A. Don’t cut off social media for bar prep. Here’s why.
1. You’ll experience withdrawals -
Your brain has been hacked to be addicted to social media.
The platforms hire psychologists and human behavior analysts to tweak the platforms and get you hooked. You then spend more time on their platform, so they can show you more ads, which is how they make their money.
You also get a few core human needs met by being on social (thanks to those tweaks). When you comment on others’ posts and they comment or heart yours, you’ve made a connection, a superficial one, but a connection no less.
When you get into conversation in the comments you’re making deeper connections.
If people thank you for sharing your words of wisdom you’ve just met your need for significance and maybe even contribution.
The psychologists work behind-the-scenes of social media made it indispensable for your emotional health.
You can replace social media if you build in regular consistent habits to meet those needs without it. But building new habits on top of the newness of bar prep may overload your system, hurting your chances of passing the bar.
2. You’ll burden your system with changes - removing a habit is just as difficult as building a new one.
Social media is a consistent part of everyday life. Usually because getting needs met via social media creates a hit of dopamine (feel good chemicals) in your body. Your body needs it or you’ll grow depressed. So, even if you succeed at the hard work of stopping social media, you’ll need to do even more work to replace that source of dopamine and human connection.
You’ve just multiplied the amount of new habits you need to adopt in this short space of bar study time.
It takes 21 days just to build on one new habit. By cutting out social media you now need to build three.
3. You’ll suffer from disconnection
By now social media has crowded out traditional means of connection—especially in this post pandemic isolation age. So, if you cut off social media, especially while bar studying, it’s not likely you’ll fill that need with healthy alternatives like phone calls and meet-ups or even meditation.
Most bar takers would fill the void by studying more—thinking it’s a good thing. However, this means that after three to six weeks, you will be emotionally starving for human connection. What’s worse, unless you study psychology or read this article you won’t understand what’s behind your general irritability and loneliness.
Use social media to enhance your bar prep
1.Meet your needs for:
Connection
Significance
Contribution
through study groups in courses, on Facebook, in zoom meetings, and in person
2. Join bar exam groups. Do your regular scrolling but also visit bar exam-related Facebook groups and chats where you can comment, support, and commiserate—filling your connection needs.
3. Leave comments. You can do the fill your connection needs and enhance your bar study by connecting with other bar takers in the comments of videos and posts across all social media sites. Head over to Youtube and try that now (well, after you finish this article).
(By the way, if you’re game, watch my video on how to get great study sessions in a short space of time—and comment there to help build the community).
4. Delete your apps. To reduce social media being a distraction during study sessions, put your phone out of reach while studying. Or delete the apps and reinstall them when you’re done studying for the day.
Pro mindset tip: Notice each time you want to reach for your phone. What just prompted you to seek a distraction? Did you just feel discouraged by a difficult question? Was there a train of discouraging thoughts beating you up? Something made you want a quick dopamine hit. Find out what that was and you’ll be winning.
Don’t make your whole life about the bar exam, whether on social media or in real life.
When you put other things on hold, the bar exam becomes your sole focal point and therefore larger than life. It becomes a “make it or break it”, be-all, end-all.
It HAS to meet all your needs because nothing else has been allowed to for the last 3 months!
Balance out your bar prep picture. This is why some people actually do better in bar study when they get a job or get married.
Summary: Social media use can be adjusted to enhance your emotional well-being and lead a balanced life you prepare for the bar exam. Cutting social media can negatively impact your emotional resilience, making it harder to pass the bar.
No one wants to feel alone while working towards their goal, so use these tips to end bar exam isolation.
Are you an introvert or do you prefer studying solo? See this video for tips on how to reduce isolation during bar prep. Liking and commenting on the videos helps me a lot. I thank you in advance for choosing to do so.