Globally, digital consumers spent nearly 2.5 hours every day on social networks and messaging in 2019, according to Global Web Index’s Social Media Trends 2019 report.
On average, Indian users spent 2.4 hours on social media, which is in line with the global figures.
Like it or not, social media is a huge part of our lives now, and it doesn’t look like the situation is going to change any time soon.
The number of users signing up for social media apps is only increasing rapidly.
Every second, 11 people use social media for the first time. Today, over 3.8 billion people (over half of the global population) use social media, while this number averaged out at just 2.5 billion in 2017.
Do we want to continue to allow this technology to take up as much of our time as it does today? Or, do we want to pump the breaks on craving for constant virtual connection?
But that’s a topic for another day (when I’m able to suit my actions to my words!).
Let’s rather discuss how to make the best use of all the time that we spend on social media.
How can we use that time?
Let’s first exclude #Linkedin from social media entertainment apps because it’s mainly used by entrepreneur and people who’re looking to develop their careers.
Moreover most of the freshers won’t spend much time in #linkedin why because they look for entertainment.
So here are a few tricks to make the best use of your time on social media:
Leverage the app’s algorithm
Whatever your favorite social media entertainment app is, be it #twitter, #facebook, or #instagram, leverage its algorithm to stuff in some educational content in your feed. Just start by watching a few videos on topics related to your career. Soon, this will automatically appear on your feed everyday, and you will be consuming relevant and useful content subconsciously.
Follow educational pages
Suppose you’re a web developer. Search for popular keywords like web design, web development, css tricks, javascript etc, and many pages and hashtags will be listed.
Follow pages that post useful content regularly, and even some renowned coders’ personal profiles.
If you find a post to be useful, save it for viewing later.
Same as insta, all other social media apps also have educational groups, pages. Also you have save options for later use in different forms.
You might then remember those saved posts in your working hours and revisit them to then see if you can derive any ideas for the project you’re working on.
Gradually, you’ll notice your work standards improving.
Why not books?
Books might be useful for people who’re used to it. But, in this digital age, where the average attention span of an adult is a mere 12 seconds, social media is our best shot at growing.
Also, now that all educational services, and institutes are shut, going back to books is not that easy. So let’s make the most of social media for entertainment as well as education.
