‘Social Media is for Idiots’
Okay, this statement might be a little harsh. Social Media are great, they help us to keep in touch with our friends from all around the world and to be up-to-date about friends’ lives or general news. They connect us. Anyway, let’s face it: most of us spend a lot of time on our favorite social media like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Probably too much time. Here are five reasons why we maybe should enjoy a little bit more time without social media. Even if it is just for one or two hours a day.
1. You don’t compare your life with other people’s lives
We probably all have this point in our lives, when we just feel like the most boring person on earth. While your old classmates are getting engaged or are travelling through Australia, petting kangaroos and eating snakes (of course, they are also looking fabulous on every picture they upload) you are sitting in front of your laptop in your pajamas. But the truth is, that we often forget that most people only share their best moments and best pictures online. I mean, which girl would post a picture of herself on a bad hair day without any make-up and all that in a bad lightening? Exactly. Taking a break from social media can help us to get a more realistic view on other people and, what is even better, you can go out and experience great things yourself.
2. You start to have more interesting conversations
How often do you sit next to your friends and everyone is checking their phones? Especially when there’s free Wi-Fi normally everyone feels the sudden need to go online. Since we can communicate with everyone and everywhere all the time, we sometimes forget the people who are surrounding us. But it can be so pleasing to just have a little chat with our friends over a nice cup of coffee. So maybe sometimes we should just put your phone away for one or two hours and talk to our friends. Probably they have interesting stories to tell.
3. You become more productive
Okay, this might be a boring point and I am probably the worst person ever when it comes to this, but we all know it: Procrastination. We all do it and we all know what a big distraction social media can be. Sure, it is extremely tempting to scroll through your news feeds, to watch funny videos with cute little puppies or to just stalk this one old classmate on Facebook, although you should actually write an essay that is due in a few days. So it is not surprising, that we might feel guilty at the end of the day for wasting too much time. Here again, it can be really helpful to turn off the phone or to just set it in airplane mode for a while and to focus on whatever you have to do.
4. You begin to live more in the moment
Not only face-to-face conversations with friends can be so much better without social media; there are also many other things you can enjoy much more without your phone. If you don’t feel the constant need of posting where you travelling, what you are doing or what you are eating you start to realize that you experience your environment in a much more intensive way. Of course, sometimes we just want post things to document them in order to have a memory; but once we have done that it is also important to put the phone away and to just enjoy the moment, which is much more easy without being on social media all the time checking how many likes your pictures have already gotten.
5. You are more relaxed
Just imagine: there is no one you have to answer immediately because you have already read the message and no annoying group discussions about any random topics. Well, to be honest, this can get boring after a while, but it can also be really relaxing to just log out from all your social media accounts for a few hours. Most of the times we don’t even miss a lot. If it is really important people can still call you or write you an old-fashioned SMS.
Don’t get me wrong, I know how hard it is to avoid social media. Even if it is only for a short while. I have to admit that I couldn’t write this short article without scrolling through my Facebook timeline and reading the same stuff three times. But anyway, I think sometimes it is a good idea for all of us to relax and forget about social media just for a short moment. Rumor has it, that thirty years ago people also managed to survive without social media…somehow.
With thanks to Naomi Gilad
