Why We Should Not Waste Our Time On Social Media?

Everybody is busy in their life, but social media platforms become most popular nowadays. So, if you are free, you need to use these platforms for some knowledge.

A lot of craze among people for using social media has now developed into social media addiction. People are continuously present on social media platforms and do not realize its harmful effects on their minds and bodies. People are in a regular effort to impress a community to gain more popularity and followers.

In the initial stages, social media was to help individuals to build connections with friends and family, but later it converted into entertainment and gained popularity. Individuals use social media platforms, not thinking that they are spending hours on them.

Let us find out how you can know if you are a social media addict.

What Is A Social Media Platform?

Social media platforms are those where people can create their accounts to build friendships, share content and get public attention by participating in social media networks.

What Is Social Media Addiction?

Social media platforms have craze in almost all age groups, from a young age to a middle age group. Users use social media platforms to connect with friends and develop new friendships, watch videos, gather information, and kill time.

The regular use of social media can easily be converted into addiction.

Social media use can negatively affect your brain, like other behavioral addictions. You might engage in compulsive and excessive social media use. Scrolling through articles, photographs, and videos can become a habit that interferes with other aspects of your life.

How Does Social Media Affect The Brain?

This can be seen in how people use social media: when they receive a notification, such as a like or a mention, their brain releases a burst of dopamine and sends it along reward pathways, making them feel happy. For comparatively little work, social media offers an unending supply of instant rewards in the shape of other people’s attention. Through this positive reinforcement, the brain rewires itself, making people crave likes, retweets, and emoticon reactions.

When someone uses social networking sites as a significant coping strategy to deal with stress, loneliness, or despair, social media use becomes problematic. These users receive ongoing benefits from social media use that they do not receive in real life, leading them to partake in the activity more frequently.

The constant use eventually causes numerous interpersonal issues, including the neglect of real-life relationships, obligations from work or school, and physical health, all of which can compound someone’s bad moods. As a result, people increase their social networking activity as a means of coping with dysphoric mood states. The degree of psychological dependence on social media rises when users of social networks continue this cycle of using social media to lift unfavorable moods.

How do you know that you are addicted to social media?

To check if you or any of your loved ones are addicted to social media, you can examine the following things:

• Spending a lot of time contemplating social media or making plans to use it?
• Using social media so excessively that it has harmed your career or studies?
• Do you have increasing urges to utilize social media?
• If denied access to social media, do you feel restless or troubled?
• Commonly make unsuccessful attempts to cut back on social media use?
• Utilize social media to block out personal issues.
• Increased use when engaging in other activities, like socializing with family and friends or dining.
• You constantly consider social media when you aren’t using it, to the point where you use it right away anytime you have the chance.
• Have FOMO(Fear Of Missing Out) of any post or content if you are offline.

How To Reduce Social Media Addiction?

It could be difficult for you to reduce social media addiction at the early stages, but you would be successful if you continued the measures.

Below are the measures that you can take to get rid of social media addictions:

• Keep your computer, tablet, and phone away from your bedroom.
• Taking part in other physical activities such as sports, cooking, art, or other activities helps you forget about social media.
• Your smartphone’s social media apps should be deleted. Even if you can still access them on your computer, keeping them off your phone may help you spend less time on social media in general.
• When it’s feasible, make an effort to visit your friends and family in person rather than using social media to approach them.

• During work, school, meals, and leisure activities turn off your phone. Additionally, you can change the settings on each social networking app to disable particular notifications.

Conclusion: 

We have explained to you how you can identify whether you are addicted to social media or not. Social media can drastically affect your mind, health, and body, so you must take all possible preventive measures that are mentioned above to free yourself from social media addiction.