Social Media Detox: Reading Deeply, Energy Levels, and Thinking Less

Recently, I've been on a social media detox and have been trying to (1) re-learn how to read deeply, (2) maintain my energy levels. (3) think less.

Reading Deeply

I've come to understand from my own experiences that 2 key factors to deeply understanding a topic and becoming a master at it is reading and practicing. It is rarely in another form of content other than written text that can convey the same depth of a topic.

Most content about topics are shallow and surface-level, mainly because the algorithm for various social media sites reward creators that can reach out to a vast audience, which means that their content are generally more broad and do not drill into the deeper areas of a topic. Even with the advent of LLMs, anyone who has tried to understand a topic deeply will know that it is very difficult to get the LLM to explain something deeply. It will most times simply agree with your and echo your ideas. And you end up relying on the LLM to cover your edge cases that you were just fed, none the wiser about real-world edge cases that you are missing. Essentially you are letting the LLM "ownself check ownself" when it is clearly unreliable in that aspect.

For example, when writing test cases for a program in a new language, asking an LLM to cover "all" edge cases can be misleading. The LLM will confidently claim it's covering everything, but without domain experience or understanding of idiomatic testing practices, you will probably miss many critical real-world scenarios that only come with practical experience.

An occurance that's far too common

"You're right! I did miss out on XYZ. Here is the updated solution..." - Sound familiar?

Energy levels

This year (2025), I lived in the Bay Area for around 8 months, doing both an internship in SF and an exchange at UC Berkeley. During this time, I did not anticipate one of the hardest things to overcome (I am still in the process of doing so) - loneliness, isolation, and an unassuming routine. For me, it was really easy to constantly feel left out from my friends and peers back home in Singapore.

Feeling left out because I'm taking a different path from them, one that promised a greater understanding of the epicentre of software innovation flush with VC money, at the cost of being a year behind my peers. It feels like I voluntarily set myself behind my friends. As such, voices would start creeping into my head, mostly doubting if what I'm doing here would really benefit me in the long run. Asking myself "what if this decision to stay an extra year and come to the US was just a big waste of time?".

But then the more I enjoyed understanding deeper about topics I was interested in, the more I practiced for the sake of exercising my mental muscles, the more I played basketball and hit the gym, the less these thoughts would occur. The more I started caring more about myself and clearing my head naturally with exercise, the less these thoughts would seem to come. I also realised that life isin't really an equation. You can work hard and be unlucky. You can work less and be lucky. Comparison is natural, but I guess a glance at these things only from time to time and rather sticking to following on my North Star feels better. And it results in personal growth. I wouldn't say that personally personal growth feels "amazing!" but it is satisfying and thats better than sitting around and wallowing in my perceived inadequateness compared to others.

Especially after the gym + basketball + a good shower (I love the gym shower), my head feels clear and quiet. There are no "I'm tired" or "lets take a break" thoughts. I actually felt it coming out when I parked my car coming home from the gym, and was able to consciously block it out, mainly because of good energy levels.

Thinking less

A thought that creeps in too often

I don't remember being this tired when I was a teenager - I must be getting old.

This was a common thought that came to my head. Very insidious because I only realised halfway through my time in the US that this thought would lead to almost blind acceptance that either: I was tired and I should beat myself up over feeling tired, or I am old and getting tired.

I was talking to my roomate about my tuition teacher back in Secondary School, Miss Catherine. I remember greatly pulling my math grades from a fail to an A in a few months. Because there would be 3x 3 hour sessions where she would just give us a bunch of questions to do after teaching a topic for 30 minutes. I then recalled that during those 3 hour sessions, sometimes it would be straight after school where I was sweaty and nasty. Sitting in a cold air conditioned room.

I actually remembered that I was actually tired as well! I remember fighting for my life to keep my eyes open, and how Miss Catherine would sternly mention my name and I'd almost jump out of my seat. She'd tell me to go wash my face and come back. And thats what I ended up doing. I didn't overthink it back then. I accepted that I was tired, but I had to continue and just did it without any extra energy spend on telling myself that this was what discipline looked like, etc. I just did it. Yea I was tired but I just came back to do it without really thinking much.

So this kind of ties in to the previous point on energy levels. The greater the energy levels, the less these thoughts happen. And when I'm feeling tired, the less I overthink and I just take a break and come back to doing it.