Did you know using too much social media can change the structure of your brain? When was the last time you stepped into the loo without your phone? Are social media platforms your first source of news these days? How many times do you instinctively reach out to your phone and open a social media app to scroll through without having a specific agenda? Is your break even a break anymore if you’re constantly still on your phone?
Is social media the first thing you check as soon as you wake up in the morning? How many times do you check your phone to see if you’ve got any notifications without your phone pinging you for notifications? And now you want another app or plugin to break the cycle – ha!
If you think you’re not addicted to your phone at all, let’s see what your average screen time has been for the past 30 days. 🙂
Most people across the globe spend about an average of 6 hours and 40 minutes of their waking time on screens. But even if you’re spending less time than most people, I’m sure it is nowhere near the healthy average (discussed below)!
Table of Contents
Let’s talk about why social media is horrible and why it could be the most useful thing in the world for you!
Social Media is the Devil:
As harmless as it seems, please read on!
It changes the structure of your brain
Well, for starters, if you don’t know how to make the most of if and when to stop (let’s call this problematic mobile phone usage), it can result in structural changes in the brain. So these people tested around 48 subjects, all aged between 18 and 30 years and found that problematic mobile phone usage can hamper cognitive performance.
This means it makes you slower in reacting to the signals received from the environment. You will take longer than everyone else to start running in a race when someone blows the start whistle.
You may also have trouble with memory, processing new information and paying attention to tasks at hand.
It doesn’t let you sleep
This is probably not new to a lot of you. But your body releases melatonin when it’s night-time and signals you to go to sleep. If you’re mindlessly scrolling on Instagram or YouTube, it’s going to take you longer to be able to fall asleep. You sleep late, you wake up tired, your productivity suffers and if you’re anything like me, you’re also likely to be irritable.
It fosters other addictions
You and I know how the algorithm works. They study our behaviour, search history, how much time we’re spending on websites, and what topics interest us the most so much that I swear to God sometimes I feel that Meta and Google are both listening to me. They are rich because you and I spend so much time on these apps. Now because they need us to be constantly on those apps, they will notice what you like to see and watch the most and keep you hooked!
If only you searched for some fashion advice or searched for a product, you’re only going to be seeing those ads everywhere! And like me, if you have trouble with shopping too much, this is a huge problem!
If you searched for shows on Netflix and are struggling to cut down on Netflix usage, good luck to you! You’ll get so many ads and posts with recommendations of Netflix shows that you’ll be stuck trying.
It traps you in the FOMO game
Are people always going to fancy restaurants, going on luxury vacations, attending or having lavish weddings? Where does it end? Everyone else seems to be living their best lives at all times. The Fear of Missing Out is real! And it’s real for everybody.
It doesn’t matter how old you are or what your gender is. All of us are affected by it just the same. While all of the superficial aspects of their life are on display for the world to see, none of us is privy to the reality of having a normal life full of ups and downs.
So much so that you barely even know what part of their life is real and what part is a show put on for them. The FOMO and the constant disappointment sets the perfect ground for low self-esteem and feelings of anxiety and inadequacy.
This is not all just talk for the sake of writing the downsides. This is the reality of life for a tonne of people. Back in 2012, a study showed that heavy users of Facebook were more likely to believe that others were happier and in general, more successful than them. Not only did they feel discontented and inadequate, this led them to make major life decisions based on such feelings.
It alters the reward system of your brain
Wonder what your body will do with so much dopamine that it gets from watching short and sweet reels, having instant access to people, and being able to shop in an instant. Of course, it’s going to mess with how the reward system of your brain works.
This is just how your brain reacts when you’re gambling or taking drugs – hence, the instant gratification and the addiction to it. Who can imagine watching a movie that is three hours long!!!
We just don’t have the patience for it anymore.
It won’t let you do anything else
Have you noticed that if you open the YouTube App on your phone, it directly starts playing the shorts? Also, if you searched for something specific and want to see reels about it, YouTube will show you about five reels relevant to your search and then switch to reels that would just keep you watching!
In the process, we keep scrolling while the to-do list gets longer, the sleep gets compromised and the work just never gets done.
This is not enough. Using social media also affects the eyes, body posture, and activity levels – making you unhealthy and tired in general. And if this also not enough,
Why I think Social Media is (or should I say could be) more of a boon than a bane
Social media has honestly been great. We could never have imagined discussions at such a large scale before we started using social media.
The world connects over the real issues
Did you know that the phrase “me-too” was coined back in 2006? But when it was posted by just a few people on social media in 2017, it took only 24 hours for 12 million posts on Facebook and over 1 million tweets on ‘X’ to be posted by people all over the world. It’s quick and the whole world can stay instantly connected.
Helps you get your work done
A few years ago, if you had an issue with any kind of service provider, you would have to be on a call with a customer for hours on end and beg them to resolve your issues for you, follow up again and again and still be unsure whether they’ll do something about it. Today, you can tag the company on ‘X’ or ‘LinkedIn’ and let them lose their heads to reach out to you at a time that works for you and provides the best solution available to you.
Better mental health and a better life
And the most important of them all, you don’t need to be physically present anymore to make personal connections. A study has even shown that regulated amounts and conscious usage of social media have a lot of positive effects too. Yes, you read that right!
This recent study shows that depending on how much and how you use it, it can assist with better social well-being because it helps you to stay connected even when it’s difficult. While there is more research to be done on this, I can see why they got that result. It’s nice to go on Instagram and read the positive affirmations that some of my friends share with me, laugh at the cringe-worthy memes, or connect over our bad shopping habits.
So it would be very wrong to say that it’s all bad news. But how do we make sure that we only get the good things from this ‘boon’ and get rid of all the ‘bane’?
The key is to learn how to use it to get all of these benefits – regulating how you use it and how much.
Regulating how you use Social Media and how much:
Let’s start by thinking about what would you do if you didn’t have your phone on you for 30 minutes a day. Just 30 minutes a day and when you’re in the loo.
Simple rules for how to use social media
Content consumption audit
Let’s keep this simple and go straight to the root of this. What kind of content are you watching and how are you generally feeling when you watch that content? What is that constantly distracting you from your work?
If the content is positive and you’re using social media to connect with people, it should not leave you drained out mentally. It should leave you with a positive outlook, motivate you to do better and allow you to connect with others – without making you feel lonely.
Any form of content that doesn’t make you feel this way, you need to cut it out. The rule is straightforward – if it doesn’t make you feel happy and content, it’s just not worth having in your life.
Look at it this way – If you eat junk for too long, your body will give up. In the same way, if you feed shit content to your brain, it will in turn, churn shit thoughts for you.
Watching reels about some celebrities’ personal lives will get you nowhere. On the other hand, watching reels about how to make a budget from a reliable and qualified content creator will shift the focus in your life to better things in life.
Change your perspective
You can see someone on a holiday with their friends and feel happy for them, send some good wishes and partake in their happiness by vicariously being on vacation or you can feel horrible about you sitting in the office while they’re on vacation.
You could see a post about someone who is extremely successful at a very young age and has managed to buy a bigger house and a better car. You can either go on to compare her with yourself to feel jealous and horrible about yourself or you can start learning about what got them where they are today.
I recently read this on a LinkedIn post by a very successful content creator who learned how to monitor the usage of her social media by learning how successful people got where they are. It makes total sense!
Consume content that fosters gratitude and connection
Watch out for the posts on social media that remind you that you’re a part of a larger community.
You can connect with communities that strike a chord with you and help you grow personally and professionally, school and college friends, and people who enjoy reading similar books as you do.
Put yourself out there – reach out to people, get to know them and learn from their life experiences. There is so much to do out there.
How much social media usage is healthy to use?
This is subjective and not set in stone. There can’t be a one-size-fits-all for this and this is not the law. However, the experts say that anything more than a total of two hours of social media usage per day is too much for you and me.
Which is kind of fair, isn’t it? What will you do on social media for longer than two hours? This time is enough for you to absorb all of the good aspects of social media we talked about. So anything more than that – let’s try to cut it out!
Apps and Plugins to Break the Addiction
You need apps that do all of the following things:
Limit screen time
First and foremost, download an app to limit your screen time. Even if you ignore the timer and continue to scroll, at least you’re reminded that you’ve been using certain apps for longer than you should be. It’ll allow you to refocus your energies elsewhere. Iphones have a built-in setting for fixing screen time so you can always try that.
Personally, this is one of the ways I use to limit my screen time. There are days when I just hit ignore crossed daily limit for the day but over time, I find myself trying to access the apps less and less.
Make it harder to use social media apps
This might take you a while to do if you’re addicted but no harm in trying. Because social media is super easy to access at all times – it only takes a second, it makes your brain addicted to the instant results it gets for you.
So make it harder for yourself to open social media apps. I’ve deleted some of the apps that I hate but can’t stay away from. So, I started using them by accessing the websites through a browser. It’s less fun and sort of inconvenient, so I don’t end up staying on social media websites a lot.
Another suggestion is to use an app like the ‘one-sec’ app. It delays the app opening time for you
You could also add a lock on the browser so it adds another step to the process of checking your phone.
Think about why you’re using the app
You can also try the ‘screenZen’ app for this. It makes you wait 15 seconds to access the app. These 15 seconds are going to be extremely crucial and give you time to rethink using the app. Between these seconds, the app asks you if what you’re doing is important and then unlocks the app after a few seconds – Works like a charm!
Leave your phone elsewhere
Out of sight = out of mind! Simple rule. Start with one hour at a time. Soon, believe me, you’ll have forgotten that you don’t have your phone on you at all!
At the very least, switch off the notifications and check the apps only when you reach out to them.
Find something else to do
Why do you think you keep reaching out for your phone all the time? Most of the time it’s simply out of habit because it’s so easy to do. If you’ve reached here and read the whole article, you know what overusing the phone does to people. So learn to fill your time with other things that you actually like doing, which might be useful for you in the long run.
The bottom line is – to use social media consciously to your advantage rather than waiting for it to happen to you! You’ll be good.
