5 Reasons Why we Spend a Lot of Time on Social Media — Here’s the Cure

“Your Smartphone will Ruin your Life”- Every Mother on this Planet

I had my exams tomorrow. Studied for 30 minutes. Took a 10 minutes break. Grabbed my Smartphone. Started browsing on Social Media.

But,

That 10 minutes break stretched to an hour break. WHY?

I felt so engaged in social media that I didn’t wish to go back and study for my exams.

The feeling of Guilt and Grief never escaped my heart, every time I decided to take a break that day.

Are textbooks too boring? ( they don’t have any pictures in them :/ ) or social media is too far engaging? What would have happened if there were no images or videos on social media? Then also will we spend the same time on them?

1. Memes

Why do you read stories from a specific writer on Medium? Why do you Clap after finishing the stories? What provokes you to comment on stories? In the end, it comes down to — “ We also feel the same way ’’.

That’s the sole reason why memes have evolved so quickly and now have become a part of everyone’s life. It resonates with each individual.

I spent at least 90% of my time online scrolling memes on social media. I am helpless. They are so funny and highly relatable. I wish we have a meme section in every chapter in our education curriculum to make it more interesting. I know education is supreme of all. But, interacting with images and videos influences our mind to work sharply.

2. Easy Accessibility

We are living in a modern era. Everything is in our hands. You are just one click away from acquiring every single thing in the world that is on the internet.

The accessibility of smartphones and the availability of apps have made it super easy for even a kid to hide himself in the online world.

You unlock your phone and boom.

FACEBOOK APP is dancing in front of you. Why just not click on it?

3. In Touch with Loved Ones

Gone are those days, when we have to search for a number in the telephone books to call our loved ones. You can now just search them on social media and connect with them.

SUPER EASY!

We keep on chatting the whole day until either our eyes are burn out or our phone’s battery is shut down. The next day, the same process continues. The notification beep is so powerful that it can make you forget all the challenges in this world and make you sit with the phone in your hands.

Again, instead of blaming ourselves, we can blame technology.

Isn’t it?

As we have always done.

4. Numbers Game

You post an adorable photo of yourself, waiting for it to gather likes and comments. Higher the likes and comments, the more it feels good and we feel validated.

It’s a kind of trap, that you need people’s assurance for your body.

The same thing goes for friends/followers on social media. We are actively online on such platforms to constantly increase our friends or followers.

So that we can live up to people’s standards.

In my opinion, we should leave the numbers game to big brands and companies on social media.

5.Expressing Opinions

Try to feed a stray dog once and watch the next time he sees you, he will come wagging his tail in joy and excitement hoping that you will feed him again.

The same goes with the people online. Before the internet majority of people don’t have any medium through which they can speak their very subjective and personal opinions.

Social media provides them the platform.

Now, people can easily comment on big government actions to their friend’s adorable photos.

How to Downsize time on Social Media

The activities you perform in the earliest hours of a day defines the mood for the whole day .

Never start your day by scrolling through the internet, grasping the latest news, or checking your emails. For the whole day, you will be addicted to your smartphone and being on the internet.

Start your day with something you love. I hope scrolling on the internet is not one of them. It could be reading a book, sketching your favorite character from a movie, or recording a video for youtube.

Starting your day on a productive note helps your mind to go with the flow and remain focused throughout the day. That means using less social media.

Taking Frequent Breaks

In this step, all you have to do is to set a timer and abide by it.

Take short and frequent breaks after every 20–25 minutes of scrolling or consuming content.

In the end, it’s all about creating a habit. At first, it will be difficult to stop the urge of marking your presence on social media but over time if you abide by the rules, it will be a way of life. A healthy lifestyle.

Conclusion

Excess of anything is bad. Even if it is consuming informative content or chatting with your friends on social media. Making space for everything in your life is important and especially if it is marking your presence in the real world.

Consider applying these 2 simple tricks in your day to day life until it becomes a habit.

Thank you for reading! Have a nice day.