Social media is a requirement of people today.
Just like a smartphone, social media is also becoming an indispensable part of people life.
There are 3.48 Billion Social media users in 2019, which is 45 percent of the world population.
GlobalWebIndex reports that the average social media user spends 2 hours and 16 minutes each day on social platforms.
But as like any other technology, social media also has its Bright side and a Dark side.
If you use social media in a right way, then it can empower you but…
If you use it in wrong way, then it can destroy you.
First, let me clear one thing, that social media is not responsible for its negative effects on you, but the user who is using it in a negative manner is.
How Social Media Business Model Works
Social Media Companies need money to run their business but they don’t take single penny from you.
So how they make money?
They take money from advertisers to show their ads on their platform.
Social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, all make 100 percent of their profit from advertisements.
So, to increase their profit, they want their users to spend more and more time in their app so that they can show you more ads and hence, make money.
These Social Media companies want you to become its addict, so are these companies Evil? Hell No!
Business runs on profits and these companies are doing what they have to do, to increase their profits. They are just doing their job.
Problem is people are not using social media in a right way.
People are not using social media with moderation. They are becoming so dependent on them that some people can’t even spend 5 minutes without opening their social media app.
Some people take selfies whether they are in a bathroom or in a dangerous situation so that they can post it on social platforms and get approvals from people.
Why Social Media is Addictive?
People want to know about others life more than their own life.
They want to know, what others are wearing, doing, and saying.
Take any social app, they are popular as people want to know about others.
Rather than knowing oneself, people spend countless hours on social media to know about others.
People judge everyone on social media and give their comments on every topic, even if he/ she don’t know a shit about that topic because…
It satisfies their ego, pride, and they feel that they are highly intellectual.
Social media is addictive as human being has more interest in other people lives rather than his/her own life and…
These social media companies are also doing their best to show the content, that you would like to see.
Open YouTube, and see 1 or 2 videos on any topic and you would see that YouTube will suggest you more videos that match your interests, so you watch them too;
After that YouTube will show you more videos on that topic, you watch more, and this chain only ends when you stop it.
See, I told you that social media companies want you to spend more and more time on their platform, they are doing their job very well but the problem is…
People are not doing their job well. They are not taking any action to not become an addict of Social media.
So, people are responsible for this, not these companies.
How Social Media cause Depression?
Social Media has lots of benefits and its pros completely outweigh its cons.
But people are not taking proper actions to avoid its cons such as Cyber-bullying, Comparison, Judgements, and Jeolousy.
People compare themselves with others a lot on social media and with this comparison comes jeolousy, and Negativity.
Along with that, people will judge you on social media and can criticize you severely, and here if you don’t ignore people judgments and destructive criticism, you will generate feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness.
Some Cyber Bullies are also present on social media whose job is to bully you- especially children- as they are the easy Targets.
If you give focus to these bullies then feelings such as hopelessness, worthlessness, regret, and irritation would be generated inside your mind.
One more thing which contributes is people propensity to look at social media like a real world.
People post photos, and if that photo get likes, they feel happy but if that photo don’t get likes as per their expectation, they feel sad.
Some people especially girls even think that less likes means they are not beautiful.
So, all these habits: comparison, judgments, Like and Comment Expectation, Not ignoring cyber-bullying and destructive criticism, and looking at social media like a real world, generate negative feelings and…
If you remain with these negative feelings and thoughts for more than 2 or 3 weeks, then you can get into depression.
What is the Solution?
First thing you need to do is stop comparing yourself on social media, start ignoring cyber-bullying and destructive criticism, stop judging people on social media, and don’t swap real world with this virtual world of Social Media.
Don’t care about likes and comments on your photo, you are beautiful, you don’t need conformation from people to believe that you are beautiful.
You need to believe in yourself.
People will give you lots of entitlements on social media but you need to ignore them.
Set your social media goals and use it for the completion of those goals only, ignore everything else.
When you are working, put your phone on silent, so that notifications don’t distract you.
Social media is created so that people can connect with each other and can talk with their loved ones, but people are using social media for negative things and that is what causing problems.
Also, schools and colleges don’t teach “How to use Social Media?” So, many childrens never learn about it.
So, set timing on your social media usage and when you feel urges to open Instagram or any other social app, resist that urge and shift your focus on something else.
Psychology Behind Social Media
Human Being is a social animal and he wants people to know him/her.
Human Being wants approval from people before believing or doing anything. He wants to know about other people life from inside to outside.
There is a evolutionary factor to this social requirements of a human being, and that’s why…
Most people never get out of this social media trap as the psychological aspects on which social media is created is coded in your subconscious mind.
In simple language, spending more and more time on social media is inbuilt in your subconscious and even if we try to avoid it, the urges that our subconscious creates to open a social app always triumph over our resistance to not open it.
So, how to change this code in our subconscious mind?
Well, for that you need to understand the working of subconscious mind and for that I have provided Amazon book links below but..
To state it in a simple way, you need to do the activity of resisting social apps for at least 21 days and then, the code in your subconscious mind will start changing.
Resist it for 2 months and this code would totally be changed from urging you to open social app to opening it on your own will.
How I Decreased my Social Media Time?
When I started my Personal brand “Positive Kunal,” I use social media to increase my brand awareness and drive traffic to my blog.
Before using social media for business, I rarely used social media.
So, my goals with social media are Brand Awareness, and Blog Traffic.
Now there are lots of aspects of running a business profile on Social media apps, and I will not go into it but it is a total hard work.
Previously, I had no schedule of social media posting. There are lots of Social media apps and what I used to do is that I post content on these platforms, and then after posting which usually takes Half an hour.
I used to spend the next Half an hour on seeing the likes and comments. Then after some time, I again open my social apps and see further likes, and this chain continues the whole day.
Then I realize that I’m wasting too much time on social media, and I need to do something about it.
So, I created my posting schedule and Today, I Give social media less than 2 hours a day.
I use social media for business purposes and to spread depression awareness, so I’m my company (positivekunal.com) social media manager and that’s why I give it 2 hours per day.
But if you are using it for personal usage, then you can decrease this time to Half and Hour too.
Lesson
Use Social media to connect with your loved ones and positive people and not for comparison, and judging.
Stop Scrolling your Social media app aimlessly and have a control on your mind which would come when you change the code in your subconscious mind by consistent effort.
