The Business of Social Media Addiction
“The average person checks their phone 150 times a day. Why do we do this? Are we making 150 conscious choices?”- Tristan Harris
When the top minds of our generations are working on products to make it more addictive, how many ways can we think of to escape from this very clutch of social media in our lives? I did a small experiment with my habits of using social media and it changed the very way I live my everyday!
It was 2 months back that I decided to stop using Facebook and Instagram on my phone. I still had access to it on my laptop and desktops but I deleted those apps on my phone. To my utter surprise, after one month of doing this, I realized I had read 4 books, took a photography online course and read over 120 medium posts in the month. I did not only enjoyed accomplishing more stuff than I ever did but I could also spend more time with my family and friends.
“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”- Albert Einstein
Many researchers have worked on this theory of social media addiction and while some researchers say this thing is real and is a threat to millions of teenagers around the world some researchers find that it is actually beneficial. I am no researcher on this very field but from my personal experience, I can say that we have limited time and we don’t even know whether we would be alive tomorrow or not! Hence, we should live our lives not glued to our smartphones but actually building relationships that last a lifetime. We have stopped talking to people, the most natural way of interaction which has led to a distant human bond. I certainly believe that social media has brought people closer across the globe and has made communication accessible when these apps start to take over your lives and you end up comparing yourself to the million others in the world who have more money, fame, and power than you have, you start to undermine your own capacity to succeed. So if you use any of these apps and letting it affect your conscience, you need to start thinking about it more seriously.
To give you an example — if you have an unhealthy eating habit, swearing off food is an unrealistic and impossible solution. Instead replacing the junk food in your diet with healthier options is the much more powerful and long lasting solution. Similarly, instead of consuming the ubiquitous social media that is purposeless, you could choose to consume social media platforms like CommunityZapp that translate into real life benefits — be it networking, finding valuable info about local resources or connecting with people who are going through challenges similar to that of yours- CommunityZap
It's time that we get out from the social bubbles and let these apps define the very way we want to live our lives. Start appreciating your work and be determined to do whatever you love. Life is short and we should make the most out of it, not in the virtual world that we now spend more time in but in the world that is made for us. Let’s make our lives great again!
“Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it.”- Chuck Palahniuk
