Are you stuck with your phone 24/7? Are you unable to live without your phone for 5 minutes also? Are you obsessed with your phone? Are you too lost in your phone? Do you not talk with people around you? Do you have any track of time spent on social media? Do you keep checking your phone every 5 minutes? Do you carry your smartphone in the washroom as well?
If all these or some of these are applicable to you, then my dear friend, you are too obsessed with your phone. You are a social person, a person who uses social media and interacts with other people by sharing, liking, or commenting. Such people can't live without their phones for even a minute. They get some or the other notification and keep on scrolling their feeds, checking what is new, what people are sharing, and so on.
When social was invented, only a few people could access it. But as its use increased, more people started using social media. When the lockdown was imposed, people had only a few options left, and using social media was one of that. As per a survey, "In the first week of lockdown, Indians spent more than 4 hours on social media on a daily basis (an 87% increase from a week before lockdown). 75% of people were spending more time on Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp as compared to the week before the lockdown.
All these statistics show that social media usage of most people increased during the lockdown. But not of all people. There are people (maybe a small number of people) who didn't use social media like these people. One of whom is me. Yes, I am asocial person (I hardly use social media). Be it Instagram or be it WhatsApp I don't use social media platforms much.
Reasons for not using social media
- Time wasting: Using social media is a complete waste of time. You just keep on checking what are people doing, scrolling down the feed and you also lose the track of time.
- Addiction: Social media definitely is addictive. You keep using it with no intention and you end up spending more than then you expected.
- No use, no gain: We use social media without any use. We do not gain anything by using it. Take this example, you check feeds of people, like the posts, comment, and share sometimes, what do you gain from it? You upload something to gain popularity, feel good, get complimented or accepted by your social media followers, and so on.
- Battery consuming: Using social media also consumes your phones, laptops, or tablets battery. This way your phone's battery dies and you need to either carry a power bank or charge it.
- Self-harm: I personally feel that I harm myself by using social media. My eyes have to stare at the screen, my brain needs to focus on it, my hands need to hold the phone. All these affect me and my body.
- Negativity: Social media has so much negativity in it. People trolls celebrities. Some trends go viral and people follow it like dumbs. Most personalities aren't even real on social media. What they show and what they actually are, is different.
- Data issues: The information we put online can be used by anyone. The big media owners, the advertisers, other users, government, etc. This way your data can be leaked or can be used without you, knowing about it, by anyone. Thus, cybersecurity is another threat.
How to stay away from social media?
- Social media detox: Social media detox means not using social media or taking a break from social media. This can be done for a day or a week and you can log out of such platforms or uninstall for a certain time duration. With detox, you will know how much time you spent on social media and how that could have been utilized in doing something really worthy for yourself.
- Mute the notification: One of the best to stop checking the phone is to mute the notification of applications or your phone. I have muted all applications notification except for Gmail. This way I only check SM when I want to and not when it wants me to check.
- Fix time duration: I have a no phone use policy after 11 or 12 sometimes. This way I don't end up using my phone and forget to sleep.
- Uninstall or log out: You can uninstall or log out from social media applications after you are done using it. This will make you lazy to log in again and again and you will prefer not to use it.
- Start a hobby: Take out time for yourself. Start painting, dancing, singing, sketching, or whatsoever you want to do or wished to. It's the right time to start it.
