{ "version": "https:\/\/jsonfeed.org\/version\/1.1", "title": "Blog — George Mishurovsky: posts tagged self-care", "_rss_description": "A blog by George Mishurovsky — a senior software engineer with a medical degree. Drawing from both engineering and scientific thinking, he explores software, architecture, design, psychology, and product thinking.", "_rss_language": "en", "_itunes_email": "george@mishurovsky.com", "_itunes_categories_xml": "", "_itunes_image": "https:\/\/mishurovsky.com\/blog\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic-square@2x.jpg?1753619610", "_itunes_explicit": "no", "home_page_url": "https:\/\/mishurovsky.com\/blog\/?go=tags\/self-care\/", "feed_url": "https:\/\/mishurovsky.com\/blog\/?go=tags%2Fself-care%2Fjson%2F", "icon": "https:\/\/mishurovsky.com\/blog\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1753619610", "authors": [ { "name": "George Mishurovsky", "url": "https:\/\/mishurovsky.com\/blog\/", "avatar": "https:\/\/mishurovsky.com\/blog\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1753619610" } ], "items": [ { "id": "52", "url": "https:\/\/mishurovsky.com\/blog\/?go=all\/social-media-is-not-your-friend\/", "title": "Social Media Is Not Your Friend", "content_html": "
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According to estimates, people spend over two hours a day on social networks and media. We turn to them to escape the complexities of the present, for relaxation, to keep up with relatives, friends, and the world.<\/p>\n

But these are not the primary purposes of social networks. Their goal and fuel is selling advertisements.<\/p>\n

Social networks optimize for time spent on their platforms. The more people scroll, the more ads they see and click on, the more revenue is generated. In a fierce competition, social media giants use all techniques possible to lure users into spending time scrolling and reading and watching; ideally, all our time.<\/p>\n

The very last thing social network companies care about is their users’ mental and cognitive health. There are many people online wondering why many of us feel constantly exhausted now or why today’s middle school students can hardly summarize a one-page essay. Social networks and media might not be the single reason for that, but they definitely account for a large part of it. Gambling mechanics, neuropsychiatric discoveries, internal testing on millions of users — everything is used to refine algorithms that capture and keep our attention.<\/p>\n

The mechanics of social networks are very lucrative for their owners, and there is little place for ethics. The companies know very well what gives people dopamine hits — with no real value behind it. Fool’s gold: it shines, but is worthless otherwise. Fool’s gold sellers spread it everywhere, collecting cents from each one staring at it. In return, we spend far more valuable resources — our time and cognitive “battery”.<\/p>\n

The resulting damage amounts to trillions of dollars of decreased human productivity, creativity, and increased mental health spending. The damage is so large that many social media techniques should be illegal — yet they are not and are unlikely to be anytime soon.<\/p>\n

This makes the world a worse place to live in — but we still have the right to choose what to pay attention to. We can<\/i> make a deliberate decision to put down our phones for a couple of hours a day. Instead of staring at screens, we can spend time with our spouses and children, meet friends in person, or just sit in silence for fifteen minutes after we finish our tasks.<\/p>\n

Choice is everyone’s power to build lives they want. The one who gives up choosing and consumes whatever is offered is left to be used and discarded once the cents are extracted.<\/p>\n

It would be much better if life did not require active attention to steer our lives towards happiness and fulfillment — each day brings enough challenges as it is. The reality is different, unfortunately. But the power is with us, and there is little that attention predators can do.<\/p>\n

Whenever you have free time, avoid browsing social media. Offline activities, in-person conversations, and moments of silence bring calm, happiness, and productivity that these platforms so often promise but never deliver.<\/p>\n", "date_published": "2026-04-15T12:32:54+02:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-15T12:32:38+02:00", "tags": [ "mental health", "self-care", "social media" ], "image": "https:\/\/mishurovsky.com\/blog\/pictures\/social-media-is-not-your-friend.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Wed, 15 Apr 2026 12:32:54 +0200", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "52", "_rss_enclosures": [], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": false, "links_required": [], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/mishurovsky.com\/blog\/pictures\/social-media-is-not-your-friend.jpg" ] } } ], "_e2_version": 4134, "_e2_ua_string": "Aegea 11.3 (v4134e)" }