Social Media Is Ruining Your Life (2026)

I feel like that's probably not entirely true , but I think many of us that would say that also don't remember what it's like not to be on social media or , even potentially worse , have never had a life without social media , and it's really hard to know the difference between what life was like before and what life is today .

And the reason why is because in technology years doggy years one year equals seven years . In technology years , I think the same thing applies . Technology , the amount of devices that we have . I think I have 24 devices in this house alone , just with Emilia and I .

24 devices in this house alone , just with Emilia and I Smart devices , smart TVs , phones , cameras , laptops , ipads , ipods , all these different things .

Welcome to Next Level University , next Level Nation today for episode number 2026 , social media is ruining your life Again . I know it's bold , I know maybe it's triggering . Maybe the initial thought is , kev , that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life . And it might be , and we're going to figure that out in today's episode .

I was talking to somebody the other day , one of our amazing clients , and I've spoken about this client before because she's a really good human and she's super intelligent , she's very successful and she's really good at what she does . And she said you know , I have many awards and many accolades that say I'm one of the best in the world that do this .

But when I go on social media , I feel like everybody is as good , if not better , than I am . And I said isn't it interesting how your silo of people are just people that are like you essentially and in the quote unquote real world .

When you go out and you go grocery shopping and you go to the movies and you go to the mall and you go to the gym and whatever , you most likely will never run into somebody who has the same exact degrees that you do . It most likely will never happen .

They wouldn't even post a video about that , because that's just not impressive in social media land . I don't know if I've ever seen anybody in my gym squat more than me at the time of me being there . I know there's people that go there that do that is what social media is doing . It's fucking with us me being there .

I know there's people that go there that do that is what social media is doing . It's fucking with us . Social media is designed to show the top 1% results Because that is what is desirable , that is what creates envy , that is what creates jealousy , that is what gets clicks . That is why it is designed that way .

And unfortunately , I think we're getting to the point where we spend more time in social media land than we do out in the world . So go to your local grocery store , go to your local mall . The odds of you seeing somebody as attractive , as in shape , as successful , as wealthy as somebody on social media are just so astronomically low .

But I don't know if we think about that when we go out . So , yeah , that is my tirade on social media . Now last thing , and then I'll kick it to Alan there are a lot of upsides too . We would not be able to do what we do in the way we do it without social media , but it's going back to the consumer versus investor mindset .

The consumer mindset is I'm going to mindlessly scroll and I'm just going to waste my day away . The average person globally spends two hours and 23 minutes a day on social media .

It's a long . I mean that's several workouts , Whoa . You could listen to a lot of audio book . You could read a lot of books in that . What was the number Two hours and 23 minutes per day . So that's what ? 16 hours a week , something like that . Hold on Two hours and 23 minutes .

143 minutes a day is the average . Yes , two hours and 23 minutes , okay . Yes , I'm going to multiply that by 365 . Days , hours and 23 minutes . Okay , I'm going to multiply that by 365 days it's 52,195 . Now I'm going to divide that by 60 . To put it in hours Math with Jeff and Jeff , you know it , it's 870 hours . 870 hours a year is the average .

That's insane . Okay , you want me to divide that by eight hours ?

If you're scrolling on social media for four hours a day and then complaining that your life isn't working out well , it's very hard for me because if you put those four hours into meaningful , productive activities , your life would work a million times better . It would it would just a million times as an exaggeration , but it's , it is . It's tough , it's .

I mean , that's 22 weeks Of eight hour work days . If you're complaining about not having money while scrolling three hours a day , there's an issue there and at the end of the day , I I don't want to . If you stand for one thing , you're against something else . So I guess what I'm against is entitlement , and I do think I'm against laziness as well .

I think laziness is really bad . I think that productivity is important and I think that if you want to have a great life , you're going to have to find a way to be a productive , contributing member to society . I remember Emilia's parents when she was very young member to society .

I remember Emilia's parents when she was very young they're on the very high end of great parents , honestly and they taught some very valuable lessons to her when she was a kid , lessons that I kind of wasn't taught , to be honest . One of them was you eat shit , you hang out with shit , you smell like shit , so don't hang out with the wrong people .

That was like lesson one you hang out with shit , you smell like shit . That's a good one , aka do not hang out with the wrong people . I got that one wrong so horribly . Number two was try to become a productive and contributing member of society .

You need to work really hard to become a contributor to society , not someone who just siphons and I grew up with some people that were very much siphoning and not contributing . And this comes down to a basic principle .

I know this wasn't the point of the episode , but if you give a lot to society and to your community and to your company and to your career , you're going to get a lot back . That's how it works . I have one person I'm thinking of showed up to Christina , the chief operations officer of our company and she's going to win .

In my opinion , she's going to be very successful for the rest of her life because she's a contributing member of society . She's always figuring out how she can help and she's always trying . She's good at a lot of stuff and she's always contributing and she's always figuring out how she can add value .

Now that can go too far and if she's not careful in knowing her value , she can be taken advantage of , which I think is the risk . But her career is going to be great . I know it because she's thinking about how she can serve first , profit second , and I do think a lot of us get that backwards , and I think social media is part of the problem .

To tie this in a bow Everyone on social media .

I grinded through most of it and there's a picture of us and little Tucker on the couch , little weekend getaway , check out to check back in , and that's what I posted on social media . But of that 48 hour period I was working . I slept 16 of it . I worked another 16 at least , and you see the one photograph that looks cute and that's okay .

That's what social media is for . I'm not going to share what I'm doing behind the scenes . Maybe I'll do that more when I'm doing business growth , university . We'll see . But it is . It is a skewed reality . It's like a sitcom . One of my favorite sitcoms growing up was friends , very famous show . They never work and it's insane .

It used to bother me like this show is making me lazy . Friends will make you lazy . I'm not even kidding I I would get lazier because it it almost .

We're always looking for some because , I've said this before , I like to bet on UFC fights , but the problem is my phone is right there , so in between fights it's easy for me to pick it up and just start scrolling . It's like well , I'm not refilling my cup if I'm doing that .

If I'm watching five hours of fights and there's 10 minutes in between each fight , I'm spending an hour on my phone at least right , and that's not . That's not what I want to do . That's not refilling my cup . I think the comparison thing is the maybe one of the worst pieces of it yeah because it's not . It's not the real world .

So essentially , we're spending two hours and 23 minutes a day On average , on average In what is essentially a movie , because everything is reverse engineered . Yes , there are some people who are super authentic that have put up certain content . Yes , but that's not the majority of it .

At least that's not the majority of what I see , and maybe it's just because that's the way my algorithm is set up , but it's like we're not really living in a real place with real results . Everybody's kind of playing a character .

Again , it's part of our business , it's part of our brand .

I said this to a client behind the scenes . I'm going to bring it here and I'm going to say it a lot more hardcore than than what I think is just this client I've been working with for a long time . She wants me to be this direct and I said you will never . Okay , I told her a story .

I said Emilia and I one time we were watching a movie on Amazon prime it was Amazon prime or Apple TV plus or whatever One of the platforms , I forget which one and all of a sudden a commercial came on . I stopped the film , I went upstairs and I rented the movie and I made sure that we will never , ever , ever , hear an advertisement .

You cannot get into my consciousness . And I told this person . I said you can't scroll on tiktok for hours and then live a rich , dynamic , positive life . You can't , because you're putting crap in . You might as well make a cake out of cement . That's a jim rohn quote . There is no version of you .

I remember when gladiator 2 came out . I loved that movie and I watched like an hour and a half Of these fucking behind the scenes interviews and videos and all this stuff . I spent my whole goddamn morning doing this and I felt so terrible that day . What a bad way to start your day , holy crap .

Now here's the deal right At the end of the day , what you feed your mind , what you feed your brain , what you allow into your world is is affecting you . It's influencing your every thought . What you say , think , do , feel and believe NLU .

I can see a huge uptick when my I have a client I was just on with earlier Shout out to you if you're listening I know you are because we track your stuff . She was not listening for a while and then she started listening again . I can see an uptick in intensity . I can see an uptick in motivation . I can see an uptick in discipline .

I can see a drastic difference when someone stops listening to our show . What does that mean ? We are me more than Kev . We are intensely focused on helping you . Stay focused . What is the point of NLU ? Every single day , we're going to talk about something meaningful that matters , that can actually help you .

So my point of thisU Every single day , we're going to talk about something meaningful that matters , that can actually help you . So my point of this and I said this to my client you can't , you have to stand guard at the door of your mind . You cannot let nonsense in and then live a magnificent life . You can't . You have to protect your fucking brain .

You have to . And one of the reasons why I love this show and I love what we do is because that's what we're doing . Yeah , social media . We have to use it . Yeah , it's curated content . Yeah , it's me and my cats and my home and fitness and Emilia and I and loving and Lake , boom , boom , boom .

Of course , however , I try really , really , really hard to make it aligned and integrous and to be as honest as humanly possible and to be good at marketing . Of course , I'm so grateful we get to work from home . I'm so grateful we have people coming to our event this weekend that are from all over the freaking world . That's so cool .

Without social media , that wouldn't even be possible . So I'm grateful for the upside , however , if you are the person out there listening , you probably aren't , because you wouldn't be listening to us , most likely if you're scrolling for three hours a day . But if you are out there and you're scrolling for two , three , four , five hours a day .

It is messing your brain up , it's messing your perception up . It's messing up your ability to do well . You're not going to succeed . The most productive and effective people I know You're not going to succeed . The most productive and effective people I know and I know a lot of them do not scroll . They avoid it like the plague .

You'll never hear me listen to an advertisement . You'll never hear me have something on in the background . You'll never hear my phone ring . And again , I'm excessive with this , I know , but you've got to protect your consciousness if you want to succeed .

They're listening to netflix while they get ready for their day , right , or they're watching netflix , like while they get ready for their day , or they're watching Netflix while they get ready for their day , and that's kind of the way that their day goes . They've already tapped into entertainment and it's really hard to get off that train when you start it .

Oh , it's brutal . That's why the morning is so important because you're starting the morning . By the end of the day , they're most likely going to come home . They're going to continue watching their show , they're going to watch TV in bed . That's going to be the flow of it .

Person B wakes up , gets out of bed , listens to an audio book or reads a book or whatever whatever it is does do their mobility , whatever they go , exercise awesome .

Towards the end of the day , you're going to feel like you earned watching an hour of your favorite Netflix show or whatever it is , and I think it's way more cup-filling because you feel like you actually earned

it .

If I was having pizza every night , I wouldn't appreciate it and I wouldn't look forward to it and I wouldn't appreciate the difference and I wouldn't appreciate how unique it is and it wouldn't be pleasurable , it wouldn't be quote unquote fulfilling . But I think it's just discipline . I think it is . This is one of those discipline things where there's nobody .

I mean , yeah , there's apps and there's there's products and services that you can use and buy and pay for . That will help you with this , but it has to start with the understanding of one I'm spending more time . I think the question is and this would be my next level lesson ask yourself are you spending more time than you want to on social media ?

That's question one . Two , how much of it is completely unintentional or not unintentional , unconscious , it just happens . You just find yourself opening your phone , you get the poll , you do it and the next thing you know it's been 25 minutes .

I think awareness is the first step , and then admitting that you're kind of Jeffing , and again I'm guilty of this way less now than ever , which is great . Can we talk about ?

It's actually really good . I watched some of that last night because we worked late , but after about an hour or so it's okay . I ate my food , I got my R&R in , I'm ready to . I just hope everyone's creating a meaningful life and for me the problem is scrolling entertainment . If you overdo , it is so empty , it's so fucking empty .

Do it is so empty , it's so fucking empty . I said this yesterday and I do think this will become one of the things that I just say often the people who are grinding and growing toward their goals and dreams will always be the envy of people sitting around feeling sorry for themselves .

And the reason I say this is because I got on a session yesterday with a client of mine and she's grinding and I said how are you ? She said overwhelmed . And I said I know , I know Same , hey , same , but it's better than the alternative . And she said I know what is the alternative . The alternative is sitting around feeling sorry for yourself .

The alternative is no demand . The alternative is no clients . The alternative is no calendar . The alternative is no responsibilities . The alternative is no calendar . The alternative is no responsibilities . The alternative is an empty bank account . Demand Kev . Our life is not romanticized . I get it okay . You and I grind Six days a week . Not everyone wants this life .

I get it okay , I do . However , it's better than being fucking broke .

Okay , the problem is you're going to overdo that and then most likely feel like you're not achieving your goals . That's a choice . It's your choice . I've been there . I went down that road for a while and I regretted it deeply . Okay , I'm not saying you will , but I did . The other bucket is R , and R is a necessity . It's not the fucking goal .

It's a necessity to get rest and relaxation . The goal is productivity . The goal is meaningful life . The goal is service and impact and profitability . The goal is to build something of meaning . I think the world craves a meaningful life .

I do , and I think most people romanticize carefree wandering and they romanticize the frolicking when in reality , behind the scenes , I've got enough people I've coached over the years to realize that the people who have those phases and I've had them too I had my frolicking phases , I had my let it ride phases , I had my drinking days and all that .

I am not making you guys wrong for this , I'm just saying carefree wandering and frolicking and all that stuff that is being constantly bombarded on our devices from social media . It's romanticized way too much . It's not real . I think living a meaningful , responsible , productive life is so much better than people give it credit for . It's so good , I love .

I can't wait to get married . I love I had my single days where I was off the rails and I had this person and that like I get it . I would much rather have a meaningful marriage with Emilia than talk to all these people , blah , blah , blah . All this party barbecue , all this stuff . For me it's , it's .

It seems less sexy , it seems less badass , it seems less cool . But I think a responsible , meaningful life , I think it's underrated and I think it's undervalued and I think it's not as shiny so it doesn't get as much attention .

But what happened to the good old-fashioned wake up in the morning , have a hard day's work and earn your meal and , and you know , have a family and and be a responsible adult ? I feel like being a responsible adult , contributing member of society has been so wildly under exciting and I don't know if it's rap or what to blame .

But there is , there is , there's this , there's this thing in the world where it's like going off the rails is somehow funny and fun and awesome . But I'm telling you , the other end of that road I've done it too is nothing but darkness . And I feel like you can .

You can build a meaningful , aligned life and just be very careful of the social media romanticizing , of all this stuff , because ultimately , what really matters , I think , is core values and work ethic and humility and personal development .

It's not going to be more necessarily , but okay , I'll have a nicer TV to watch UFC on . Awesome , I love that . I will have less stress when I order $20 worth of pizza . Awesome , I love that . Vacations will be different . Awesome , I love that Vacations will be different . Awesome , I love that .

So , I agree , I think it's really Sundays for me are usually heavy R&R days and by the end of the day I'm like all right , cool , I'm ready to get back after it . Yep , I'm ready . This is good . I'm good , like I've rested , my brain is good , my brain is calm . I'm not super overwhelmed right now , in this moment .

Cool , tomorrow's Monday , I'm ready to get back after it . If I did that every day , remember when you were maybe it wasn't like this for you . I remember when I was a kid , I was so excited for summer to come and it was awesome for like two weeks yeah and then it was like , oh , this person's away , they're on vacation .

What the I can't play golden eye on nintendo 64 anymore . I'm like so sick of it . What am I gonna do ? I've watched all the movies sports center's not on until tonight , like what the hell am I gonna do ? I think that's what . Yeah , no , I don't think that was my experience I think I always found that was my experience .

But the next level lesson that I would give is I've been doing this new thing with clients immediately go into r&r and I don't get anything done For the household , for the pets , for emilia , for me , for building the business , whatever it is brand clients . I know I'm not going to feel good about myself .

I think a lot of winning at life is doing the things , keeping the promises to yourself that that meeting your own standards , meeting your own standards , is the only way to feel good about yourself . That's the only way I've been able to figure it out . I feel really good about me lately because I'm on point . We're doing it . We're challenged .

We're in the challenge skill sweet spot . We're doing it . We're making an impact . We got a community , we got momentum right now . Yeah , it's brutal . I was up till 10 o'clock last night . I stayed up till freaking one , probably , or some midnight or one , because we were working until 1030 or 11 or something . I get that . That's not ideal .

That's a little too far , I get it . We can't sustain that . However , it's much better than scrolling three hours a day . I remember there was a time in my life where I was depressed and I was . I saw people living their dreams and chasing their dreams and I remember thinking like fuck this , you know , I'm so miserable , especially when I was hung over .

I was just such a miserable , I was just miserable . There's nothing worse than feeling terrible about yourself because you just keep making terrible choices . And I'm not saying I've been there , kevin's definitely been there . I don't mean that in a negative way , we've been there . There is another way .

There's a next level staircase that you can build and I know a lot of people out there , despite what social media shows , are struggling with self-esteem the self-esteem deficit in the world . Right now I have a therapist named Carol , emilia and Bianca . They're doing evolved therapy .

The amount of people that are behind the scenes suffering is wildly high , even though our overall quality of life globally has come up in terms of food and shelter and different things . So if you're out there and you're feeling terrible about yourself , I guarantee you social media is at least part of it and there's way to to .

If you have humility and work ethic and you want help , please reach out to us because dm me , dm kev , we want to see you flourish , and it doesn't have to be overnight . Kev is night and day different than he was eight years ago and I'm night and day different than I was 10 years ago , and personal development changed my whole freaking world .

And now I I finally have become a man that I can be proud of , and it's really fucking awesome , honestly , to to feel on top of things and still be struggling . But to feel good about yourself , I think , is step one . I think that's where you got to start and I think all the other amazing things come as a byproduct of that .

So you got to figure out what what that is , and I'll tell you what . Netflix is awesome and I love it too , but it's never going to make you feel good about yourself .

Right , I could say weed makes me feel good . It's like no , that's not what I'm saying . I'm saying what makes you feel purposeful .

Oh , wow , that's . Oh , this is cool , right , and I think it is the simplest , the simplest thing in the world . Again , simple , not necessarily easy , or easy not necessarily simple . Whatever . The freaking thing is List the five things that feed you , list the five things that bleed you , and you could do that every year for the rest of your life .

And those things are going to change Because as you level up and you grow , you'll most likely have less bleeding behaviors , but you'll have higher standards . So you'll notice , likely have less bleeding behaviors , but you'll have higher standards .

So you'll notice things faster and you'll realize that maybe there's only five things that really , really , really , really , really move the needle for you .

Because it is , it's my responsibility , so that affects me , like today we had something going on with a client and it was like it was just .

rejection , failure , success , wins , and then it builds self-worth .

So I think self-worth , I think , is built through consistent self-esteem builders keeping the promises you make to yourself , setting goals , having clear priorities , doing the right thing , taking the high road yeah , it's taking care of your partner , taking care of yourself , cleaning your car , cleaning your house .

I'm so grateful for where we live and I also often think about how grateful we are to have running water . I think gratitude is a big part of it too . Are you letting you down every day or are you proud of you inside ? I don't give a shit . Who else knows it inside ?

Right there , I mean from the outside people oh , I'm so proud of you , and you can feel like crap on the inside . And then from the outside people can say , oh , you're not doing a great job . But on the inside you feel really good about yourself , and so I think the inner game of self-esteem is where I think you can never really lose sight of that .

That needs to be the main thing . Keep the main thing , the main thing , I think your own personal standards and your own inner self-esteem if you can keep that center point , everything else , I think , will eventually be a byproduct .

It's a full day event , totally virtual . So Alan and I have a nice room in a hotel , a nice conference room . We got in a hotel . We're going to be live streaming from there . You can log on from the comfort of your own home and everybody who buys a ticket gets lifetime access to the replay .

So if you can only stay for an hour and then you've got to bounce , no worries , you'll get access to the replay and then you can finish it . If you're somebody who's into self-improvement and you want to go deeper , or you know it's time . We have had a lot of new people come into our lives and Alan and I are like it's just , it's time for them .

They're ready . They're ready to grow , they're ready to evolve . Something must have happened behind the scenes , Most likely . If you're going through that right now , this is a great opportunity for you to to ride the wave of that momentum . So we'll have the link in the show notes .

And you and I I think sometimes we forget , brother we are grateful and blessed to be surrounded by next level people constantly . We built our whole world around success and holistic and personal development and if you feel like I said this earlier in Next Level Nation , I said welcome to the place because you did the welcome post .

Welcome to the place where being into personal development is actually cool and accepted and you're not going to get made fun of , you know , and so just if you come to Next Level Live . That's the reason Meet these awesome people .

as always , we love you , we appreciate you , grateful for each and every one of you At NLU . We don't have fans , we have family . We will talk to you all tomorrow .