me four days to disengage, to then not care.

And the really funny part was that a few days later we got to the top of a mountain and I knew that I might be able to get a cell signal up that high because previously up to that point there was no cell connection, but I knew up high I might be able to get one.

And so I checked for one and I got one little bar on a very slow connection to my much older phone and I tried to check Facebook.

Honestly, I tried to log in.

It didn't work.

It was too bad of a signal, thankfully.

But I still tried.

This is the funny part.

The addiction was still there.

I still wanted to see what was going on in the world.

So even though I felt disconnected and I felt free, the second I had the chance to re-engage, I took it.

And that was a dozen years ago.

It's way worse now.

Oh my goodness.

There is so much more I wanted to ping your brain with now than then.

And so you have to ask that question.

Like what happens in these scenarios for you?

What does it look like to disengage?

What does it look like to truly break free of this?

Because these are addictions.

There's no other way to view it.

That's what these things are.

So what is it doing to you?

What is the impact?

And you can find out.

It's once again, very easy to do, at least on paper.

In practicality, to disengage is a, it's a tough nut to crack, but one worth cracking.

If you want to use that odd metaphor.

Okay.

I would love your feedback on this conversation.

This is such an important one.

This is a valuable, necessary conversation because it's going to be happening for decades to come.

And I want my life, especially to be one of purpose and meaning and fulfillment.

And I want to go on grand adventures and do amazing things.

And I don't think any of that involves my phone.

I really don't.

So email me, Jeff@jeffsanders.com.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

What choices have you made?

What breaks have you taken?

What impact has social and the news had on your life?

Let's work through this.

Let's see what's possible because I believe we have a better future and that better future does not involve all this stuff.

And for the action step this week, turn it off.

Walk away.

Delete the app.

Unsubscribe from the channel.

Let it go.

You can only break the cycle by breaking the cycle.

You have to stop whatever is permeating your mind and your time.

News, social media, it's all an addiction.

Break the addiction.

Find something new, something healthier, something productive, something fully engaging.

Go live your life and really, really enjoy it.

Now, of course, you can subscribe to this podcast and your favorite podcast app on your phone if you choose to do so, or just don't, your call, or become a VIP member of the 5am Miracle community by getting the premium ad free version with exclusive bonus episodes at 5ammiraclepremium.com.

And that's all I've got for you here on the 5am Miracle Podcast this week.

Until next time, you have the power to change your life and delete your apps and walk away forever, including this show.

And all that fun begins bright and early.

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