Social Media has the power to drastically affect our lives, both positively and negatively. Although it may keep us up to date on news and the lives of our friends and family, it can also do a lot of damage. It may be hard to monitor your screen time and limit the hours that you spend on social media. However, by spending a large portion of your day online, you can quickly fall behind in school or work, and be negatively impacted by the things that pop up on your feed.
The first step in regulating social media use is to delete the apps from your phone. Although this may seem difficult and unlikely to last, it’s one of the most effective ways to limit your screen time.
Every social media platform has a team of developers whose job is to make the app as addictive and easy to use as possible. It often requires very little effort to scroll from one video to the next, sometimes automatically queuing the next video without any effort from the user.
One Business Insider article written by Hannah Schwär and Ruqayyah Moynihan sums up the process by discussing this issue with former employees at Google and Apple. “The logic is simple: the more time you spend on the app, the more profit it generates”, they stated. By having your notifications on and simply seeing the logo on your home screen, you are already at a disadvantage because the apps are designed to be as compelling as possible.
In order to better understand the impact of social media on us, it’s beneficial to ask yourself questions while scrolling. It may sound strange, but it can be highly effective in persuading you to put your unhealthy use of apps to rest.
It is important to ask yourself questions such as “is this important to me?” or “does this add value to my life?”. Mnetally questioning the purpose of social media in your life allows you to truly understand how it affects you. It may feel odd at first ,but it allows you to break the cycle of endless videos which can lead to misuse of time and procrastination.
In addition, being more self-aware about my emotions have played a huge role when it comes to monitoring my time spent on social media. We often use social media to escape our worries and doubts by masking our problems with what other people are doing in their lives.
Many individuals admit to having a fear of missing out because social media is filled with highlights of people’s lives. This constant cycle builds up over time as the problems that we are not addressing continue to overflow into other areas of our lives which can often lead to mental health breakdowns.
A way to avoid this is by paying attention to how we are feeling before going on social media and making sure that we are not avoiding a major issue in our lives. One way I have helped myself with this was realizing when I am in certain moods, I am more likely to use social media to ignore my feelings.
Some of the most common moods are boredom, stress, and fatigue. Although everyone is different, it’s important that you have systems in place to realize your current mood and what to do when you are in that state of mind.
Social Media can also add positivity in our lives when we are able to easily connect with friends and family, express ourselves, and stay up to date on current events. However, it is crucial to realize when social media is negatively affecting our lives. As we quickly transition to remote education and work, social media has the potential to do more harm than good. Now more than ever, we should monitor our social media usage very closely.
