This would be my first time publishing article in here or shall I say , a well written one [for my perspective] ._.
I just decided of this recently and I think this would be one of my major decisions in life ; I decided to be barely engaged with social medias.The following reasons makes it reasonable enough:
SOCIAL MEDIA IS A WASTE OF TIME
I have gotten more matured now so as my life has gotten more serious . I started to realize how valuable time can be , that it would make more sense, if I invest it for knowledge ,value, and expanding my intellectual capacity rather than to put it to the sorts of facebook , twitter, and video games .
Social Media deceives us to do things we are not supposed to do; keep us away from doing things who could be much more purposeful - in other words defining a waste of time.
According to a research by Global Web Index, people spend an average of 2 hours and 22 minutes per day on social media and messaging platforms.
Thats an average of 799 hours per year and according to FSI reasearch depending on fluency learning new language only takes 480-720 hrs . To take it into account ,we could've learned new language out of those wasted times. In America alone , as stated by a study conducted by PlayUSA , roughly 631 billion total hours are thrown out the window in America per year".That enormous loss could've been useful if spent on learning new skills ,[definitely!]
As teenagers, what we are supposed to do at this point of our lives is to build a solid life's blueprint that will serve as our pattern and guide to a well erected future ahead of us ,not play,watch,like,share and snap on social medias . It takes time to achieve that kind of Life's blueprint thus, we can't waste our time any further, on things[social medias] that could've been more meaningful off our lives .
"TIME IS VALUABLE AND VALUABLE THINGS ARE LIMITED ."
SOCIAL MEDIA IS UNHEALTHY
I '𝗆 𝗌pending too much time on social medias and I know that having too much of something has never been good , especially in terms of health .
As we spend time on social medias, we are sitting at the same time or either steadily standing in one place ; In a study conducted in 54 countries 3.8% of deaths were associated with people spending 3hours a day sitting down . But possibly as concerning is the thing that we often do while we’re sitting: Mindlessly scrolling through our social media feeds when we have a few spare minutes (or for some, hours). And as we probably know intuitively, and as the research is confirming, it’s not the best habit when it comes to our collective psychology.
Social media makes us less well being :
American Journal Of Preventative Medicine found that social media is linked with greater feelings of isolation .The team looked at how much people used 11 social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, ,and, Snapchat , and correlated this with their “perceived social isolation".
It turned out that the more time people spent on these sites, the more socially isolated they perceived themselves to be. And perceived social isolation is one of the worst things for us, mentally and physically.
Social media allows us to share our lives, communicate informations even across time and distance , but due to the fact of us being naturally vulnerable to social aspects ,it can't be helped to be lead in social comparison ,whereas our insecurities are triggered resulting to criticism ,bullying—and as multiple studies have found ,heavy social media use increased the risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-injurious behaviors, sleep disturbances and in extreme cases suicidal thoughts.
SOCIAL MEDIA IS MANIPULATIVE
I know, we can all feel it; whenever we are into social media , it's as if it drilled a hole back in our head and injected a virus, completely turning our minds obsessively into it .
An article by Harvard University researcher , Trevor Haynes indicates that when we get a social media notification, our brain sends a chemical messenger called dopamine along a reward pathway. Dopamine is the exact same chemical that makes someone feel good when smoking drinking and gambling—in other words it's highly, highly addictive .
Social science research confirms, that we human beings are social creatures. As social creatures we are not only interested in what other human beings are doing ,we also like to follow and conform to our fellows and people we look up to.
Knowing this, social media companies and networks such as Facebook take advantage of our vulnerability to such things .
In an excerpt from TEDx featured by Cal Newport , a computer scientist ,he mentioned that social media companies hire attention engineers that use the science of behavioral psychology to design their products for maximum addictive potential ,maximizing their profit . They use our cognitive biases against us to take advantage of the weaknesses in the human brain. They knew ,that we are vulnerable to what other people think of us , thus informing and showing us the things that'll force us to be tempted ,manipulating our emotions.
CONCLUSION
Social media is extremely beneficial. However, its many benefits do not change the fact that it has diminishing marginal utility;It's only beneficial up to certain points .Social media has many perks ;we do not have to remove it completely from our lives[ surely we can't ],But we can try hard to reduce the huge proportion of our time spend in it and re-invest it to purposeful activities that will bring us closer to our long-term goals .
We are spending too much of our time for it ;People who spend too much time on social media suffer higher rate of depression .That is addiction and that is a problem ;
"Addiction destroys everything in it's path getting out of the way is the most loving detachment
you can practice[-RUBY LIFTS]".
