New ‘monk mode’ trend is keeping people off social media

If you've spent any time at all on TikTok then you've likely seen a few examples of the swirling vortex of trends people keep making videos about.

It's pretty simple, someone makes a video about something which goes insanely viral and before long everyone's doing it.

One of the recent trends doing the rounds is the realisation of just how much men think about the Roman Empire on a day to day basis.

Sometimes trends lead to other trends, like the trend of women wondering what their equivalent of thinking about the Roman Empire is.

Among the myriad trends on TikTok is something called 'monk mode', which has racked up tens of millions of views on the site and is causing people to abandon social media.

So, what's this habit all about?

Put simply, it involves you cutting out all distractions from your life so you can dedicate yourself to a particular task, with the idea being that you massively boost your productivity.

TikTok/@realimangadzhi

That means getting rid of pretty much anything that could cause you to procrastinate and one of the main targets that the 'monk mode' trend takes aim at is being on social media.

Think about how much of your day is taken up by scrolling around on social media and the number of times you've been looking through post after post of things you're not really that interested in only to realise a whole hour has gone by.

If you've ever put the phone down and wondered how much more you got have got done in a day if you'd stayed off social media then the advocates of 'monk mode' are probably looking for you.

Don't worry, nobody's going to expect you to start wearing a robe or giving yourself a bald spot, this trend about ridding yourself of distractions.

There are other lifestyle changes 'monk mode' fans say they do, including changing their diets, cutting out sex and cutting down on the number of times they go out.

Of course, with this being TikTok a quick search of #monkmode on the site will bring up videos with almost 70 million views between them and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of content creators who are all trying to get you to follow their advice.

TikTok/@iamcalebtay

Quite a lot of them are trying to sell 'monk mode' as part of the grind to make big amounts of money by really focusing on one task and ignoring everything else.

However, as one commenter on one of the many 'monk mode' videos doing the rounds on TikTok pointed out 'mindless social media consumption helped me to see this video'.

Other content creators on TikTok have also argued against the merits of 'monk mode', saying that the lengthy periods of isolation that the trend demands took a toll on them.

Some people taking up the trend have tried it for months at a time and while some people have said it's changed their lives others aren't so convinced it's the right way.