SOCIAL MEDIA

 

It’s been a while since I am using the social media and I feel I have enough experience to talk about it. All I want to express in this blog, is my experience with social media, its power to influence someone and the ways to overcome the influence. Though this is a vast topic, I have tried to keep it short and to the point.

Social Media:

                I remember, my dad getting me a smartphone after joining in an engineering college. I was excited about getting into touch with people far away from me virtually. I even allotted myself some time to spend on social media and followed that.

                It’s a really great thing that we who were used to dial up and talk to people or wrote letters, now, shall video call and can literally see each other in real time with just our hand-sets, and not any computers with cameras!

                The Facebook posts, the Whatsapp chats and groups, the streaks of Snapchat, I mean everything just felt amazing!

Influence of Social Media:

                As said by someone, everything has its pros and cons, the social media also has both the ends. It had the power of keeping people together in spite of the distance between them and it was also powerful enough to keep the user’s eye attached to the phone’s screen and isolate him/her from the surroundings and the people around. I started experiencing the former while my parents felt the later. However, I was having a good time.

                The time of me being on social media occupied a good part of the day. During vacations it went up to almost the total day. And this continued even after completion of my graduation. All I did was sitting idle and scrolling through instagram feeds, whatsapp chats, snaps of snapchat and videos on youtube. The time I was spending on social media ranged from 12-14 hours/day!

Overcoming the influence:

                Given the above information, one can understand how much I was into social media. It’s not like that I haven’t tried overcoming the social media addiction. In spite of my efforts I couldn’t overcome that. By this time, I have completed my graduation and was doing nothing but being on social media. I thought that it’s high time, I need to overcome this addiction and start being prosperous in some or the other way. I sat down, wrote down the plan and I started implementing it. Few months down the line, the usage of social media reduced to 1-2 hours/day! Now, after 1 year of this whole process, the time I spend my time on social media is < 1 hour/day. Comparatively today, I feel more accomplished and satisfied about what I am, what I do and how I do.

                Having done all this successfully, I felt I need to share this experience of mine, with all of you. Here are some basic things that I followed to make sure I spent least time on social media:

1.      Make plan and stick to it.

2.   Set small goals, achieve and reward yourself.

3.   Track the progress weekly, not daily.

4.   Remember, you aren’t done after reaching the goal. You are, only when you make it your habit or a part of yours.

PS: These points not only apply to social media addiction but also every other kind of. All you need is self-discipline, commitment and the picture of outcome flashing in front of your eyes whenever you blink.

 

-  Gonwar Srinidhi rao.