The Dangers of Social Media and How it’s Affecting Your Mental Health
As we all know, social media has become an integral part of our lives nowadays almost everyone has their own account on some form of social media whether it be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or any of the others.
The point here is to express that majority of the global population is using social media in some form or another.
Introduction: How Social Media is Used in Our Everyday Lives
Today social media has become a new norm and it is necessary to communicate with people with some app or a website. People think that social media is considered “COOL”.
Most of the population is trapped in the cage of this “hypothetical” world of social media and tries to check their phone or laptop every 10/15 minutes or so.
This has become the new platform to celebrate festivals or have a group conversation with their friends even if are of their actual physical circle.
I don’t have anything against social media chitchat, if it is happening with people you cannot reach in person but sticking your face to the screen instead of actually meeting people to whom you can/should meet that’s where the idea is completely twisted.
A Look at the Research Behind Our Obsession with Social Media
The stats very ironically show that majority of humans are pretty much addicted to social media.
A person checks his phone around 150 times per day, and if this is not the definition of a bizarre addict then I don’t know what else to call this.
Ever hear of the slang.
“YOU HAVE THE ATTENTION OF A GOLDFISH”
This was used to mock a person about his low attention span because the attention span of a goldfish is a mere 9 seconds well congratulation as human beings, we just beat this record many studies show many humans are having lower attention span than goldfish and if this is not addiction then I don’t know what else is.
Now I wonder why our “Caring” friends FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, and TIC TOK are providing short-form video content about 7 seconds long.
These people intentionally make these things the way they are to lure you, the infinite scrolling system is meant to keep you hooked to the screen this scrolling system is a never-ending, one video after another and another and another and another and another.
They put a huge budget to build a research team to find out more about these minor things which will help them to make you stay longer on their site/app and the most important thing is that they use this information to make you spend more time on their site/app so that they can somehow monetize you more.
People are getting so addicted to watching this crap that they don’t even feel the urge to do some focus-oriented work like reading, writing, or meditation.
Is There a Viable Alternative to the Excesses of Social Media?
There are many good really really good alternatives to the excesses of social media that can help you build some value to your being.
The goal is to seek knowledge over pleasure and to get value from everything you do and to do so you must replace this with some good things to do which will actually help you increase your focus and productivity while making you a knowledgeable person.
Instead of watching some meaningless video start reading some knowledgeable and value-adding books.
When you have this free time to scroll on the internet instead try to learn some new skills, anything that you like.
Rather than wasting your time decreasing your attention span start meditating to get a calm and composed head which will lead to better focus.
What Can You Do About Your Troubling Addiction to Social Media?
To get rid of any sort of addiction first, you must actually know that you are addicted to something and if you think that you are not addicted to “SOCIAL MEDIA” then try quitting it and believe me you will find it hard to stay off your phone.
social media is one of the most addictive things today, people today started to compare it to some kind of non-resistible addiction like drugs.
A day is another story, you will find it difficult to survive even a couple of hours without your phone this is when it will hit you that I am actually addicted to social media.
so, you found out that you are addicted to social media, and you want to get rid of it, here are some things that you can do to get rid of this addiction.
Fill The Time with Something valuable
The moment you get the feeling that you have nothing on your plate the first thing that comes to your mind is to grab your phone and check your social media.
This is a distraction is implanted in your brain because you have been practicing distraction for a very long time and now you are an expert at getting distracted.
By filling the time with something more valuable you are not only going to spend your time a lot more productively, but you will also be learning a lot of new stuff which will benefit you by adding value to your life.
The Phone does not belong in your workspace
If you ever want to get some actual work done then by all means throw your phone away from your workspace, it does not belong there.
By not having the phone by your side you will not get distracted by that annoying notification sound, believe me, no life or comment is that urgent to distract you from doing some Quality work.
Turn off all sort of pop-up notifications on your phone, put it on silent mode and keep it somewhere you cannot see it while working by doing this I bet you that you will start to have better work sessions.
Start Meditating Regularly
Meditating will make you more mindful of what you are doing and will make you more productive use of the day rather than scrolling on some shit apps.
Meditation itself has a lot of benefits that will change your life drastically.
Conclusion and Takeaways
People generally have the approach that you should delete all these apps from your devices but if you want to bring identity-based/long-lasting changes in you then you should start practicing focused work in your life.
When getting focused on more important things in your life then you won’t even pay attention to these small things, you will find these “Social Media” apps automatically leave you deleting or not deleting them would have no impact on you whatsoever.
“The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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