How Social Media is making us dumb | The Free Flow Podcast

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Higher use of social media is for sure linked with depression, anxiety and a lot of other mental health disorders.

[00:00:06]>> The animation when you like a post or you comment, it also, you know, induces a small back of reward effect on your brain.

[00:00:16]>> Average teenager uses social media close to 5 or 5 and 1/2 hours in a day.

[00:00:23]>> According to statistics, a human brain has a cognitive limit of what? 100 150 relationships and on social media we have thousands.

[00:00:33]>> The algorithm now decides who you are, where you want to be, who you were in the past and who you will be in the future.

[00:01:08]All throughout our childhood, our parents were worried about TVs rotting our brains. But they never had the idea that the actual thing we'd carry it in our pockets, sleep next to it, and defend it like it's our own personality.

[00:01:22]Right before coming here, I watch reals for 30 minutes straight. And if you ask me now, I vividly do not remember what all I saw. And this is exactly what we are talking today. Is social media making you dumb? And believe it, I am dumb too. We all are. Just with great Wi-Fi connections. Welcome to the Freeflow podcast. This is your host Yashodhar Gulati >> and I am Anushka >> and today we are discussing not just if social media is making us dumb. Is it making us dumber than we already are?

[00:01:54]Let's get into it. So what do you think regarding the current situation of brain rod content and how we're consuming it up to an extent that we don't even remember what we consume and what we consume the algorithm feeds you. The algorithm now decides who you are, where you want to be, who you were in the past and who you will be in the future. That is how deep this algorithm penetration has happened in human behavior. Now, and if you talk about brain rot content, my simple idea for brain rot content working is the fact that it doesn't require humans to put their brains onto something, >> right? because you are already so overstimulated with vastness of content that's coming your way. So in midst of all of that's happening you get 2 3 seconds wherein some content that comes on your feed doesn't need you to put your brain onto it would surely make you happy >> and probably that's the reason why such content is like flourishing on social media.

[00:02:59]>> Exactly. And uh not just that content but even the consumers. It's not like people do not like that content. While people judge others who consume such sort of content, we ourselves are consuming that content on daily basis and we like because obviously after everything you go through throughout the entire day, you feel like social media is your peaceful outing apart from your busy day. And then you expect that the time you spend there does not necessarily have to have a lot of value and I can understand key that could be the reason >> but don't you think social media shouldn't be something that adds a great value to your life.

[00:03:45]>> It should be a thought of the bygone days when you only used social media for 30 minutes in a day or for 30 minutes in alternative days. But now when people consume I was reading it somewhere that average teenager uses social media close to 5 or 5 and 1/2 hours in a day just think about it if you're using something for 5 hours a day and that is not adding any value to your life >> if they're using it for 5.5 hours mine is surely a bit too much on a higher scale roughly 9 10 hours though if you think about it then I am definitely not on the right path. But my job requires me to scroll through social media throughout the day. Apart from it, I feel due to this consumption pattern change, the human IQ has also been reducing up to an extent.

[00:04:42]>> 100%. I believe that if you give a person a smartphone and you give them a skill-based test, automatically them having a smartphone would reduce their cognitive abilities. just the fact that they have a smartphone. In today's day and age, I come across so many people who do not know correct spellings because they depend on autocorrect.

[00:05:03]>> People do not like to see places where they want to go because Google can easily recommend them or an influencer can come through their feed can tell them what are the five best places to go for Valentine's or to go for a family dinner. So in this day and age, I don't think people any which ways try to ace their cognitive skills beyond a level.

[00:05:25]They've been made so dependent on technology that personally they've become handicapped.

[00:05:30]>> Not just handicapped, I feel they have stopped even trying to think about things. Now every now and then what we want to do is open our social media and scroll. Like I was thinking Now what comes to our mind? Yeah, there's this page on social media that posts around good places in Delhi NCR and we'll scroll through it. Whichever place we like, we'll finalize it. If that is the concept, how even like social media or the algorithm is deciding as to what place we go, how likely is it to decide every decision we make? I already feel that most of the decisions of a human's life who are on social media and who use social media beyond something that's the baseline usage, they're already being dictated their life choices somehow via social media. You might feel that you are an individual with a very unique set of preferences but actually you belong to the mass that social media decides for.

[00:06:41]All your food preferences, all your clothing choices, all your room decor aesthetics, everything is coming via a filter or algorithm that drives the social media platform that you use.

[00:06:53]>> And it's not just social media these days. It's social media platforms because people are using multiple apps and multiple social media platforms. Be it Facebook, be it Instagram, be it WhatsApp, be it X, be it Reddit, be it Telegram, be it any other platform they use.

[00:07:12]>> Also, what is your take on humans and their opinions? Because what I have come to see for myself is the fact that a person's knowledge in terms of how many subjects he might know has for sure gone higher >> but how much would he know on a particular subject has become very shallow. Previously while people were subject matter experts who could talk about indepth on a subject for hours and hours now we mostly have a generation who just knows one or two pointers on 10 to 12 things. H the entire thing is key people have scrolled through social media they saw a particular reel they formed an opinion on the basis of that real even if it's ideologically or politically leaning and they'll decide okay this is the part that I support and this is what I'm against it is definitely not what they are thinking is the algorithm that is deciding on their part as to what to show them what basis uh is to be formed formed with respect to their you know friends, peers obviously a lot of uh your algorithm is decided on the basis of your mutuals your following your interests what sort of content you consume or what searches you do even at the same time what type of thing you're talking about >> yeah even I feel that people have already started losing touch and losing the ability ility to form opinions at a large scale. They just believe what comes their way.

[00:08:52]>> Leave apart forming opinions. Yeah. They do not even care to double check if what they're consuming is actually >> very Yeah. Factual or not or is in tune with reality or would be applicable to them versus >> somebody else.

[00:09:09]>> Agreed. So all of this I feel social media for sure has might have made you a little more knowledgeable but your depth of knowledge is very shallow and in all of this knowledge what comes your way is only the facts that you support or are in tune with. While I say that I mean to say a formation of ecochambers and what they do to your personality. So if suppose I am designing a room and I have searched it across Google or two three other platforms I'm sure to see such results on my Instagram. Now if I have decided for a beige theme on my room it'll keep on showing me beige theme.

[00:09:51]It'll never show me something that's way too contradictory or this still a very good example to relate with. Suppose I support ex- pololitical party it'll never show me things from the other side. So my knowledge which is already very plateaued will never come to a conclusion that I'll know of the other side. I'll only reciprocate what I feel is right, what my mind is already tuned with and what things do I like professing.

[00:10:20]>> Even when it comes to anything that we consume. I'm not even talking about political parties or I'm not talking about the sort of decisions you make on daily basis be it the color. The algorithm has like even all sorts of social media have gotten in deep up to an extent where even if I spend one extra second watching one sort of real the next five reels will come in the same sort. Now it becomes so irritating like why okay move on I want to I do not want to watch another kid dancing but it'll continuously show me show me up to an extent where I either decide to put on >> not interested or I start swiping very fast when it understands he's not interested if that is the state that it even tracks the time the seconds the milliseconds how much of content you consume and what sort in the future it is going to be very difficult for us as humans to even decide anything that requires basic human intelligence.

[00:11:32]>> Yeah. And do you think that we've already reached a point where humans were back in the day appreciated for their individuality >> now have started losing it all.

[00:11:43]>> It's vanished now. So there are these tech companies at the top who will steer you to a particular direction and we've now become slaves to a point that whichever direction they ask us to move in we are headed to that direction without questioning without even thinking twice about it because we have no other option.

[00:12:02]>> Agreed. And after following so many trends influencers dance same steps everyone starts following this. Now when that trend becomes like trending becomes trending now there's no backstep towards it. Now all you have to do is to maintain your presence on social media.

[00:12:31]people continue uh like you know taking part in those trends it not only abolishes your individuality I feel it will later onffect you as an individual there will be no what artistic creativity there would no presence of mind in terms of the career paths that we take. I feel in the long run.

[00:13:11]>> Yeah. And with social media, don't you already feel that there's come a trend that people actually do not value how smart you are in terms of your knowledge. It has come to a point where people only value you for how smart you can actually look while you are seen on social media.

[00:13:27]They're making creative labs in this budget at an extent budget. The government passed a significant amount to create creators lab inside schools.

[00:13:42]>> What will be the situation in the long run in a country where even while getting educated kids are being taught how to become an influencer or a creator? I think while it it started from that you could have an alternative career on social media but now social media as a career has become option to a lot many people that it can actually hold.

[00:14:06]>> So there'll come a time and it's already I have already started seeing that happen more or less that people will lose credibility because there'll be so many people professing to just a small bunch. So when this bunch who's consuming becomes smaller than the ones professing >> there's already a loss of credibility right >> and there would be so much of clutter it has already begun to be cluttered >> also what do you feel has been the trend in terms of attention span of people has it decreased has it significantly gone 1 2 seconds up or what what do you think is the trend because you've been on social media for a while now >> yeah when it comes to social media. Now let's start with reals. I feel reels may due to the pres the you know when it was introduced around lockdown India >> when Tik Tok got banned that is when it came in the picture >> and time the consumption pattern became so like vividly.

[00:15:12]Now what happened is the consumption timing of an individual fell to what 2 3 seconds. Now Now though I feel there's a trend of those two second reels also these days >> haven't you all seen it in your feeds a two second one single second see that's what now when it comes to news since I have been into news >> just give me a moment do you feel that the attention span has gone down just because of the fact that people now have multiple options to access from and multiple formats or do you feel it's because of the fact that the cost of your attention has now gone very high because you already know the moment you skip one video there are five different things that are waiting for your attention so the cost of your attention is very high >> okay at a time when like you said when so many creators are there and the consump like the consumers fall below obviously not just the price of uh you know your attention will increase But at the same time your attention timing will definitely reduce.

[00:16:34]>> So do you think that whatever has happened with attention span >> it going down was it more technologically aided or was it more humanly aided like humans started knowing first that there are a lot more things that I could do in these 5 seconds then just wait and watch a real for 10 seconds and then decide whether I have to watch it further or not. I feel it was started by the big tech companies when they understood. Okay.

[00:17:20]play around audience age group audience post static even carousels why the engagement rate on carousels is higher but the viewership is higher on the videos and how uh the you know even the layouts of the posts are designed >> it is very interesting to see how they have used not just psychology tech but at the same time they have studied really well with respect to the common human emotions. It sometimes astonishes me and now they join hands with AI how easily it would be to influence not just humanity but they could by they could change everything forever.

[00:18:11]>> Yeah. Since they've already started manipulating the minds of close to 60% of the world's population, they're already at par with what they wanted to do.

[00:18:23]>> So, have you seen how on social media everything is just so instant gratification driven? I mean, if I post something, I have a like button next to it. If I see a post, I have another thing to maybe to comment or save or XYZ. And all of these instant gratification buttons have in reality made humans pay less attention to themselves in a manner that if you start putting your time onto something that you want to learn. If that time is not very instant, you'll start to feel like a failure because everything on social media is very quick. I was today years old a few days back when you taught me key the animation when you like a post or you comment it also you know induces a small of reward effect onto your brain and that is why you wish to do it because simple think about the even the minute details everything they do is so impactful >> everything on social media Yeah, because be it food, be it social media, everything has to do something with your brain for you to keep coming back to it.

[00:19:37]Be it junk food, be it your friend circle, be it the social media that you use, it has to have that hit of dopamine that it gives you >> so that you feel good, you feel positive, you feel and through when you come back to it.

[00:19:53]>> While everything that we consume revolves around the sort of content that we like, after a while it becomes like a narrow path. You know horses eyes that patch >> so that they only see straight they see what the you know the rider wants them to see so that race distract after a while even humans will start acting like whatever they are fed they'll start >> that's what I said yeah that's that's already started to happen don't you see girls dressed up in the same fa fashion most of them who follow trends most people taking the same kind of aesthetic pictures. Most people queuing up on the same restaurants that have just opened up just because they follow a trend.

[00:20:39]>> In the long run, while coming to the mental health, doesn't it affect us?

[00:20:44]>> It does. It does. It it for sure boosts your anxiety >> because you are used to looking for something and you are not really able to put your brain at a rest. And when you have something to do and you I mean when that phone is taken away from you and your brain is free from all sorts of distractions, you'll fear the loud noise of your own self. And a 2017 study has already projected the fact that higher use of social media is for sure linked with depression, anxiety, and a lot of other mental health disorders.

[00:21:20]>> Considering that statistics, I feel that's more believable. The more time I spend on social media, the more disconnected I am from reality. A lot of times they are even not just reality disconnection. It's just you start to see the world in a very different manner. And when you start seeing the real life in like differently, how big of an impact is it going to create?

[00:21:42]We've already reached the present where people actually fail to understand that when this screen stops, this creator has a whole different life beyond that creator or influencer perspective.

[00:21:59]Why? It's all fake. It's all so fake that people would be shocked to see how they are in real life. While all the image is created particularly for social media. Surely a few people might be as they show as on camera but things are not actually so fun in your real life just to show they script everything be it vlogs be it the reals.

[00:22:23]>> Now just give this a thought. What if all of it is taken away for for once?

[00:22:30]How would lives become not just for the consumers but even for the creators?

[00:22:35]what would their lives look like?

[00:22:38]Everything would fall apart because social media and you on social media have an image which is sort of different from what you look like in reality.

[00:22:46]Because the life that you lead on social media is a different part >> versus the reality, >> right?

[00:22:53]>> And if all of it is taken away, then only the real part lives.

[00:22:58]>> But the louder part for your personality is the social media part.

[00:23:03]>> Wouldn't it be peaceful? It would be peaceful. But my point asking here is would people be okay with that? I think people will lose their out of it.

[00:23:13]You've seen how Instagram or X or any social media when when it goes down for just a few hours how people react >> just a few hours. It never goes down for a few hours. It's just a few minutes and people make it feel like it's hours and people to another social media about it. Huh?

[00:23:41]The instinct to open social media without thinking and randomly I open and I start scrolling.

[00:23:50]What is this that my subconscious mind also randomly opens social media and starts scrolling without even me thinking about it. M >> all of your life on social media be the fact that you are a creator or a non-creator.

[00:24:08]We have all hit the level or hit the threshold where we have started believing that none of it is actually scripted.

[00:24:19]>> It's all real. Or maybe we've come past the fact that it's scripted and now we believe whatever scripted is just on one part, but now what's happening is the other part of the picture.

[00:24:33]>> Like they know it and they're like, "Okay, we'll have to deal with it."

[00:24:37]>> But given the fact that people know that it's all scripted, >> people still forget that it's scripted and they still follow somebody. I don't know why. The following also brings me to the topic of have you heard of the Dunbar numbers? Robin Dunbar.

[00:24:52]>> Yeah.

[00:24:53]>> So according to statistics or his study as well uh a human brain has a cognitive limit of what 150 close to 101 150 relationships and on social media we have thousands.

[00:25:10]have millions, bro.

[00:25:18]How are they coping up with that?

[00:25:20]Obviously, you're not going to talk to each and everyone. But when you start trying to know everyone, that is when your brain up.

[00:25:28]>> So, you're actually not in touch with any, but you still know many. That's the kind social media has built. I mean that's exactly the thing about knowledge also when I said right you might know 10 subjects but you'll not know what in those 10 subjects exactly fills the containers and that's exactly how relationships on social media are.

[00:25:53]That's probably how social media was built so that you have a gratification that you know it all or you know too many people >> even if it's just their names. With respect to this if we consider how the future would look like because our dependence can >> clear dystopian >> definitely social media what we'll consume. It can definitely decide who will come to power in the next elections. It can definitely decide >> I mean all of it but still make you think that you have all the freedom in the world and it's your brain actually doing things for you.

[00:26:36]>> Huh? Mother, it'll act like it's >> it's already started to happen, right?

[00:26:40]All of your AI engines on the back end feed you with whatever you think is a part of your personality, but you still think that you've got freedom and these all choices are customized according to your own preference and your own taste.

[00:26:54]You remember when we used to like social media now slowly and steadily the shift is happening towards AI as well and the core dependence on both these sort of technologies is not >> it's a killer combination all in all >> exactly and it is definitely not intelligence >> because something that's very personal to me is the fact now even me thinking for a few seconds without my phone >> seems like a distant idea and it it sort of puts me into a very uncomfortable or not so great of a head space.

[00:27:35]>> Thinking about something is a different thing about something that you even thinking about. No, even if I want to think about an idea >> or if I want to analyze if a decision is true or not true or if a decision will hold right for me or not, it just puts me in some sort of a discomfort where I feel somebody could have done it on my behalf. Maybe an AI engine or some influencer could have told me how to get things in place. So I feel a lot part of your cognitive skills is damaged beyond repair even now and you've already you've lost it all not because you are not smart enough or not because you are not innovative enough. It's just because you've up your thinking. You've started to think less. You've started to depend more on ideas from the outside.

[00:28:30]you started to feed on something thinking that it's your own creativity and make it a part of your personality.

[00:28:40]>> Even when it comes to creativity or you know the content that we consume on daily basis have you seen creative content and This is what stolen or taken again inspiration from someone else. Is it their fault as creators or you know artists that they are taking inspirations from not just others but even AI because surely AI has become creators are AI these days.

[00:29:26]Suddenly there have been such a huge shift influx of creators to AI content. They're making videos of you know they're singing. So it's not just singing. So what they're doing is they're using the same audio. They're replicating the avatar of a human being created via AI and then making the exact same movements or videos put on with the AI avar and you can't you cannot decide if it's AI you can't tell and with such advancements but both of these combined together AI and social media after a point it will not only kill the you know the consumers the consuming patterns of people on social media but it'll also impact the influencers who was actually running a business out of it >> on social media before we had all of these AI avatars and all of what we have now don't you think numbers were still a very big factor in terms of motivation people could add fake followers people could add fake likes and they would in an instant be more credible than others M >> in an instant they would be more revered than the others and on social media hasn't the pattern always been like the fact that the loudest voice wins not the most credible one >> and I feel given the situation where what 100 rupees is what it takes to get 10,000 to 50,000 followers so influencing to this I I have a little anecdote to put here I had a WhatsApp contact one one and a half year back whom I remember very vividly even talking to and I remember her face and DP all very clearly. Cut to day before yesterday. I was going through a profile. I saw ad on that profile and when I opened it, it had 40 or 40 45 comments. And while I scrolled through the comments, I happened to see that picture, the picture that my WhatsApp contact had one and a half year back. But now here when I click on that profile picture, this is a completely different name.

[00:31:46]And this actually what I found out was a fake profile from somebody's stolen WhatsApp profile picture. So the picture was of somebody else and the comment was from a bot account which all of these pages do for comment farming or whatever just to make their posts look credible.

[00:32:08]This is now how your identity is now being farmed for somebody's comments.

[00:32:14]Just think about how crazy it can be.

[00:32:16]>> I was actually shocked when you shared this information with me. But it's not just one individual. It's everywhere.

[00:32:27]>> Yeah.

[00:32:27]>> It could be you and me both.

[00:32:29]>> It could be all of us.

[00:32:30]>> It would beh our LinkedIn pictures are there. Our pictures on WhatsApp are there. We have so many places where we don't even remember signing up and putting pictures. All of those pictures are available. knows our preference. It knows our uh you know the type of not just the type of content we consume but our decisions because they know what sort of things we like on daily basis where we go. It knows our geo uh locations. It knows everything and it can be misused anywhere and everywhere.

[00:33:04]But although the point of me talking about this was if getting fake engagement, fake uh you know view for farming whatever you call it and all of that is so easy after a point credibility for an individual >> as a concept also has become so obsolete for people >> that had people believed in what credibility is do you think social media would have reached the extent that it already has >> pages have what a million followers they have like sitting at 100 >> not even 100 I have seen 20 30 fake followers 1 million but does it impact no and in the long run when it comes to brands.

[00:34:03]I'm going to talk about what agency owners have shared with me. Marketing agencies, they are like here the brands particularly do not care about it.

[00:34:15]Brands are like by you can share the whatever. All we need to see is the number of followers that page has and how many likes they can get you. That's all they care about. All of that can be bought. All of them can be what uh bought at a cost of barely 2,000 rupees.

[00:34:33]Brands will pay you a hefty amount. But all you have to do is spend 2,000 rupees out of it and you can fool all of them.

[00:34:40]So what would be the credibility of any platform where you consume your information from after a while and slowly and steadily that is why you will see even our particular segment the type of content that we give out to the people information and media that is so cluttered >> so cluttered plus you have people who put out information right left center without even reading what the news actually is >> why they don't even know how to write a simple sentence in English >> leave about writing English correctly.

[00:35:13]Just the fact that they think writing anything just for a click of a like >> is what makes them do wonders in the world.

[00:35:23]>> I've seen people sell souls for a living. So this is definitely something I can expect. But yeah, here we are.

[00:35:31]>> So if you are someone who think that you use social media differently, then congratulations. you are an addict too because that's what most of the addicts feel. And I'm not going to ask you to delete all those social media apps from your phones because once in a while we've all all done that. We've all been there and none of it actually helps. So the next time your hand actually reaches out for your phone without you even doing it on purpose, just remember. And now that you remember that, you'll know how deeply it has been penetrated onto your systems. How deeply that has now become a part of your reflex. This is how it all works.

[00:36:14]>> And while our livingings still depend on social media, we would suggest that if you could limit a little bit of its consumption and see you next time.

[00:36:24]>> Bye-bye.