How to stop Social Media addiction? Social Media is a wonderful invention, it’s genius to be able to speak through a device and platform with anyone in the world. It saves time and money as well. What about Facebook’s like button? It’s a genius invention! Now we can effortlessly give someone attention by clicking on a thumb, which basically means: “I have at least acknowledged you and your content”.
It looks all positive and wonderful. But, why are you really posting those pictures and movies on your social media channels? Or memes and news updates? Why are you doing it really? Why are you checking your social media accounts so much to see if the next person has liked your photo? Do you really need that validation? Is your self-esteem based on the amount of likes you get? Since when has it become such a time consuming event?
We need self-awareness to ask ourselves the above questions. Before you know it, a habit has been formed as is the case with using social media. It’s a dangerous habit as it is a powerfully addictive one. You probably know, and probably asked yourself a few times in secrecy how to stop social media addiction. Or at least, how to reduce this compulsive behaviour.
Social media gives a false sense of accomplishment. Liking, posting and sharing activities produce a dopamine rush, a feeling that is similar as engaging with someone for real or hugging someone. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. It is used when the brain sends signals to the muscles in the body to make them move. It can make a person feel good. Because of that feeling you get, you want to get more and more hits of dopamine. But you just end up fixating yourself on the screen.
Social Media also lowers your self-esteem. The top 3 diagnoses on University campuses (US, Canada, UK) of social media addiction are anxiety, depression and stress. You get a false overview of what the world really looks like on social media. It is a world where everyone’s life seems to be perfect except yours. Here none of the people experience problems, failures, sadness, insecurities and loneliness. Everyone’s life is so much better and you feel left behind. The problem here is that this world is entirely fake. Very rarely you will find someone revealing their hardships on social media. You want others to like us, who doesn’t right? That’s why people post anything that makes themselves admirable and respectable.
Social Media also hurts your social kills. Communicating via social media is very simple in comparison to real life interactions. You can play with Caps Lock, emoji’s and any special characters. When interacting with a person in real life, you are dealing with social signals, tonality, body language and much more. It takes practice to be good at this. When you constantly communicate on Social Media platforms, your social skills are declining.
Finally, Social Media is one of the worst investments you can make in life. It is like investing money in a stock that is always dropping to 0. Time is the most valuable currency you own because it decreases over time. Time is something no one should ever take for granted. One point in life you will ask yourself: Where did all my time go? Like in the stock example, you will ask: where did my money go? Well, you invested in a useless stock.
Social media isn’t inherently bad. There are advantages of course. There exists the events option, groups, messenger and more interesting options that are useful. But when you scroll mindlessly through the news feed please ask yourself: is this benefiting me in any way? And if not, why keep doing it?
Asking yourself “how do I stop Social Media addiction” doesn’t mean social media is inherently bad. There are advantages of course. There exists the events option, groups, messenger and more interesting options that are useful. But when you scroll mindlessly through the news feed please ask yourself: is this benefiting me in any way? And if not, why keep doing it?