Social media, no doubt, is at its’ peak of popularity. But are their roles confined to helping people connect with one another? Interestingly not, although that was what their intended role was!
Social media outlets have been manipulating their users for years now, without them actually knowing about it. A lot of social science experiments have backed this assertion too. And it’s no hidden truth that social media can goad people into donating, stealing, standing for justice or simply spread racism.
If this continues to happen, we will soon turn into puppets at the hands of social media, with no opinion of our own. So, it’s high time that we took control of our own lives and activities and relied on our judgment rather than on social media messages to make decisions.
How many times has it happened to you that you got jealous of your friend’s great life or their new love partner? How many times has social media made you feel inferior in so many such respects? Probably uncountable times! That means you have been at the receiving end of social media’s manipulative power like many others have.
But if we are vulnerable to being manipulated by social media so easily, why don’t we find ways to get rid of ourselves from its impact? Maybe because we enjoy being manipulated! Maybe we like the fact that social media keeps us busy at all times. But steps need to be taken before it’s too late; before you lose a voice or an opinion of yourself. Below, you find two of the most effective ways to save yourself from the ravages of social media.
No notifications, please!
You are working on something productive- say, reading your course book, or writing an article or maybe just taking your food, and then suddenly your phone beeps to some social media notification. What do you do? Probably you leave all your work to find out what the notification says. If it says something interesting, you end up spending the next one-hour scrolling up and down your social media profile. Do you know how unproductive such an act is? You can’t even imagine.
If you want to say no to notifications once and for all, you might have to mute them permanently. This will not stop the notifications from pouring in, but you will certainly be saved from those constant nudges that notification beeps make.
Engage yourself in other productive yet interesting activities
One of the biggest reasons why we get so addicted to social media is probably because we have nothing better to fill our idle time with. If we had a great hobby to pursue, we wouldn’t probably be spending most of our time engaged in social media.
If you want to know what’s happening around you, you can probably subscribe to a newspaper. A newspaper offers you all the information regarding the current happenings, without being too fussy. And because there is a limited amount of information present in a newspaper, it saves you from getting distracted towards things that are not really important for you.
These may look like small steps, but will definitely take you to where you want to be.