How Do I Cure My Social Media Addiction?
An average adult spends two hours of their day on social media. Computed over a lifetime, you will spend 5 years and 4 months. Astonishing is the only way to describe this statistic. This has led to a dependency syndrome to our phones (the most used method of accessing social media). A syndrome known as Nomophobia is used to describe the fear of not having access to your phone.
A feeling of anxiety will engulf you, once you don’t have access to the phone. This condition should be treated how drug addiction is treated at detox of south Florida. Acceptance is first required before the process begins. Here are a few more tips to cure your social media addiction:
Acceptance
Like any other condition, acceptance is the first step towards getting healed. Stalking your ex and relatives on social among other signs is a symptom of your addiction. Once you admit you have a problem, help will be easily acceptable.
Substitute
Psychiatrists the world over agree, social media is used as a substitute for getting things done. An example would be where you choose not to go hang out with friends and instead stay in the house looking at other people’s status updates. A worse scenario could be where you go out but instead of spending time talking to your pals, you spend the whole time on your phone.
In case you feel the urge to look at status updates of your friend, take that time to read a book instead. Better yet, you could go out and experience the outdoors. This will rewire your brain to forget to need to look at your friends status updates.
Disable notifications
Despite technology being a good tool, it has also been a curse in disguise. Once your friends or family have updated their status or posted a picture, you are notified on your phone. This acts as a magnet, drawing you in to see what they are currently up to.
To avoid this distraction, disable notifications on your phone. This will allow you to perform your duties at optimum conditions.
Trends
A feature common to all social media networks is trends. These are ongoing activities in your area. A trend could last a whole day or weeks and constantly following updates on the trends will waste valuable time. It also grows your addiction to the phone.
The best way to handle this issue is to avoid following trends. This way you will not feel the need to keep on looking at your phone every few minutes. On top of that, your phone dependency will slowly decline as time passes by.
Reasoning
Like most social media users, I have had my fair share of ‘oops’ moments. These are moments where I shared information that I regretted almost immediately. Before sharing anything on social media networks, try to reason first. Ask yourself whether you will be proud of the post after a few weeks.
Once you ask yourself such questions, you will realize your dependency on social media is unnecessary.
