March 18, 2025 • 17 mins
Welcome to the "You’re Not Gonna Make It" podcast, where I discuss topics that make you feel like humanity’s not gonna make it.
This episode: Scrolling downhill.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kevin Tejada:
What? Was that good? That was the doing a thing on the Limp Bizkit song. (00:30):
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Kevin Tejada: Anyway, this is about doom scrolling. (00:34):
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Kevin Tejada: And you know what it is. But if you don't, I'm going to tell you. (00:37):
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Kevin Tejada: Doom scrolling is when you're on the internet, particularly social media, where there's a feed. (00:40):
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Kevin Tejada: And you just consume and consume negative information, negative news. (00:46):
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Kevin Tejada: So that you get into a kind of doomed mindset. The world is fucked. (00:52):
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Kevin Tejada: I'm fucked. i'm reading all this bad thing this is way worse than i ever thought (00:56):
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Kevin Tejada: that this is especially bad during political times or when there are world events. (01:00):
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Kevin Tejada: It's so bad i'm gonna find out just how bad it is in every possible way i'm (01:13):
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Kevin Tejada: gonna get all this information yummy here's the thing when people say here's (01:18):
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Kevin Tejada: the thing i have this urge to say, and here's the human torch, (01:24):
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Kevin Tejada: and here's Mr. Fantastic. (01:26):
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Kevin Tejada: Back in the day, our ancestors, they would not get, they could not get this (01:28):
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Kevin Tejada: much bad news this quickly. (01:34):
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Kevin Tejada: They would go through their entire life hearing about bad things from people (01:36):
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Kevin Tejada: around them, things that would actually affect them right away. (01:41):
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Kevin Tejada: But these days, we don't need that. We can be upset at something that's happening across. (01:44):
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Kevin Tejada: City over there in this continent. I don't live in this region. (02:03):
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Kevin Tejada: I don't live in. The mayor's been doing this. (02:06):
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Kevin Tejada: There's been this type of crime happening around. (02:10):
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Speaker2: The schools have been suffering this (02:12):
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Kevin Tejada: Kind of problem. You can suffer, feel bad about all of that without even being there. (02:14):
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Kevin Tejada: But it's very easy to just consume all the information. Just consume and consume it. (02:19):
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Kevin Tejada: And it gives people fucking anxiety because they're thinking the world's ending. (02:24):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, the way humans are going, we will probably fuck up the earth for ourselves (02:28):
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Kevin Tejada: at some point. But it's not going to be that quickly. (02:32):
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Kevin Tejada: And sure as hell it's not going to be because of something you read about (02:36):
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Kevin Tejada: happening in a different city you don't even (02:39):
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Kevin Tejada: live in it is insane people get themselves (02:42):
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Kevin Tejada: in this cycle where they hear about oh that's that sounds like a bad headline (02:45):
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Kevin Tejada: let me look into this oh my god this problem's deeper than i thought oh this (02:49):
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Kevin Tejada: person's involved let me find out what they've done oh my god they're such a (02:52):
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Kevin Tejada: bad person i did this person oh my god these people are suffering because of (02:54):
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Kevin Tejada: that this is a huge other problem i didn't know about this they've been suffering (02:57):
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Kevin Tejada: for this for the last few years. (03:00):
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Kevin Tejada: It's caused by this organization. Oh my God. It can just go on and on. (03:02):
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Kevin Tejada: And because of the internet, you're not really limited by the information you (03:07):
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Kevin Tejada: can find out. You can find out all of it. (03:11):
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Kevin Tejada: And because of people's habits of finding out this information via social media (03:13):
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Kevin Tejada: or via a platform that has a feed, they can just get fed all these negative (03:17):
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Kevin Tejada: things and it makes them feel worse and worse. (03:22):
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Kevin Tejada: It's like eating junk food when you're depressed and you feel worse because (03:26):
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Kevin Tejada: you feel bad because the junk food's garbage and you're getting fatter and you (03:29):
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Kevin Tejada: just feel worse so you just eat more it's like that but with information most (03:32):
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Kevin Tejada: of which won't affect you, (03:36):
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Kevin Tejada: and if you think of being insensitive let me just bring let me just bring something up let's wait. (03:38):
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Speaker2: One two three seconds in those three seconds (03:43):
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Kevin Tejada: At least two children died in some country in asia are you going to spend the (03:47):
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Kevin Tejada: rest of your day crying about that no what are you an asshole No, you're not. (03:53):
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Kevin Tejada: They're just way, way too separated from your life for it to actually matter. (03:58):
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Kevin Tejada: And that's my point. Most of these things that people are dooming themselves (04:03):
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Kevin Tejada: on are not going to affect them. (04:07):
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Kevin Tejada: For example, 2016, apparently Trump becoming president was going to be the apocalypse. (04:11):
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Kevin Tejada: It was the worst thing ever, right? (04:16):
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Kevin Tejada: Those four years, nothing changed for me. I mean, I was broke anyway because (04:18):
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Kevin Tejada: I just became a personal trainer and I was having money issues, man. (04:23):
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Kevin Tejada: I was broke working my way up anyway. (04:27):
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Kevin Tejada: So I didn't see the effects of Trump ruining the world or whatever. (04:29):
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Kevin Tejada: I didn't see any change whatsoever that came from politics. Not one. (04:33):
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Kevin Tejada: And when Biden got into office, same shit. i'm just (04:37):
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Kevin Tejada: living my life doing stuff i'm not being affected by that not saying (04:40):
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Kevin Tejada: there aren't people who are being affected by this but i'm the average (04:43):
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Kevin Tejada: person is not getting affected by whatever the hell's happening with these politicians (04:46):
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Kevin Tejada: now we're talking about the increase in prices and (04:49):
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Kevin Tejada: groceries lately yeah that's the thing but in general if you're finding out (04:52):
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Kevin Tejada: oh my god these people passed this fucking bill that affects this city over (04:56):
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Kevin Tejada: there these people like listen i'm not saying don't care at all but if you don't (05:00):
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Kevin Tejada: have a friend or family member who's actually directly being affected, calm the fuck down. (05:06):
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Kevin Tejada: For example, all the wildfires in California recently. (05:12):
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Kevin Tejada: I know someone who has a family member in California. So naturally they're like, (05:15):
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Kevin Tejada: oh, I kind of care. Let me find out how this person is doing. (05:19):
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Kevin Tejada: And they contact them. They found out understandable. (05:22):
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Kevin Tejada: Beyond that, I don't know anyone there. So I didn't give a shit. (05:25):
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Kevin Tejada: And again, it might make me sound insensitive, but the thing is those things (05:31):
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Kevin Tejada: don't affect my actual day-to-day life. (05:35):
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Kevin Tejada: Is counterproductive. It is very bad for mental health. (05:52):
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Kevin Tejada: Just because you're seeing all these things happen on social media and stuff, (05:58):
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Kevin Tejada: it doesn't mean that it actually has any effect on your life. (06:01):
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Kevin Tejada: So to drown other people's sorrow is just weird. It's not healthy. (06:05):
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Kevin Tejada: And this is especially bad for people who have a tendency to get obsessed with something. (06:11):
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Kevin Tejada: I want to research the hell out of everything. Those people who like past me (06:18):
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Kevin Tejada: go on Wikipedia and oh, look at this topic. (06:22):
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Kevin Tejada: Oh, that's a word. I don't know. Let me go to this word's topic. (06:24):
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Kevin Tejada: Oh, wow. A whole new world. I'm going to just go click everywhere. (06:27):
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Kevin Tejada: It's like that doom scrolling. but everything is (06:30):
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Kevin Tejada: negative and everything is worse and none of it affects you also for the most (06:34):
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Kevin Tejada: part and this extra affects young people who spend several hours per day on (06:39):
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Kevin Tejada: social media so they're getting inundated with negativity hour after hour you (06:46):
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Kevin Tejada: know that does to a motherfucker, (06:52):
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Kevin Tejada: reading the world is ending here's why over and over every day. (06:54):
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Speaker2: Probably going to become a more pessimistic person (06:57):
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Kevin Tejada: Probably not gonna care about your future too much because you feel like there (07:00):
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Kevin Tejada: might not be a future might even kill yourself that's the worst case scenario (07:04):
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Kevin Tejada: but it can happen again with trump getting elected again you, (07:09):
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Kevin Tejada: being affected by something, if you don't know anyone who's being affected by it, stop caring. (07:31):
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Kevin Tejada: It has no effect on your life. What you're doing is taking something that has (07:36):
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Kevin Tejada: literally no effect on your life and you're making it have a negative effect on your brain. (07:40):
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Kevin Tejada: I hope we understand why that's fucking bad. Because the amount of doom scrolling (07:46):
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Kevin Tejada: that results in more screeching from people saying, oh, the world's over. This is so fucking bad. (07:51):
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Kevin Tejada: This adds to the doom scrolling that other people reading, other people saying (07:55):
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Kevin Tejada: the world is ending for sure. This is terrible. (07:58):
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Speaker1: Horrible stuff happening. (08:00):
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Kevin Tejada: Everyone's just feeding into each other, into their own feeds, (08:02):
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Kevin Tejada: so that they keep scrolling into hell. (08:05):
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Kevin Tejada: Doom scrolling would be cooler if it were about the game Doom. (08:08):
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Kevin Tejada: Here's some numbers for you. (08:11):
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Kevin Tejada: 55% of Americans report feeling stressed when consuming news, (08:13):
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Kevin Tejada: according to the 2020 thing. (08:18):
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Kevin Tejada: Sometimes I don't even care about stats during COVID or before COVID, (08:21):
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Kevin Tejada: because it's a whole new world after that, honestly. But I'll take it. (08:25):
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Kevin Tejada: So half of people, Americans, they feel stress consuming news. (08:30):
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Kevin Tejada: I totally understand that because what psychologically interests most people is something negative. (08:33):
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Kevin Tejada: So news headlines skew negative because they want to get attention, they want to get money. (08:39):
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Speaker1: So they're going to put the negativity out there. (08:44):
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Kevin Tejada: Suck, but it makes sense. Now this next number is not a big surprise. (08:47):
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Kevin Tejada: Social media use increased by 61% worldwide during the first wave of COVID in 2020. (08:52):
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Kevin Tejada: Yeah, no shit. People either have to stay at home, got fired or whatever. (09:00):
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Kevin Tejada: They're like, yeah, they're going to be on the internet because that's how you connect to people. (09:04):
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Kevin Tejada: And that's what determines most entertainment these days. You got to be connected (09:08):
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Kevin Tejada: to the internet to do most things. (09:11):
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Kevin Tejada: So that makes sense. And that exacerbated the problem, especially during COVID, (09:13):
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Kevin Tejada: when you would think you step outside, you die immediately if you breathe the air, right? (09:18):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, some people did die, of course, but it wasn't insta-death if you stepped (09:23):
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Kevin Tejada: in someone's six-foot social distancing zone. (09:29):
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Kevin Tejada: It's not like, oh, I'm going to step into your 5.5 feet and I die. (09:32):
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Kevin Tejada: I gave you COVID. You gave me COVID. We both exploded. (09:36):
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Kevin Tejada: It didn't work like that, but you would think so because of all the doom online. (09:39):
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Kevin Tejada: People just scrolling new covid things new i'm just so tired thinking of that time, (09:43):
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Kevin Tejada: every day it's just covid covid covid covid this is (09:49):
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Kevin Tejada: getting like some places were being affected (09:52):
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Kevin Tejada: more than others but everyone just took the worst things that were happening (09:56):
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Kevin Tejada: in covid and just said this is happening everywhere that would have been a great (10:00):
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Kevin Tejada: time for everyone to calm the down just a little bit but a study found that (10:04):
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Kevin Tejada: people who engage in doom scrolling for more More than 2.5 hours per day. Jesus Christ. (10:08):
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Kevin Tejada: I don't think you should be on social media at all for 2.5 hours per day, (10:13):
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Kevin Tejada: to be honest with you. You should put a timer on your social media, guys. (10:17):
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Kevin Tejada: People who spend 2.5 hours doom scrolling per day are three times more likely (10:19):
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Kevin Tejada: to experience anxiety and depression. Yeah. (10:23):
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Kevin Tejada: Shit i already covered that that's no there's no a no-brainer, (10:29):
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Kevin Tejada: you are what you eat and if your brain (10:34):
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Kevin Tejada: is eating a bunch of depressing shit then that's (10:36):
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Kevin Tejada: what it'll be 66 of social (10:39):
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Kevin Tejada: media users report experiencing fomo (10:42):
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Kevin Tejada: fear of missing out which probably (10:46):
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Kevin Tejada: contributes a lot to this doom scrolling because they're thinking all these (10:50):
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Kevin Tejada: other people are all they're talking about is the recent negative events i gotta (10:54):
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Kevin Tejada: get in on that because i don't want to be left out a lot of people feel that (10:58):
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Kevin Tejada: way about social media in general even if it's not negative they just don't (11:02):
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Kevin Tejada: want to miss out like oh man what are they talking about what are the latest memes, (11:06):
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Kevin Tejada: as a side note if you're not online all the time some of these memes are just (11:10):
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Kevin Tejada: wild i just i don't know what the fuck is happening and i feel like unless you're (11:14):
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Kevin Tejada: online all the time you won't have context for half the memes out there. (11:18):
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Kevin Tejada: Back in my day, slang and memes, you can get. (11:21):
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Speaker2: Them from context. Maybe they weren't funny, but you would understand it. (11:25):
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Kevin Tejada: But anyway, not missing out on the trends is a big reason why people stay online (11:29):
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Kevin Tejada: and they keep scrolling negative stuff. (11:35):
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Kevin Tejada: Because like I said, with the news organizations, they know negativity is what (11:37):
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Kevin Tejada: people love psychologically. (11:42):
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Kevin Tejada: So this applies in terms of online news as well. So you're talking X threads, (11:43):
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Kevin Tejada: Instagram, YouTube, whatever. (11:50):
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Kevin Tejada: If there's something big happening, people with the most negative opinions on (11:51):
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Kevin Tejada: it are going to rise to the top and get spread the most. (11:55):
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Kevin Tejada: And since what's popular is almost always negative, people, if they don't want (11:59):
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Kevin Tejada: to miss out, they're going to have to indulge in negativity. (12:03):
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Kevin Tejada: And it's a cycle that scrolls itself into hell. (12:05):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, here's the cool thing about the fear of missing out. (12:09):
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Kevin Tejada: You're not missing out on much. (12:12):
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Kevin Tejada: Here's something I did recently. On my TV, I'm able to edit the YouTube app (12:14):
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Kevin Tejada: so I don't see certain categories. (12:20):
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Kevin Tejada: And recently I removed the news category. So I can't just go to the news section (12:22):
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Kevin Tejada: and look at what's happening because I found that, you know what? (12:27):
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Kevin Tejada: Most of it's pretty negative, especially during the 2024 election. (12:29):
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Kevin Tejada: It was just a lot. And I remember back in 2016, when Trump won the first time, (12:33):
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Kevin Tejada: I was thinking, wow, and you're not going to find out my politics, by the way, don't ask. (12:39):
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Kevin Tejada: I thought to myself, wow, I can't believe Trump actually won. That's interesting. (12:44):
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Speaker2: If the news articles will continue with complaining about trump surely there (12:50):
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Kevin Tejada: Complaint cycle about trump can there oh but (12:56):
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Kevin Tejada: there was just constant complaining constant defense on the other side and back (13:00):
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Kevin Tejada: and forth so that was a bad time and now he's president again and i see what's (13:05):
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Kevin Tejada: coming with the constantly fucking annoying news and i just removed that news (13:11):
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Kevin Tejada: section from the YouTube app and on the TV. (13:16):
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Kevin Tejada: And it's great. I can't just go, oh, I'll just see what's happening on the news. (13:20):
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Kevin Tejada: No, I have to look for a specific video if I want to. (13:24):
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Kevin Tejada: So I removed that influx of negative shit. (13:26):
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Kevin Tejada: And you know what? It feels good. It feels good to miss out because a lot of (13:30):
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Kevin Tejada: what you're missing out on is not really important. (13:35):
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Kevin Tejada: Like I said, back in the day, way back in the day, obviously getting some news (13:37):
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Kevin Tejada: is important, but a lot of things, if they don't affect you, (13:42):
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Kevin Tejada: you're just not going to find out about it until someone tells you or it's directly affecting you. (13:44):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, being completely out of the loop is not great, but putting some distance (13:49):
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Kevin Tejada: between you and the negative news is great because honestly, (13:55):
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Kevin Tejada: if it's really fucking important and relevant, you will find out one way or the other. (13:58):
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Kevin Tejada: So you don't need to be stalking the news and looking at the negative headlines (14:02):
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Kevin Tejada: and scrolling and all this stuff. (14:06):
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Speaker2: So if you can (14:08):
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Kevin Tejada: Set let's say time limits (14:09):
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Kevin Tejada: on your social media news consumption even that would (14:12):
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Kevin Tejada: be awesome every phone these days has something (14:15):
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Kevin Tejada: called either digital well-being screen time or (14:19):
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Kevin Tejada: if not you can download an app that can do it for you put timers (14:22):
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Kevin Tejada: on these sources of doom (14:26):
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Kevin Tejada: scrolling immediately i don't know what the average person spends in terms of (14:29):
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Kevin Tejada: time on doom scrolling really besides what the stat says but i don't know just (14:34):
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Kevin Tejada: start off with two hours it'd be cool if you could do like an hour or less but (14:40):
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Kevin Tejada: start off at two see how that goes and try to make the, (14:44):
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Kevin Tejada: restriction of the of these news doom scrolling stuff a part of your bedtime (14:50):
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Kevin Tejada: routine so at nighttime try not to look at news and stuff while you're getting (14:55):
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Kevin Tejada: ready for bed and definitely not in bed that's the number one rule don't fucking doom scroll in. (15:00):
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Speaker2: Bed i i don't (15:05):
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Kevin Tejada: Recommend scrolling at all in bed the only reason i would recommend having your (15:07):
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Kevin Tejada: phone near or in your bed is if you use as your alarm. (15:10):
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Speaker2: Although you should really buy like a fitness tracker for that (15:16):
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Kevin Tejada: Or if you're expecting an important call at 4 a.m for some reason for your job (15:19):
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Kevin Tejada: or family things or something like that other than that leave the fucking phone (15:24):
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Kevin Tejada: out of your bed you're gonna you're gonna really save your life if you do that. (15:28):
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Kevin Tejada: One more tip I'll give you, I guess, to avoid doom strolling is if you want (15:34):
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Kevin Tejada: to read about bad things that are happening in real life that won't affect you, (15:37):
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Kevin Tejada: but will make you worry and feel doomed. (15:41):
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Kevin Tejada: How about you shift that curiosity into the world of fiction? (15:44):
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Kevin Tejada: Maybe you can read about this fictional society who's going through some, (15:48):
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Kevin Tejada: way you can quench your curiosity via reading while improving your vocabulary. (15:55):
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Kevin Tejada: Maybe you'll learn a lesson too. (16:01):
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Kevin Tejada: Maybe you'll learn some morals Anyway, you should read more Read more books (16:02):
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Kevin Tejada: instead of headlines That's my thing That's the main takeaway from what I'm (16:07):
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Kevin Tejada: telling you Read fewer headlines They're not going to affect you, (16:11):
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Kevin Tejada: Maybe read a book instead That can affect you, (16:16):
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Kevin Tejada: Mentally, positively And actually one more thing When you're at the gym or whatever, (16:20):
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Kevin Tejada: I don't advise really using your phone at the gym Unless you're trying to record (16:25):
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Kevin Tejada: form Logging your workouts or just. (16:28):
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Speaker2: Some really important communication you got to do with the work or some shit (16:31):
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Speaker2: between the sets or whatever. But do (16:33):
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Kevin Tejada: Whatever the hell. Over time, you can adjust it so you only see cool things for you. (17:11):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, that may be a form of putting yourself in a bubble, not being aware, (17:15):
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Kevin Tejada: man. But who cares? It's a fucking feed. (17:19):
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Kevin Tejada: Make it show what you want. (17:24):
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Kevin Tejada: So you want to eat dog shit and negative shit (17:26):
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Kevin Tejada: all day anyway write in the comments what's the longest time you've spent doom (17:29):
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Kevin Tejada: scrolling has it actually been six hours if so what topic was it six hours is (17:34):
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Kevin Tejada: fucking insane anyway avoid some avoid the the headlines for the next four or 10 years i'll. (17:40):
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Speaker2: See you next time (17:47):
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Kevin Tejada: Anyway, this is about doom scrolling. (00:34):
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Kevin Tejada: And you know what it is. But if you don't, I'm going to tell you. (00:37):
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Kevin Tejada: Doom scrolling is when you're on the internet, particularly social media, where there's a feed. (00:40):
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Kevin Tejada: And you just consume and consume negative information, negative news. (00:46):
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Kevin Tejada: So that you get into a kind of doomed mindset. The world is fucked. (00:52):
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Kevin Tejada: I'm fucked. i'm reading all this bad thing this is way worse than i ever thought (00:56):
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Kevin Tejada: that this is especially bad during political times or when there are world events. (01:00):
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Kevin Tejada: It's so bad i'm gonna find out just how bad it is in every possible way i'm (01:13):
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Kevin Tejada: gonna get all this information yummy here's the thing when people say here's (01:18):
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Kevin Tejada: the thing i have this urge to say, and here's the human torch, (01:24):
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Kevin Tejada: and here's Mr. Fantastic. (01:26):
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Kevin Tejada: Back in the day, our ancestors, they would not get, they could not get this (01:28):
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Kevin Tejada: much bad news this quickly. (01:34):
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Kevin Tejada: They would go through their entire life hearing about bad things from people (01:36):
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Kevin Tejada: around them, things that would actually affect them right away. (01:41):
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Kevin Tejada: But these days, we don't need that. We can be upset at something that's happening across. (01:44):
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Kevin Tejada: City over there in this continent. I don't live in this region. (02:03):
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Kevin Tejada: I don't live in. The mayor's been doing this. (02:06):
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Kevin Tejada: There's been this type of crime happening around. (02:10):
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Speaker2: The schools have been suffering this (02:12):
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Kevin Tejada: Kind of problem. You can suffer, feel bad about all of that without even being there. (02:14):
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Kevin Tejada: But it's very easy to just consume all the information. Just consume and consume it. (02:19):
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Kevin Tejada: And it gives people fucking anxiety because they're thinking the world's ending. (02:24):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, the way humans are going, we will probably fuck up the earth for ourselves (02:28):
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Kevin Tejada: at some point. But it's not going to be that quickly. (02:32):
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Kevin Tejada: And sure as hell it's not going to be because of something you read about (02:36):
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Kevin Tejada: happening in a different city you don't even (02:39):
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Kevin Tejada: live in it is insane people get themselves (02:42):
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Kevin Tejada: in this cycle where they hear about oh that's that sounds like a bad headline (02:45):
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Kevin Tejada: let me look into this oh my god this problem's deeper than i thought oh this (02:49):
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Kevin Tejada: person's involved let me find out what they've done oh my god they're such a (02:52):
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Kevin Tejada: bad person i did this person oh my god these people are suffering because of (02:54):
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Kevin Tejada: that this is a huge other problem i didn't know about this they've been suffering (02:57):
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Kevin Tejada: for this for the last few years. (03:00):
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Kevin Tejada: It's caused by this organization. Oh my God. It can just go on and on. (03:02):
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Kevin Tejada: And because of the internet, you're not really limited by the information you (03:07):
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Kevin Tejada: can find out. You can find out all of it. (03:11):
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Kevin Tejada: And because of people's habits of finding out this information via social media (03:13):
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Kevin Tejada: or via a platform that has a feed, they can just get fed all these negative (03:17):
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Kevin Tejada: things and it makes them feel worse and worse. (03:22):
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Kevin Tejada: It's like eating junk food when you're depressed and you feel worse because (03:26):
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Kevin Tejada: you feel bad because the junk food's garbage and you're getting fatter and you (03:29):
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Kevin Tejada: just feel worse so you just eat more it's like that but with information most (03:32):
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Kevin Tejada: of which won't affect you, (03:36):
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Kevin Tejada: and if you think of being insensitive let me just bring let me just bring something up let's wait. (03:38):
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Speaker2: One two three seconds in those three seconds (03:43):
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Kevin Tejada: At least two children died in some country in asia are you going to spend the (03:47):
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Kevin Tejada: rest of your day crying about that no what are you an asshole No, you're not. (03:53):
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Kevin Tejada: They're just way, way too separated from your life for it to actually matter. (03:58):
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Kevin Tejada: And that's my point. Most of these things that people are dooming themselves (04:03):
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Kevin Tejada: on are not going to affect them. (04:07):
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Kevin Tejada: For example, 2016, apparently Trump becoming president was going to be the apocalypse. (04:11):
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Kevin Tejada: It was the worst thing ever, right? (04:16):
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Kevin Tejada: Those four years, nothing changed for me. I mean, I was broke anyway because (04:18):
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Kevin Tejada: I just became a personal trainer and I was having money issues, man. (04:23):
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Kevin Tejada: I was broke working my way up anyway. (04:27):
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Kevin Tejada: So I didn't see the effects of Trump ruining the world or whatever. (04:29):
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Kevin Tejada: I didn't see any change whatsoever that came from politics. Not one. (04:33):
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Kevin Tejada: And when Biden got into office, same shit. i'm just (04:37):
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Kevin Tejada: living my life doing stuff i'm not being affected by that not saying (04:40):
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Kevin Tejada: there aren't people who are being affected by this but i'm the average (04:43):
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Kevin Tejada: person is not getting affected by whatever the hell's happening with these politicians (04:46):
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Kevin Tejada: now we're talking about the increase in prices and (04:49):
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Kevin Tejada: groceries lately yeah that's the thing but in general if you're finding out (04:52):
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Kevin Tejada: oh my god these people passed this fucking bill that affects this city over (04:56):
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Kevin Tejada: there these people like listen i'm not saying don't care at all but if you don't (05:00):
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Kevin Tejada: have a friend or family member who's actually directly being affected, calm the fuck down. (05:06):
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Kevin Tejada: For example, all the wildfires in California recently. (05:12):
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Kevin Tejada: I know someone who has a family member in California. So naturally they're like, (05:15):
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Kevin Tejada: oh, I kind of care. Let me find out how this person is doing. (05:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And they contact them. They found out understandable. (05:22):
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Kevin Tejada: Beyond that, I don't know anyone there. So I didn't give a shit. (05:25):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And again, it might make me sound insensitive, but the thing is those things (05:31):
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Kevin Tejada: don't affect my actual day-to-day life. (05:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Is counterproductive. It is very bad for mental health. (05:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Just because you're seeing all these things happen on social media and stuff, (05:58):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: it doesn't mean that it actually has any effect on your life. (06:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So to drown other people's sorrow is just weird. It's not healthy. (06:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And this is especially bad for people who have a tendency to get obsessed with something. (06:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I want to research the hell out of everything. Those people who like past me (06:18):
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Kevin Tejada: go on Wikipedia and oh, look at this topic. (06:22):
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Kevin Tejada: Oh, that's a word. I don't know. Let me go to this word's topic. (06:24):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Oh, wow. A whole new world. I'm going to just go click everywhere. (06:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: It's like that doom scrolling. but everything is (06:30):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: negative and everything is worse and none of it affects you also for the most (06:34):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: part and this extra affects young people who spend several hours per day on (06:39):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: social media so they're getting inundated with negativity hour after hour you (06:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: know that does to a motherfucker, (06:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: reading the world is ending here's why over and over every day. (06:54):
undefined
Speaker2: Probably going to become a more pessimistic person (06:57):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Probably not gonna care about your future too much because you feel like there (07:00):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: might not be a future might even kill yourself that's the worst case scenario (07:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: but it can happen again with trump getting elected again you, (07:09):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: being affected by something, if you don't know anyone who's being affected by it, stop caring. (07:31):
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Kevin Tejada: It has no effect on your life. What you're doing is taking something that has (07:36):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: literally no effect on your life and you're making it have a negative effect on your brain. (07:40):
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Kevin Tejada: I hope we understand why that's fucking bad. Because the amount of doom scrolling (07:46):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: that results in more screeching from people saying, oh, the world's over. This is so fucking bad. (07:51):
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Kevin Tejada: This adds to the doom scrolling that other people reading, other people saying (07:55):
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Kevin Tejada: the world is ending for sure. This is terrible. (07:58):
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Speaker1: Horrible stuff happening. (08:00):
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Kevin Tejada: Everyone's just feeding into each other, into their own feeds, (08:02):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: so that they keep scrolling into hell. (08:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Doom scrolling would be cooler if it were about the game Doom. (08:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Here's some numbers for you. (08:11):
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Kevin Tejada: 55% of Americans report feeling stressed when consuming news, (08:13):
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Kevin Tejada: according to the 2020 thing. (08:18):
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Kevin Tejada: Sometimes I don't even care about stats during COVID or before COVID, (08:21):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: because it's a whole new world after that, honestly. But I'll take it. (08:25):
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Kevin Tejada: So half of people, Americans, they feel stress consuming news. (08:30):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I totally understand that because what psychologically interests most people is something negative. (08:33):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So news headlines skew negative because they want to get attention, they want to get money. (08:39):
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Speaker1: So they're going to put the negativity out there. (08:44):
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Kevin Tejada: Suck, but it makes sense. Now this next number is not a big surprise. (08:47):
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Kevin Tejada: Social media use increased by 61% worldwide during the first wave of COVID in 2020. (08:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Yeah, no shit. People either have to stay at home, got fired or whatever. (09:00):
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Kevin Tejada: They're like, yeah, they're going to be on the internet because that's how you connect to people. (09:04):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And that's what determines most entertainment these days. You got to be connected (09:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: to the internet to do most things. (09:11):
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Kevin Tejada: So that makes sense. And that exacerbated the problem, especially during COVID, (09:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: when you would think you step outside, you die immediately if you breathe the air, right? (09:18):
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Kevin Tejada: Now, some people did die, of course, but it wasn't insta-death if you stepped (09:23):
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Kevin Tejada: in someone's six-foot social distancing zone. (09:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: It's not like, oh, I'm going to step into your 5.5 feet and I die. (09:32):
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Kevin Tejada: I gave you COVID. You gave me COVID. We both exploded. (09:36):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: It didn't work like that, but you would think so because of all the doom online. (09:39):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: People just scrolling new covid things new i'm just so tired thinking of that time, (09:43):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: every day it's just covid covid covid covid this is (09:49):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: getting like some places were being affected (09:52):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: more than others but everyone just took the worst things that were happening (09:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: in covid and just said this is happening everywhere that would have been a great (10:00):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: time for everyone to calm the down just a little bit but a study found that (10:04):
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Kevin Tejada: people who engage in doom scrolling for more More than 2.5 hours per day. Jesus Christ. (10:08):
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Kevin Tejada: I don't think you should be on social media at all for 2.5 hours per day, (10:13):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: to be honest with you. You should put a timer on your social media, guys. (10:17):
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Kevin Tejada: People who spend 2.5 hours doom scrolling per day are three times more likely (10:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: to experience anxiety and depression. Yeah. (10:23):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Shit i already covered that that's no there's no a no-brainer, (10:29):
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Kevin Tejada: you are what you eat and if your brain (10:34):
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Kevin Tejada: is eating a bunch of depressing shit then that's (10:36):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: what it'll be 66 of social (10:39):
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Kevin Tejada: media users report experiencing fomo (10:42):
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Kevin Tejada: fear of missing out which probably (10:46):
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Kevin Tejada: contributes a lot to this doom scrolling because they're thinking all these (10:50):
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Kevin Tejada: other people are all they're talking about is the recent negative events i gotta (10:54):
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Kevin Tejada: get in on that because i don't want to be left out a lot of people feel that (10:58):
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Kevin Tejada: way about social media in general even if it's not negative they just don't (11:02):
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Kevin Tejada: want to miss out like oh man what are they talking about what are the latest memes, (11:06):
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Kevin Tejada: as a side note if you're not online all the time some of these memes are just (11:10):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: wild i just i don't know what the fuck is happening and i feel like unless you're (11:14):
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Kevin Tejada: online all the time you won't have context for half the memes out there. (11:18):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Back in my day, slang and memes, you can get. (11:21):
undefined
Speaker2: Them from context. Maybe they weren't funny, but you would understand it. (11:25):
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Kevin Tejada: But anyway, not missing out on the trends is a big reason why people stay online (11:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and they keep scrolling negative stuff. (11:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Because like I said, with the news organizations, they know negativity is what (11:37):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: people love psychologically. (11:42):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So this applies in terms of online news as well. So you're talking X threads, (11:43):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Instagram, YouTube, whatever. (11:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: If there's something big happening, people with the most negative opinions on (11:51):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: it are going to rise to the top and get spread the most. (11:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And since what's popular is almost always negative, people, if they don't want (11:59):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: to miss out, they're going to have to indulge in negativity. (12:03):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And it's a cycle that scrolls itself into hell. (12:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Now, here's the cool thing about the fear of missing out. (12:09):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: You're not missing out on much. (12:12):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Here's something I did recently. On my TV, I'm able to edit the YouTube app (12:14):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: so I don't see certain categories. (12:20):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And recently I removed the news category. So I can't just go to the news section (12:22):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and look at what's happening because I found that, you know what? (12:27):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Most of it's pretty negative, especially during the 2024 election. (12:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: It was just a lot. And I remember back in 2016, when Trump won the first time, (12:33):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I was thinking, wow, and you're not going to find out my politics, by the way, don't ask. (12:39):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I thought to myself, wow, I can't believe Trump actually won. That's interesting. (12:44):
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Speaker2: If the news articles will continue with complaining about trump surely there (12:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Complaint cycle about trump can there oh but (12:56):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: there was just constant complaining constant defense on the other side and back (13:00):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and forth so that was a bad time and now he's president again and i see what's (13:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: coming with the constantly fucking annoying news and i just removed that news (13:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: section from the YouTube app and on the TV. (13:16):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And it's great. I can't just go, oh, I'll just see what's happening on the news. (13:20):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: No, I have to look for a specific video if I want to. (13:24):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So I removed that influx of negative shit. (13:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: And you know what? It feels good. It feels good to miss out because a lot of (13:30):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: what you're missing out on is not really important. (13:35):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Like I said, back in the day, way back in the day, obviously getting some news (13:37):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: is important, but a lot of things, if they don't affect you, (13:42):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: you're just not going to find out about it until someone tells you or it's directly affecting you. (13:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Now, being completely out of the loop is not great, but putting some distance (13:49):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: between you and the negative news is great because honestly, (13:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: if it's really fucking important and relevant, you will find out one way or the other. (13:58):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So you don't need to be stalking the news and looking at the negative headlines (14:02):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: and scrolling and all this stuff. (14:06):
undefined
Speaker2: So if you can (14:08):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Set let's say time limits (14:09):
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Kevin Tejada: on your social media news consumption even that would (14:12):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: be awesome every phone these days has something (14:15):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: called either digital well-being screen time or (14:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: if not you can download an app that can do it for you put timers (14:22):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: on these sources of doom (14:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: scrolling immediately i don't know what the average person spends in terms of (14:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: time on doom scrolling really besides what the stat says but i don't know just (14:34):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: start off with two hours it'd be cool if you could do like an hour or less but (14:40):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: start off at two see how that goes and try to make the, (14:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: restriction of the of these news doom scrolling stuff a part of your bedtime (14:50):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: routine so at nighttime try not to look at news and stuff while you're getting (14:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: ready for bed and definitely not in bed that's the number one rule don't fucking doom scroll in. (15:00):
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Speaker2: Bed i i don't (15:05):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Recommend scrolling at all in bed the only reason i would recommend having your (15:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: phone near or in your bed is if you use as your alarm. (15:10):
undefined
Speaker2: Although you should really buy like a fitness tracker for that (15:16):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Or if you're expecting an important call at 4 a.m for some reason for your job (15:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: or family things or something like that other than that leave the fucking phone (15:24):
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Kevin Tejada: out of your bed you're gonna you're gonna really save your life if you do that. (15:28):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: One more tip I'll give you, I guess, to avoid doom strolling is if you want (15:34):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: to read about bad things that are happening in real life that won't affect you, (15:37):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: but will make you worry and feel doomed. (15:41):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: How about you shift that curiosity into the world of fiction? (15:44):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Maybe you can read about this fictional society who's going through some, (15:48):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: way you can quench your curiosity via reading while improving your vocabulary. (15:55):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Maybe you'll learn a lesson too. (16:01):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Maybe you'll learn some morals Anyway, you should read more Read more books (16:02):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: instead of headlines That's my thing That's the main takeaway from what I'm (16:07):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: telling you Read fewer headlines They're not going to affect you, (16:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Maybe read a book instead That can affect you, (16:16):
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Kevin Tejada: Mentally, positively And actually one more thing When you're at the gym or whatever, (16:20):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: I don't advise really using your phone at the gym Unless you're trying to record (16:25):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: form Logging your workouts or just. (16:28):
undefined
Speaker2: Some really important communication you got to do with the work or some shit (16:31):
undefined
Speaker2: between the sets or whatever. But do (16:33):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Whatever the hell. Over time, you can adjust it so you only see cool things for you. (17:11):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Now, that may be a form of putting yourself in a bubble, not being aware, (17:15):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: man. But who cares? It's a fucking feed. (17:19):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: Make it show what you want. (17:24):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: So you want to eat dog shit and negative shit (17:26):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: all day anyway write in the comments what's the longest time you've spent doom (17:29):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: scrolling has it actually been six hours if so what topic was it six hours is (17:34):
undefined
Kevin Tejada: fucking insane anyway avoid some avoid the the headlines for the next four or 10 years i'll. (17:40):
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Speaker2: See you next time (17:47):
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