8 hours of screen time on my phone used to be the norm.

I would hop on Instagram scroll through my feed, look at stories and then hop to Snapchat. Rinse and repeat.

Before I knew it, hours went by. I felt like shit, learned nothing and wasted my time.

Many of you probably feel the same way.

Our timelines are filled with fear, anxiety, and comparison. The messed up part is this is all by design.

The Social Dilemma on Netflix exposes the truths about algorithm on social platforms.

It's no secret they push content that plays on our emotions because it illicits more interactions and time on platform.

All of this has created a mental health epidemic. People are addicted to their phones, drown themselves in dopamine and can't seem to get out of the cyclical behavior that creates the problem.

I was stuck in this cycle until Tik-Tok came out.

Tik-Tok is the most addicting platform- in my opinion at least.

But Tik-Tok was the first social platform that came out when I was an adult, and no longer a kid.

It was the first time I had a social feed that wasn't filled with friends, family or random things from growing up.

It was the first time I could completely tailor my feed to what I wanted.

Over the last 4 years there hasn't been a single time where I left Tik-Tok feeling depressed, scared or hating my life.

My FYP is filled with stand up comedy, educational content and cooking videos.

Its my virtual happy place.

I either learn something new, see some amazing food or laugh my ass off.

But the real benefit was realizing the power of taking control over your feed.

Yes the algorithm will control what content is shown to us, but we are in control of what signals we give to the algorithm.

If you spend most of your time engaging and watching scary events on the news, it will show you more of that.

If you spend most of your time laughing at stand-up, it will show more of that too.

The good news is there's a 3 step framework you can use to reset your algorithm and start enjoying your time online.

Step 1: Unfollow any account or person who is a net negative ( I recently unfollowed 600 people on my instagram)

As you're scrolling start noticing the accounts that post negatively, make you feel like crap, or just seems like a bad person. (this also applies to news outlets, channels etc)

Step 2: Start engaging only with content that inspires, educates or informs you.

The important thing here is that engagement doesn't only refer to liking + commenting. The platforms track how long you watch something, how many times you watch or read it etc.

Keep that in mind as you go.

Step 3: Start following accounts that seem to be a net positive.

These will be the accounts that deliver valuable content on a consistent basis.

If you do those 3 steps, over the next few weeks your relationship with social media will completely change.

I know it will because it happened to me.

The New Social Opportunity

Changing your relationship with the content is the first piece.

Changing how you use social media is the second piece.

I've been using social media as a tool for about 5 months.

In that time:

• I gained 5k organic followers

• 2 new business ventures

• Created countless new relationships that major value adds to my life

I didn't write those to try to show off. I wrote those to show you what's possible.

Had I not used social media as a tool I would have missed out on money, health and relationships that I now have.

If you feel like you're too late or there isn't an opportunity for you. Think again.

I had to convince previous bosses to start using the company social media differently.

Very well-known businesses still don't leverage it correctly.

If that's not enough, there are 4.3 billion social media users which will grow to 5.5 billion by 2027.

You're not early 2000s early, but you're still early enough.

People will be spending more time, money and attention online over the next 5 years not less.

You Don't Need to Become an "Entrepreneur"

I'll admit a lot of my content falls into the entrepreneurship space.

But the more time I spend consuming the narrative the more I disagree with certain aspects.

You don't need to quit your job and become an entrepreneur to be successful or happy.

I have a 9-5 that I love, but I also have my own ventures that make me money and bring happiness.

You can aim for full on entrepreneurship, but you can also take a baby step first.

Everyone should be doing two things: selling their 9-5 skills and putting content out online.

Even if you gain 0 followers, you will have years of ideas, experiences and thoughts that you can look back on in 20 years.

Who wouldn't want a little time capsule of their intellectual selves.

But I would argue most people would at least gain some followers and can make an additional ~2k per month from providing a service to people based on their skills. (I currently make ~2.5k per month with only 4k followers)

Leverage the System that Already Works

Everything mentioned in this letter has already been validated.

We know it works.

The hard part is putting it into action.

So here are the steps to replicate:

1. Follow the unfollow, engage and follow framework to take control over your social media feed

2. Start thinking about what skills you have learned in your 9-5 that people are willing to pay for

3. Create content online about your interests, passions and learnings to reach new people

Those 3 steps will put you ahead of 95% of the people using social media.

Now go kick your social media's ass.

PS— if you’re interested in learning how you can craft and create content that builds fans instead of followers, you can sign up below for the Magnetic Content Masterclass coming out soon.

It will combine all the knowledge from my time working on the growth team at Forbes, personal content creation and freelancing for clients.

These are the exact systems I have used to generate 10s of million impressions in less than 18 months:

Talk soon,

Matt