Every time you lay your hands on your smartphone, you find it hard to get your eyes off. Social media networking websites are one of the prime factors because of which the world beyond your smartphones becomes blurry.
If you think you are the only one obsessed with social media, you’re a part of over 2.7 billion users across the globe who are obsessed with social media. That’s how powerful the reach of social media has become. Despite being a medium through which you can communicate with the world, things are going in the opposite direction, isn’t it? It’s taking us away from the world. It is important that we identify the ill effects of social media so that we can rectify them and use social media more to our advantage.
What Can You Do Stay Away from The Ill effects of Social Media?
1. Stop Worrying About Missing Out on Things
If you think that if you are not online, you will miss out on something spectacular, it’s time that you stop worrying, because, mostly you’ll not miss out anything. Your friends will keep on posting stuff, notifications will keep on flashing and hundreds and thousands of things will happen. So, what? Even if you miss hundreds or even thousands of those things, there are still thousands of things you can do – not in that virtual world but in real life.
2. Keep A Track of Your Social Media Consumption
Download Social Fever (Used By Thousands Of Users Worldwide)
It might be impossible for you to keep track of time every time you open social media. Well, not really! With Social Fever, you can keep a count of every minute or even second spent on social media and other applications. You can also set quality time for spending time with family, friends, and other activities that will inspire you to take time off from the screen. If binging on social media is one of the ill effects of social media, Social Fever can undoubtedly be an effective aid to pull your life back in control. It even provides straightforward and comprehensive daily reports that can help you understand your overall device/app usage, alongside the total number of times you’ve unlocked your phone, total screen time, and so on.
Also Read: Social Media: A Paradise for Cyber Criminals
3. Focus Only on The Task You Are Doing
Aren’t you constantly interrupted by notifications and updates from social media? Do they pop up on your screen every now and then? One of the ill effects of social media is that social media constantly shifts your focus from whatever job you are doing. It could even be something that requires your unwavering attention. It’s best to switch the social media notifications off especially when you are working. As a result, you will see a dramatic effect on your efficiency levels thereby becoming more productive.
4. Be More Real
One of the ill effects of social networking sites is that you start to make unrealistic expectations from yourself and the people around you. They could even be your loved ones too. When we see our friends posting about the most luxurious vacations they are enjoying we are tempted to make unrealistic expectations ourselves. Even the communication that you have on social media may be bundled with twisted facts. That’s where you should always set realistic boundaries. This means you should believe what you see in real life. For instance, if it’s something that you wish to tell your friend – it’s better to have a one on one conversation. This way you’ll come in direct contact with your friends and have no lies to cause any misunderstandings.
5. Using Social Media Responsibly
Social media is a great platform to express your views. But, there are some people who dish out rude, intimidating and mean comments thinking that’s it’s okay to voice such views. What these people don’t think is that these rude comments may have adverse effects on one’s health. Make sure you are not on that “rude” side of the fence. Whether it is responding to comments or making comments or creating any posts, make it a point to think thrice.
6. Setting Up Your Priorities Straight – Even on Your Smartphone
It’s so simple to have access to a particular social media platform when its right there on your home screen. But, what if you stuff all your social media apps in one folder. This way you’ll have to put some effort before you open your desired app. Couple it with switching social media notification off and you’ll now be able to focus on important tasks without any hassles.
It’s not that you should completely shut off social media from your life but as the last point of the article says, set your priorities straight. It’s our onus to remove the ill effects of social media and see it in a good light.
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Akshita
Setting up priorities is important. Social media is a distraction and needs to be taken care of.