Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the pernicious influence of social media on the hearts, minds, and souls of those who use it.
Consequently I concluded the only rational response was to come off of it altogether, maintaining only my Instagram account (which has, last I checked, two followers and one post) and a business Facebook (that I haven’t touched in well over a year) so I can run my ads.
(For those not in the know, you manage Facebook and Instagram ads via a separate interface, so you can’t get sucked in by ragebait. Moreover, you stop caring about likes and comments when your money is on the line – literally the only things that matter are spend, impressions, clicks, and conversions.)
I appreciate this is ironic given it’s overwhelmingly likely the only reason you are reading this is that you stumbled across me on social media in some way, shape, or form.
I’m also acutely aware you are here for information to aid you in your noble pursuit of getting strong and in shape, not to listen to my self-indulgent ramblings on the evils of modernity.
But there is a relevant point, if you’ll bear with me.
And it goes thusly:
I can honestly say I am not at all plugged into Fitness Social Media™.
It’s at the point where I’ll be chatting with clients and they’ll ask “what do you think of such-and-such?” expecting an extensive response only for me to say “who?”.
Hence, I don’t have any problems with my body image, worry that I’m weak because I can’t squat as much as some drugged-up nugget (who is probably lying actively or by omission about his little “habit”), or whatever.
However.
I do often find myself feeling inadequate or ashamed about my business (not making enough money, not growing fast enough, not working hard enough, etc) because I am very much plugged into Business Social Media™.
Or at least I was, up until a couple of weeks ago when I decided to bin all of that.
The lesson?
Not to tell you to come off of social media as I have done. (Firstly, it’s not my place; and secondly, it’s peak solipsism to presume that you have exactly the same issues I have with it, and that those issues are significant enough to require you to excise social media from your life.)
However, I would certainly encourage everyone to proactively curate their environment, ideally by picking a handful of trusted voices to listen to, consider what they say, and apply what they teach if you believe it will help and broadly ignore everyone else.
Another thing I would encourage everyone to do is read more Real Paper books.
Obviously, I am biased because I am mostly in the business of selling Real Paper books, but I am yet to hear a convincing argument against unplugging once a day to sit in the privacy of your own mind to contemplate the writings of an author you trust.
On that note…
I’ve a little number called:
“The Muscle and Strength Building Manual for the Natural Trainee”
The title explains the contents.
It’s available very inexpensively from Amazon in both paperback and eBook formats.
Fair Warning: It still has just one review as of this writing (albeit a five star one).
So if you’re worried about dropping the price of a coffee and cake (or just a coffee in the case of the e-version) on a book without any meaningful proof that it’s any good, give it a miss.
Otherwise, pick up a copy from Amazon below:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Muscle-Strength-Building-Natural-Trainee-ebook/dp/B0DL4G6C1B
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman
P.S. If you do decide to purchase the book, please leave an honest review once you’ve finished reading it (don’t just give it five stars because you like me and want to help out).