5 Tips If You Are Addicted To Social Media (Or Your Parents Think So!)

In a world that runs on mobile phones and social media, it gets very easy to lose yourself in there. Here are five tips to get over excessive social media usage.

If you are a big fan of social media platforms, this post is for you. Today I am going to share the effects of social media on our daily life. How social media have entered our lives as a routine and more than that we started treating this as a ritual.

Effects of social media

The real challenge today is that we don’t want to interact with people directly. Neither are we forming the human connections as our older generations did. We are afraid of direct rejections.

The virtual world is our new friend

Let alone friends, we don’t even bother talking to families who live right next to us. We are much more comfortable making virtual connections with the 2000 or 4000 odd ‘friends’ we have on the social media platforms.

Another drastic change that took over our lives silently were the multimedia phones. With phones having everything we want on them, we want to stick to our phones, constantly without worrying about what’s happening around us.

Here is a question I want to ask all of you, “How many of us can dump our phones and not check any updates?” If I had to guess, it’d be a very few. How long do you think we’d last? I don’t think it will even be a few hours.

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Whether you agree with me or you don’t, we have created a self-infused chaos in our lives simply by overusing this technology.

What’s the reason behind it?

I think, now we are literally addicted to the virtual world connections more than real connections. We prefer staying in the virtual world because it may give us the happiness, recognition and validation we lack in the real world.

This is the harsh reality but we are losing genuine connections.

I am not saying this is right or wrong. Neither am I trying to be judgemental. I am not someone who is anti-social media. Personally, I do use social media, especially as my work place and I respect it a lot. But what I am trying to say is that the balance between the real and the virtual world is very important.

I am in favour of technology and social media engagements but I also feel we should be aware of our boundaries when it comes to social media.

Excessive use or addiction to anything is always a dangerous phenomenon. As we know that every point has two aspects. It is up to us which side we choose.

Things we can do

Don’t depend on it

Don’t let your happiness depend on like, share or followers count. Focus on working with honesty and consistency, you will achieve your goal sooner or later.

Don’t compare!

Don’t compare your life, your profile and your current status to others because comparison ends in the form of worst depression and anxiety and ruin all the positivity.

Stay positive and patient

No matter what happens on social media, stay positive and be patient. Bear in mind, after every dark night, there is a sunny day. But after every sunny day, there’s a dark night too! Nothing is permanent.

Don’t live only in the virtual reality

As pleasant as it is, don’t live in the world of fantasy. Try to understand the basics and the dynamics. This might help you realise that reality is far different than virtual thinking.

It reminds me of a quote I read a while ago, ‘Things are harder now because talks became texting and feeling became status updates.’

Be yourself and real

Now this may sound like very common advice. But be yourself. Don’t lose your individuality and your identity for others’ sake.

Technology is there to help you, not to overwhelm you.

A version of this was first published here.

Picture credits: Pexels

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