How Cancelling Social Media Can Fatten Your Wallet

Everybody knows that social media wastes time. And time is money. I could stop this article right there, but I don’t think that would be very convincing. What I hope to unfold for you is how cutting the digital umbilical cord is making a difference for real people and their money. The average American now spends about an hour on Facebook alone, every day. That number is much higher among some demographics. Among all social media combined, certain populations never really leave. For many of us, we’re always connected, always receiving information, always engaging, at least on some level. The question I want to ask is, is this best for us and our money? Here’s how I look at it.

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Social Media expands endlessly in every direction. This is one of the most tricky aspects of social media. It never ends. Plus, it’s legitimately social. Some people take to digital society very naturally. They love the conversation, the arguments, the gossip. If they could spend all of their time engaging in this sort of socialization, they would do it. Maybe this sounds like you. For anyone who spends any sort of time using social media, it’s important to put up personal boundary markets in the midst of endless digital wilderness. These can be personal time constraints, destination restrictions, or any other way of making social media more measured. Whatever you choose, this form of digital budgeting is essential for what amounts to your own budget of attention.

Social Media crowds your mind. I don’t want to make it sound like I think social media is inherently bad. It’s definitely not. But it’s noisy. Especially today in this time of revolutionary cultural change, endless exposure to friends’ opinions and passionate disputes can be, simply, distracting. This is where I bring it around the finance. Personal finance is about managing your resources well. If you aren’t able to manage your brain-space well, you won’t be able to keep track of your budget, your investments, you goals. If you take a break, you might be surprised at how much attention you have leftover in your less crowded, less noisy mind, not to mention that you can make a lot more money.

Social Media Pushes Bad Finance. Financial decisions are everywhere, especially as you get older. Social media is not the place to learn how to make good ones. When I deactivated my Facebook account, I made it a point to use much of that time to read. Not all of the books I read pertain to finance (though some do). But I quickly have learned that it’s possible to take in lots of really good information, in the same amount of time I used to spend trawling status updates. Basically, social media gives you “Whatever” information. It’s not sorted. It’s not curated. It’s only as smart as your smartest (or least smart) friend. If you want to get in control of your finances, it’s time to take the reins and start learning real financial strategies.

Social Media is an Investment. It may be free (usually), but social media is an investment of time. Because time is money, you can make better return on the time you have. This helpful Forex brokerage review explains how you can make real money, in the same amount of time it used to take you to think of a funny Twitter post. The foundation of Forex is rapid value judgments made about real world currencies and assets. To do well at it, you’ll have to learn about the real world events which cause these values to fluctuate. The investments of a skilled Forex investor can see big returns quickly. But the way to succeed, as with all investment, is to seek out real information, information you aren’t going to find in the fray of social media. I’m not saying you have to go cold turkey, but by reinvesting some of your social media time into real research and investment learning, you’ll be able to make lots of money, money you’d never see watching cat videos.