This past year had me thinking a lot about the impact of social media on my life. 2019 was the year of changes for me. I tried inculcating a lot of habits like mindfulness, sustainability practices, meditation, and exercise. And I desperately wanted to change my social media consumption habits during this time. My quest towards minimalism and mindfulness had me convinced that my virtual time-spending habits weren’t of much use at all. And so, as with anything in life, I started with delving deep into research at the place I know best – the internet (the irony of it after all).
Initial thoughts
As I said, I started this exercise with the notion that social media was doing more harm than good to me. However, that idea was so wrong. In reality, it is perhaps one of my strongest channels for connecting with my friends and family who live away- in different cities and countries. In my case, that means almost everyone, other than my husband! I sometimes shudder to think of how people who traveled across continents in the previous decades stayed in touch with their dear ones. I quickly understood that there is much to be thankful for to Facebook and Instagram and the other similar sites. My life would have been so lonely and dull without them.
Then what was wrong?
The good is never without the bad. Although these sites do help me in remaining connected with people who matter, they also side-track me so very often that there is a net negative impact on my life.
Consider this scenario
The alarm goes off in the morning and you open your eyes. You grab your phone to switch off (and hopefully not snooze) the loud thing. Once you are done doing that, your fingers automatically go to one of those tiny, colorful icons on the screen. You tell yourself that you have to see what transpired across the world while you were in your kingdom of dreams. And boom! Yo have spent the next 30 minutes scrolling mindlessly through random pictures. Congratulations!
Now you know what that acquaintance whom you have not even spoken to in the past decade had for dinner yesterday.
Does that sound familiar?
It sure does to me. I spent precious minutes in the morning scrolling through my phone and this realization panicked me.
I am a stickler for rules- I attribute that to my missionary school education. My penchant for being disciplined in life runs to the extent that my previous boss, who was an ex-army man, had complimented me on this. To this day, I consider that to be one of the best compliments I have received in my life.
So anyway, I began wondering how someone who is almost paranoid about spending most of her time constructively, was wiling away hours looking at inconsequential stuff.
The attraction of Social Media
Undeniably, social media sites have this unique ability to get our attention. In theory, the idea of watching someone eat a huge quantity of food doesn’t sound appealing at all. But then, mukbang videos have taken YouTube by storm. Or I am yet to understand why I like to watch vlogs about the mundane activities of a person’s daily life. There is something magnetic in the thought that we are getting a sneak peek into someone’s private life.
Even when I know that I am not learning much, I watch these videos. And my logical mind is aware that this is perhaps not the best usage of my time. But, the brain has a mind of its own.
The real negative impact of social media, for me
Spending time looking at other people’s photos or videos was still okay. However, these sessions had other detrimental effects on my psyche.
You see, I consider myself to be a fairly logical person and know better than to be impacted by certain glossy pictures. And yet, I kept yearning for things beyond the reach as my social media engrossment grew.
I was going through a somewhat tumultuous phase in my life- trying to adjust to a new environment and getting used to the fact that I was not employed. During that time, seeing the perfectly edited photographs during my scrolling sessions was adding more to my anxiety than ever. I knew that someone’s life cannot be judged by a single photo but reason doesn’t stand a chance against these emotions.
For a period of time, I lost touch with the fact that everyone’s reality is different. I had so much to be thankful for in my life and yet I was comparing myself relentlessly to another person’s dreams and aspirations.
Breaking the cycle
All that I spoke about till now isn’t something unique to me. I am sure that there are so many of you who undergo the same dilemma and emotions. And that is why it is quite essential to break out of this vicious cycle and begin using social media for what they are.
A lot of articles that I have read suggest limiting the time in the day when we browse these websites. Others instruct us to delete the apps from our phones. The problem with solutions is that it puts a boundary and commands us to follow it. Now, the attraction of the forbidden is a real thing. At least to me, while these sound good, in theory, I doubt how much of this is implementable by most of us.
Rather, why not actively ask ourselves why are we reaching for our phones? Am I bored? Or do I need to check out what so and so is up to in their lives?
So, this year, I want to minimize the negative impact of social media in my life through mindfulness. I am not going to put limits on myself. Instead, I will ask myself what value am I adding to my life by watching that video or photograph.
Life is Short
As a kid, the concept of time is never something that bothers most of us. But as we grow up, we realize that time is the only commodity that can never be had enough. After reaching my 30s, I am often struck by the idea that life is short; it is not going to last forever. And with that, learning how to make the best use of our days is really crucial.
Someone may want to reach new heights in their career while others want to focus on their family. There are people who want to travel the whole globe and people who never want to leave their corner of the world. Whatever it be, fulfilling our desires should be our priority whenever possible.
As for me, I want to create- art, poetry, prose. To achieve that I need to make the best use of my time. And scrolling on social media, beyond what is absolutely necessary, is not optimal.
So this year, let us try our best to break free of the cycle of mindless virtual consumption and instead do something that will add value to our days.
Peace.
Do you have any related experience or story to tell? Please share in the comments below. I would love to hear from you.
Related Reading
- 6 ways social media negatively affects your mental health
- 7 ways that social media is affecting us positively
