Social Media Is More Addictive Than Tobacco! Here’s How To De-Addict Yourself

Almost 3 in every 4 Americans use social media today and the use of this technology has changed the way we live our lives forever. We can now be in touch with all our friends from school to work all at one place, we can find events, support causes, spread social awareness, donate blood to help save a person’s life, socialize for business, find a job, sell old furniture and what not; all at the click of a finger.

But this very set of beautiful and amazing social media tools have their down sides too.

Social media has a dark side

We all have at some time or the other felt.. omg I hate facebook,instagram!( and other social media apps or platforms).Turns out, you aren’t wrong in feeling so.

Research says that it has negatively effected our moods, causing immense wastage of time, elevate anxiety and even negatively effect of sleep cycle. Many people who have recognized these symptoms of social media have altogether quit it and some take a voluntary detox time to time to stay healthy. But we all know it is just a tool and we need to wise in how we use it. I mean a knife can be used to harm someone or make food and feed some one. Here knife is just a tool. Here’s how you can get maximum benefit from social media.

Use social media purposefully

Write down what social media does for you.Social media today is like an endless collection of information containing news,entertainment,what your friends are doing and everything else. Writing what it does for you can help you analyze and filter things you don’t like.

Instead of using social media without much thinking try to take steps towards making social media serve you in what you want from it. For example; meet few people who believe in the same cause as you and start something together or socialise to get a new client for your business etc.

Social media can add a lot of value to your life if you can use it in a correct way.

Limit your usage

On an average people are spending around 5 hours on social media per day and this has lead to many people’s decline in mental health. So how much time should you spend on social media without getting negatively effected. Here’s the answer.

Research that limiting your social media use to under 30 minutes per day will lead to you having all the benefits of it without the side effects of feeling anxiety,depressed or getting sleepless at night.

Replace social media with something healthier

We have all had habits we wanted to leave and the best way is to replace it with a good habit. You can replace social media with reading a book,going out for a jog or even socialize with your old friends.

Be patient with yourself

Change doesn’t happen by force. You have to ease into it. Be gentle to yourself nobody is perfect and you deserve your own compassion. When you are changing your social media consumption try to be flexible and slowly bring in the change.

In the end all addiction is caused due to lack of human bonding and to resolve addiction of any kind, we must go back to bonding, with real people, everyday. 

Also read the science behind video game addiction

Featured image courtesy: The Digital Renewal

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