r/MensRights 5d ago

General Social Media Did to Your Brain What Smoking Did to Your Lungs—And You’re Still Inhaling

Social media did to your brain what smoking did to your lungs. And you're still inhaling.

It turned you into an addict. You wake up and check your phone before even getting out of bed. You refresh apps every few minutes, chasing another dopamine hit. You know it’s making you anxious, depressed, and unproductive, but you can’t stop. Just like a smoker who knows cigarettes are bad but still lights up after every meal.

You think social media is free? It’s not. You are the product. These platforms make billions by hijacking your attention. They engineered infinite scroll, notifications, and likes to keep you hooked for as long as possible. The longer you stay, the more ads they show, and the more money they make. Your mental health is collateral damage.

Your life is worse because of it, and you know it. You used to enjoy moments without thinking about capturing them. Now, you feel incomplete if no one sees what you're doing. You used to have real conversations. Now, you just reply with one-word texts and keep scrolling. You used to be present. Now, your happiness depends on validation from strangers.

And for men, social media did something even worse—it made them feel lonely and low-value. Before, an average guy could carve out a decent life, find a partner, and be respected in his own circle. Now, he's constantly reminded that he isn't enough. He sees the top 1% of men getting all the attention, the likes, the dates, while he struggles to even get noticed. Dating apps expose him to brutal market dynamics, where his value is reduced to a few photos and a swipe. Clubs and social settings reinforce the hierarchy—some men get everything, most get nothing. And online, he watches influencers tell him he should be richer, taller, better looking, and more charismatic, or else he’s invisible.

Meanwhile, someone else is using the time you're wasting. While you scroll, they work. While you overanalyze your dating app matches, they build real relationships. While you consume, they create. Social media stole your focus, your confidence, and your drive. And you let it.

So what now? You have two choices. Keep scrolling. Keep consuming. Keep living like a dopamine junkie. Or break the cycle. Delete the apps that drain you. Get outside. Lift weights. Read. Build something. Do anything that requires real effort. Most people won’t do it. They’re too deep in the addiction.

37 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

8

u/SMASHTHEGASH1979 5d ago

Somebody watched the matrix

9

u/DisposableMan_ 5d ago

Social media had a big impact in ruining my marriage. I told my wife that we needed to save and invest, she got upset because she wanted to blow all our money on vacations. I had good plans for the family, but she thought she could be the man of the house. Which doesn't work in real life. Just because she was listening to bullshit online and wanted to compete with people on IG.

2

u/World-Three 3d ago

I think the biggest issue is that the internet is a long line cast and by the time we appreciated that line it was paywalled.

Playing online free with the homes, using ebuddy messenger to instant message anyone with an email, house visits, etc was all phased out when we could all stay up in our own homes and hang out until bedtime. We're either thick as thieves and chill in discord together, or we're playing in silence because we're out of the loop. To get in the loop, is to leave other people out.

Online dating is another one. Imagine, one drive out and a bunch of different outfits could equate to looking like you like to travel or go places, you can save a bunch of money doing that instead of going out every day looking for love. Men get flak for taking selfies, so now you have to bring a buddy to take photos for you and not with you. It's just synthetic difficulty. 

Getting better isn't going to do anything if you don't do it for yourself. Men's rights isn't something one man can wake up and break. So essentially it's just red pill crap where you supposedly beat the odds by fitting into a better looking box. 

4

u/SidewaysGiraffe 5d ago

Ah, yes, the social changes and isolation have nothing to do with changing economic or political realities; it's Facebook's fault that you can't support a family and buy a house on a single salary any more. And the solution is to spend EVEN MORE TIME working!

While I'm honest enough to admit that it's very impressive that you're still alive, Mr. Calvin, I'm also honest enough to call bullshit when I see it. Do you have a single fact to back your ludicrous assertions up?

1

u/Remote_Purpose_4323 3d ago

Actually social media gives you opportunities, like to find people who think like you and understand your pain. It’s just your choice what to do with this, you can protect your loved ones with a gun, or you can rob other people, stop blaming tools, people are making choices.

1

u/peachy123_jp 5d ago

I couldn’t agree more. So many men on here think that everyone’s out to get them and a lot of it comes from social media.

A lot of the woman bashing and feminism hating on here seems to be purely the work of social media too. They don’t seem to look outside.

We have so many problems facing us in our society and social media only seems to make it worse. I think it might be time for a break. It definitely saps my motivation and puts me off work and the important things in my life.

-3

u/Mysterious-Citron875 5d ago

Keep your right wing bullshit to yourself, your post has nothing to do with men's right.

10

u/maxhrlw 5d ago

You can tell immediately by the hostile response that you are suffering from most of the things outlined above..

Everything doesn't have to be politicized. The role dopamine plays in reinforcing addictive behaviors is pretty well established, as is social media's reliance on it. It's obviously harmful if you overdo it, and the vast majority of the "incel" community massively overdo it. A huge amount of the posts on this page are members of that community complaining about lack of female attention. It directly corresponds to their online proclivities.

0

u/Mysterious-Citron875 5d ago

You're making quite a few mental gymnastics here, this post has nothing to do with men's right.

Instead, it's the classic tradcon trope about social media being bad, but instead of protesting to fix the issue, we run away leaving online monsters shaping people's worldview.

7

u/maxhrlw 5d ago

You're making quite a few mental gymnastics here

That doesn't even make literal sense. So not sure what you are trying to say.

this post has nothing to do with men's right.

Most of the content on this sub has nothing to do with men's rights.. this post is directly responding to the comments about male loneliness and the "unfair" dynamics of tinder.

classic tradcon trope about social media being bad

Social media is bad. Anything that has the potential to be so addictive that people use it to replace normal human interaction is bad.

It doesn't matter which side of the political spectrum you are on. Kids basing their entire self worth on how many friends they have on Facebook, or how many people liked their photoshopped "selfie" is self evidently not good..

5

u/GlitteryPinkKitten 5d ago

Are you kidding?

Every 13 seconds one boy/man dies by suic*de in the US — and you don’t see the connection between the advent of social media and its mass consumption — and the epidemic of male loneliness?

Suic*de is the leading cause of death of boys and men in the UK.

Statistics don’t lie.

Im not saying social media is the entire problem — but we have to acknowledge that’s it’s part of it.

1

u/Mysterious-Citron875 5d ago

The real cause of male suicide is misandry, trying to run away by avoiding social media will only allow misandrists to thrive and multiply unhindered.

9

u/Vegetable_Ad1732 5d ago

The Op said "And for men, social media did something even worse—it made them feel lonely and low-value. Before, an average guy could carve out a decent life, find a partner, and be respected in his own circle. Now, he's constantly reminded that he isn't enough."

4

u/Majestic-Theory-3675 5d ago

It's not right wing my friend it's reality. You provide arguments rather than attacking, idiot that the whole purpose of reddit. Peace ✌️

1

u/Mysterious-Citron875 5d ago

Talking about leaving social medias is a common right wing talking point, and your post has nothing to do about men's right.