Latest / feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell / the dark side of social media

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the dark side of social media · feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell

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  Our phones and social media has become an undeniably large part
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  of our lives. I personally spend more time
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  than I'd like to admit on my phone and scrolling on social
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  media. All of it seems very, very
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  harmless A majority of the time. However, I've noticed in my own
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  time the negative impacts that spending time on social media
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  can have. And I've seen more and more
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  around me that people are not connecting on social media the
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  way they used to. And actually, instead of being
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  social, social media is driving us apart and it's ruining our
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  mental health. So today, let's talk about it.
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  We'll discuss what exactly social media is doing to us
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  mentally, how they want every single second of your attention
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  span and how ultimately this is very, very bad for us.
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  I want to remind you, I am not a therapist, I'm not a
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  psychologist, and I'm not a professional in the mental
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  health industry. I'm a normal guy who has felt
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  some big feelings and wants to start the discussion on mental
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  health. And it's crucial that we talk
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  about technology, our phones and the way that it's impacting us
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  every single day. My name is Ethan Jewell and
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  welcome back to Feel Your Feelings.
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  Social media is a really, really big part of many of our lives.
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  I know, especially over the pandemic when there really
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  wasn't much else to do. Social media found an even
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  bigger following than it already had.
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  I know during the pandemic I sometimes found myself spending
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  10 plus hours a day on my phone. And let me tell you, it doesn't
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  feel good are phones, social media.
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  It feels relatively innocent to spend a lot of time on them.
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  However, if you really dig deep and if you really focus on how
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  it makes you feel, you will realize that you are being
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  robbed of your attention. You are being robbed of your
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  time yourself. Esteem is being hurt and slowly
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  but surely you are becoming addicted to this technology.
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  Now if you do a little bit of self reflection right now and
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  you think that you absolutely do not have a problem and that you
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  can use social media in your phone with no issues, then I
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  respect you and this episode is not for you.
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  However, for a majority of people you need to understand
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  the impacts that your phone can have and in fact the highly
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  addictive nature of social media we see.
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  Short form content has become increasingly popular over the
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  years, especially with the apps of Vine and TikTok really
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  leading the storm. Social media used to be entirely
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  about longer videos like what YouTube is today, but over the
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  past few years there has been a massive surge in short form
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  content. Unfortunately, this content is
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  incredibly addictive, and it takes up an incredible amount of
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  time. You see, the addictive nature of
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  short form social media comes from something known as random
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  reinforcement. This means that even if the
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  video you're watching isn't good, the thought that the next
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  video might be keeps you scrolling.
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  See, this isn't as big of a problem in other forms of media
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  consumption, such as movies or YouTube videos.
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  If there's a bad movie or YouTube video, you just turn it
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  off. But with short form content.
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  The fact that the next video might be better and that it's
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  only 1 short swipe away gives way to an almost gambling like
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  addiction. I don't mean to compare
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  addictions, but it is very similar.
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  The what if of the next video is simply addicting.
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  These apps are literally designed to hold your attention.
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  These apps entire livelihood, the money that they make.
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  The survivability of the app itself is built upon its ability
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  to hold your attention. Attempting to lead you into a
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  constant state of scrolling attention is money, and if they
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  can hold your attention, then they have 1:00.
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  Because of this, these apps have been designed to be as easy as
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  possible for you to give your attention span and time away.
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  Instead of having to commit to a movie for two hours, you can
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  simply tell yourself, I'll just watch a few videos before
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  leading to hours of scrolling. But there's no engagement,
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  There's no social aspect of this social media.
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  It's distracting, it's consuming, and it's detrimental.
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  So what exactly is the downside of all this?
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  What is the downside of the way that social medias have been
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  designed to grab your attention? I mean, isn't that a good thing
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  that means you're entertained if your attention has been grabbed
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  for so long? Well, one of the biggest harms
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  is that we often use scrolling as a way to distract from
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  feelings. Our attention spans are being
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  destroyed and our overall mental well-being is in danger.
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  I think we can all agree that using an addictive substance in
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  order to distract from feelings, it's highly, highly detrimental.
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  I mean, I talk all the time in this podcast about how important
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  it is to feel your feelings and how without that we lose a lot
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  of our connection to our emotions, our connection to
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  other people. We have things pile up and
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  eventually spill over. Using substances to distract is
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  very widely accepted as a bad or negative thing.
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  However, when it comes to something addictive, such as
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  social media, our attitudes suddenly change.
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  Now, I do not think that social media is as bad as most
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  addictive drugs. I am not saying that at all.
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  However, it is often used in a similar nature, The same way
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  that some mind altering substances are used to numb out
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  feelings. Many people engage in mindless
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  scrolling in order to distract from feelings, and this is one
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  of the biggest harms of social media.
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  The addictive nature of these apps already is harmful because
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  it's taking away our precious, precious time.
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  It's sucking us into a different world, one that we cannot live
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  within. But there's another layer of
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  harm when we are literally using it to numb out our feelings,
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  when we are using it to numb out real life.
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  This dulls your ability to feel things.
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  This makes you turn to this addictive habit instead of
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  actually facing what you need to feel.
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  And that is highly detrimental. Now some people may argue that
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  it's good because it's just entertainment and it's fine to
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  turn to entertainment in order to avoid feelings, but I want to
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  ask you, what were the last five short form videos you watched?
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  Can you truly recall any videos? Are they are they adding any
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  substance to your life? Or are you using scrolling as a
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  way to numb out feelings? This is just something to think
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  about. I want you to do some self
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  reflection. I personally have been doing a
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  lot of self reflection around this and I find more often than
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  not I'm using scrolling as a way to numb out and I can't even
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  remember the videos that I'm watching.
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  It's just completely mindless content that I'm using to avoid
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  feeling my feelings. I think this is something that
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  needs to be talked about. I think it's something that's
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  more common than we think and something that is being
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  completely ignored altogether. If this scrolling truly feels as
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  though it's enriching your life, then I don't want to completely
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  talk bad on social media. I love social media.
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  I found a career in social media.
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  I found a community. However, we need to understand
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  the potential downsides. Our attention span is also being
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  affected when we are only watching videos that are 10 to
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  20 seconds long. That becomes the new normal for
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  our brains. That is the amount of content
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  and entertainment that our brains are used to getting.
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  I know I find it harder and harder to sit down and watch a
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  movie because I'm so used to the short form content that I've
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  been consuming for the past few years.
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  I find it hard to focus. I find it hard to sit down and
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  have long conversations and it has truly affected my life.
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  Now I'm aware of this, so I'm making steps to lower screen
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  time and spend less time on social media and I've already
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  felt the effects. I'm not completely cutting it
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  out of my life. That's unrealistic.
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  And once again, I don't want to sound like a total downer.
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  Social media has its benefits, but we need to be aware.
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  We need to know that it can be used as a distraction method.
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  We need to know that it can lower our attention spans and it
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  can take time away from truly meaningful things.
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  The human experience is a beautiful thing.
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  The feelings that we can feel, the deep emotional connections
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  that we can kindle, the relationships we can have, and
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  the things that we can experience should not be taken
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  for granted. There's a whole beautiful world
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  out there and I'm afraid that many of us are wasting away our
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  time on these apps. There's so much to do, so many
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  people to meet, and so many things to experience.
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  So I want you to ask yourself, is social media truly enriching
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  your life? Or are you scrolling just to
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  scroll after doing some self reflection?
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  Maybe consider taking action, depending on your answer.
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  For me personally, I've been slowly trying to cut social
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  media out and maybe that is the answer for you as well.
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  So make sure that your scrolling is doing something beneficial
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  for you. That's going to wrap it up for
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  today's episode. This episode was a little bit
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  more ranty and preachy than normal.
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  That's just because it's a topic that I'm relatively passionate
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  about and have a very close connection to.
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  If you need help feeling your feelings at any point, please
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  check out my music on all platforms under the name of
• 10:15
  Ethan Jewell and I almost guarantee it'll make you cry.
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  Shoot me a message on my Instagram at Jewel Boy under
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  score, which is a little ironic since this episode was all about
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  social media. And let me know what you thought
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  about today's episode. So thank you for being here.
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  Thank you for taking the time to understand what social media
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  could be doing to you. And as always, thank you for
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  feeling your feelings. I'll see you next time.