There should be a day dedicated to reply to all the new year and good morning forwards one receives almost everyday in the first week of the new year. Technology is a boon for us all. There are hardly any flaws I can find with the digitization of the world. From having almost anything delivered to my doorstep to seeing someone miles away on my phone screen. From having CCTV cameras that can be installed in houses to having robots such as playmates for our kids, the technology just amazes me. There are infinite doors that have opened up for education and career. All this is just so overwhelming and wonderful. These wonders however bring along with it a whole lot of competition. The competition to outperform everything we see on social media. The uncontrollable desire to be and have almost everything we see in the Digi-world. Our children as young as 2 and 3 year olds are also smartphone savvy now and most of us parents take immense pride in showcasing our children\u2019s\u2019 smartphone savviness
to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are\nliving a life that lures us with all that goes around us on social media. The\nnumber of followers, the comments from people, the likes, everything makes you\nfeel like a celebrity for a short moment of time. Amongst the race we have\nagainst time and competition, we forget to make time for family. We judge, we\ncompare, and we shame and get lonely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are few ways to battle the social media syndrome.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Peer\nPressure<\/strong>– I\nremember telling my younger sister that how she was missing out on all the fun\nbecause she didn’t have any social handle. Often the feeling of wanting to\ncatch up with the trends of the world leads to stress and anxiety. The lesson\nis, that its OK to not be part of the herd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Body\nFatigue and Mental Stress<\/strong>– While going through the various application on social\nmedia and trying to multitask, your brain inbound to get tired. Like any other\npart of the body, the brain needs time to absorb and sink in the information,\nhowever, while going through multiple things on social media, the brain is unable\nto catch up with the speed of things, as a result, it leads to overexertion and\nalso accounts for lack of sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social\nAnxiety<\/strong>\u2013 Have\nyou ever looked at someone\u2019s picture and secretly wished you were them. Have\nyou travelled to all the destinations virtually? Self-loathed at your\nmundane life thinking the person on the social media is doing better. The\nsocial media definitely connects us to people far and near however sometimes\nmakes us distant from what\u2019s before us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Medical- Ill effects<\/strong> – The rays that a phone, tablet or a laptop emits can be\nextremely harmful for not just your eyes but your brain too. In kids it tends\nto make the brain function faster than it can coordinate with eyes and hands\nhence making them restless and can impact their motor and cognitive skills. It\ncan have the same effect on an adults eyes, brain etc. They say you should not\nuse your phone 30 minutes prior to getting to bed as it procrastinates sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Distraction<\/strong>\u2013 We often hand over the\nphone to our children to be able to make them stationary or in the hope that\nthey will finish the meal of their plate. Time and again, nutritionist and\nstudies, have asked us to refrain from this habit. A habit I\u2019m trying hard to\nbreak. The anxiety of not checking or updating your social media account even\nfor a day can lead to stress and distract you from the important things you\nwish to accomplish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here I am\nlisting down few symptoms that will tell you whether you are suffering from the\nsocial media syndrome or not! The only cure is to equally engage yourself in\nactivities that existed before the social media evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We all\nneed social media for some solace, advice, me time and for promoting our skills\nand services etc. We also need social media to tell us that, \u201ctoo much use of\nit will adversely affect us\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do we,\nhowever, need social media to connect with a part of ourselves that gets\nconstantly immersed in social media?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pros\nand cons of social media are not something that can be weighed on a weighing\nscale. It is something that needs to be balanced. Like they say, an excess of\nanything is always bad. Similarly relying on social media to boost your\nemotional state of wellbeing is not the right choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I for\nsure will keep a watch on how many people read my post, however, I will be\nhappier if each of us did a little reality check on our social media addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is\nthis trick that I have begun to use, I put a timer on a small alarm clock for\n20 minutes to keep my social media browsing and interaction in check. Once the\nalarm goes off, I make sure the gadgets are away from me for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another\nhabit I am trying to inculcate is to pick a dictionary to look for meanings and\nsynonyms rather than looking it up on google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Small\nchanges like these, will definitely help me keep my social media syndrome in\ncheck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n