Social Media Harmful Impacts: Seriously! A very serious issue in the current scenario, it appears as if the life is nothing without this Social Media and people have stopped moving out of their houses. Children, teenagers, adults, and even old people have become addicted to smartphones and spending their time on social media (Social Media Harmful Impacts) in one or the other form.
Using smartphones, being on social media and exploring social networking sites are not bad, rather one should use it. But, using it and getting addicted to it, both are different aspects. If one is using it then it is good, on the contrary, if one is getting addicted to it then it is very harmful to once health, so immediately one should move out of the addiction as early as possible.
Two great psychologists “Mark Griffiths and Daria Kuss” of Nottingham Trent University in the U.K. have studied the impact of technology and social media on the cognitive and social behavior of people of all ages.
They said it is an unhealthy psychological dependence on social media. Excessive use of these platforms may easily become an uncontrollable habit. According to the 2018 Digital Yearbook, around 3.1 billion people were using social media. This number is actually around one-third of the global population whereas, in the year 2017, it was an estimation of 210 million people.
Mark and Daria said to understand self if addicted to social media or just using it, for this analyze self by knowing the answers to these below questions?
- If one is spending a lot of time, thinking about social media or planning to use social media even if not online?
- If one feel urges to use social media more and more over time to time?
- If one uses social media to forget about personal problems?
- If one often tries to reduce the use of social media, without success?
- If one becomes restless or troubled if unable to use social media?
- If one use social media so much that it creates a negative impact on your job, relationship or studies?
If one answered “yes” to one or two of these questions, then it’s likely that one is standing on the urge of addiction to social media usage.
For this one can come out easily by just following the “digital detox,” process. It is a strategy to force self by reducing the amount of time spent on social media.
This can be accomplished through a few basic steps (Social Media Harmful Impacts)
Turn off the sound function of the phone, and only allowed to check the phone every hour or so.
However, if one answered “yes” to almost all of these questions, then one has developed an actual addiction to use social media. This is just like any psychological disorder, and only way to confirm this is through a formal diagnosis from a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.
The addiction side effect of the extensive social media usage by the individuals showed psychological problems like – anxiety, depression, loneliness and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
These behaviors around social media may be annoying rather than dangerous, they are nonetheless indicative of a societal problem. It becomes necessary to take the drastic steps and cannot wait to see till becoming an epidemic.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has already alarmed the negative effects of social media in young kids and teens, including cyber-bullying and “Facebook depression.” But the similar risks could be true for adults, across generations. A few important studies have been highlighted to understand its damaging effects-
Social media use has been linked with an abundance of anxiety. When one receives a message by somebody on social networking sites, one feels uneasiness or becomes stressed. This is just because of the neurological wiring. It is true that these messages have no connectivity with the emotional, social, and visual indication of the person but our mind tends to misunderstand certain posts, tweets, or emails and the fight according to our brain thoughts during that particular moment. We know text messages are without any body language and this stimulates the brain fight response. This usually happens because human brains are not designed to deal with text-based communication. So, something distasteful on social networking sites one takes it personally and this under attack and this is the reason for one to become stressful and suffer anxiety.
With this one thinks that it is better not to be on the social sites to psychological trauma, but still people are not able to quit due to the fact that we are slave of the chemical dopamine released in the brain during a beneficial and pleasant social interaction could be online or offline (Social Media Harmful Impacts). Hence, one may find it difficult to give up social media usage or even reduce it.
Ways to Overcome the Addiction to Social Media Harmful Impacts
Overcome Social Media Addiction 1
Governments and organizations can help by minimizing the usage of mobiles or social media and in some cases even restrict the use of mobile devices. Steps like-
- Banning smartphone use while driving, which has actually been applied in many countries?
- Warning the people to stop its usage as it will have damaging effects on both brain and body health.
- Few restaurants have started providing additional discounts to customers who keep themselves away from their smartphones during a meal.
Overcome Social Media Addiction 2
More positive strengthening strategies would be to decrease the time spent checking social media and to increase the time spent engaging oneself in real life.
- Highlighting the loss of productivity in the workplace and educational settings, employers, schools and colleges need better policies to ensure that people are focused on their required tasks and activities. Many schools had already banned the use of smartphones in the classroom.
- Social media operators like Facebook could provide strategies to limit time spent on their products after identifying the behavioral data of excessive users. This is already in use by the gambling industry and can be applied for social networking sites as well.
- The treatment of social media addiction should not be funded by medical insurance or national health services because the disorder hasn’t been formally recognized.
- Accordingly, those who want to avail the services of specialist treatment centers such as reSTART, a facility outside Seattle that aids young people addicted to the Internet, video games, social media and more should not be covered in the policies
- In today’s world it is simply not feasible to stop someone from accessing all smart devices. The most booming type of treatment for online addictions could be cognitive behavioral therapy.
- There is no magic wand available for these addictions but yes, Individuals are ultimately responsible for their own social media use. But still policymakers, social media operators, employers, researchers, health care providers and educational establishments all need to play their part in reducing excessive use of social media amongst the masses.
Overcome Social Media Addiction 3
Try meeting your friends and relatives in real, the use of social media should only be limited for fixing the appointments and meetings. This can be used for one’s self-assessment also. Every time one end up on a social platform, do the self-analysis by knowing what was your purpose to visit and what I had been doing here? This will make the self-improvement.
Overcome Social Media Addiction 4
Establish the news sources outside ones social feeds. It’s common today for many people to get information from social feeds. Always having one source for our social interactions and news online seems convenient, thus, we can get distracted from our social media attempts to stay informed by the live social interaction. And this would reduce the habit of social browsing.
So, next time when one wants to check the top news stories of the day, head straight to the website of one’s favorite newspaper or online publication.
Overcome Social Media Addiction 5
Going through filtered photos on Instagram knocks down many people’s self-esteem, while enthusiastically checking Twitter account just before bed could be leading to poor quality of sleep.
Therefore, becoming more conscious of the amount of time one spends scrolling through other people’s online profiles could be better to focus on self as it would help one to develop more self-confidence.
Overcome Social Media Addiction 6
As we all are human beings, so, it’s very important for us to be able to communicate and build personal connections with one another rather than on social media.
Overcome Social Media Addiction 7
Social media can be great for looking back lovingly on memories and recounting how past events occurred but can also distort the way in which you remember certain tidbits from your life. So, why to involve and waste time on such things, instead enjoy the present and make life joyful.
Spending too much time on our phones will distract from other aspects of the experience, stealing the happiness we could be obtained from them. (Social Media Harmful Impacts)
Overcome Social Media Addiction 8
Having enough sleep is of supreme importance. If one is addicted to social media then one gets stressful and preventing from falling asleep and also the light from our mobile device falling on our face can suppress the release of melatonin, a hormone that helps us feel tired and sleepy.
Looking to this try setting yourself not to use a phone for at least 40 minutes to an hour before going to bed, and check if that made a difference to the quality of your sleep.
Overcome Social Media Addiction 9
It’s not the matter of the subconscious brain that one needs to worry about, but also the extent to which our brain is able to fully concentrate when we are awake.
But the use of social media extensively has stolen this, as it is constantly giving the excitement of instant, easy-access entertainment. If one is unable to not check the phone for at least a few minutes, then one would do well to practice exercising willpower on occasion and can concentrate to a larger extent.
Overcome Social Media Addiction 10
Social media not only cause unhappiness rather it has been proven to cause mental health issues also such as anxiety or depression when used too much or without caution. So, instead, move in gatherings and enjoy with them as it would remove all kinds of ill thoughts from the mind and will also keep one happy.
“Don’t Quit Social Media But Try Allocating Social Media-Free Time Slots In Your Daily Routine”
“The Slight Change Would Transform Your Life to a Greater Extent”
(Social Media Harmful Impacts)
