15-08-2022

11:15 pm

The development of the world wide web brought about a new method by which computers could communicate and connect more effectively.

The rise of personal computers made computers a common household tool in developed countries. The rise of computer users demanded the need for new ways and platforms where people could communicate with one another.

When e-mails came into existence they quickly became one of the greatest innovations of the internet. The rise in e-mails reduced the need for sending letters via the post office. The boom in email usage in the 90s and early 2000s ushered in something that would revolutionize how we communicate with friends, family, and at the workplace.

The increase in the availability of computers, and also the spread of internet connectivity in more parts of the world necessitate the need for more communication platforms.

The creation of Facebook and Twitter; brought new ways to communicate and relate with people over the net, and thus began the social media age.

Now the rest is history, as we currently have hundreds of different platforms that perform the same or different functions. A lot of changes had also happened in the world of tech. For example, mobile devices with the capability of that of a computer, 4G and 5G internet, the ever endless growing number of internet users and so many more.

Now the internet is part of our day-to-day lives almost everything we do nowadays requires the internet; banking, health care, schooling, and so on.

Sometimes I can't help to think about what would happen if the internet stop working for a day. Lives would be lost, and there would be immense commotion.

We had a glimpse of how our lives have been deeply entrenched in the internet when Facebook, Instagram, and its subsidiaries stopped working globally for about seven hours.

Luckily we had other platforms that we could use to communicate, despite that the Facebook outage caused a lot of problems.

Social media addiction

Well, the crescendo in the use of social media has created a new type of addiction. We have seen people gobbled into the world of social media which has resulted in the creation of new problems in our daily lives and mental health.

Before I begin listing and explaining the reasons why you should reduce your social media usage, I would like to discuss a little bit about myself and social media.

Due to the industrial strike by the universities lectures, I have been at home and this makes me want to spend time on the net; most especially on social media. I spent an average of more than 2 hours on WhatsApp, and perhaps equivalent on both Facebook and Instagram, but currently, I have been able to curtail my unproductive usage of social media and other apps. The maximum amount of time I now spend on both Facebook and Instagram doesn't exceed 30mins daily, and I have reduced my Whatsapp use to less than 2 hours a day.

Let's proceed to discuss the negative effect of using social media excessively.

1. It wastes your money

Most of us using the internet buy data from network providers, and the price we pay for data varies in different countries and continents.

When I was still using social media excessively, I noticed my monthly data plan doesn't last a month before it gets exhausted. Now, my data lasts longer than before, thereby saving from the cost of buying two monthly plans in a month

2. Less productivity

Social media doesn't only waste your data or your money, it also consumes the time you could have used to do something productive.

3. Portrays an illusive and distorted version of reality

Most of the things we see on social media aren't real, and if they are real they are being padding with lies to cover up imperfections.

Most pictures and videos are edited to give the best look, looking at such pictures and videos for a long time would make you want to question the way you look.

Most pictures are uploaded to give a perception of happy people because they were smiling and having fun but don't let those pictures deceive you. Most people are also battling depression, anxiety, etc like you might be. Having fun and smiling in pictures doesn't truly reflect happiness.

Also, most stories are concocted to give the maximum views and likes, reading too much of that would give you a false version of reality.

4. The crazy for people's approval and attention

Too much usage of social media makes you addicted and thereby making you want to seek people's approval.

In the social media world, people see likes, comments, and followers as a sign of success. So this creates an urge that pushes you to do anything for the likes and attention. Whenever you don't get attention you might feel depressed.

5. Unnecessary publicity

Unreasonable use of social media would make you want to update your profile to reflect your recent achievement and also post pictures to show what you have been up to. Anything posted on social media isn't longer private because anybody can access your information or pictures.

Sometimes people gather a lot of information about your lifestyle from what you post on social media than you want to divulge.

Conclusion

There are a lot of reasons why you should limit your social media usage if you aren't using them for something productive or earning from it. Some people earn money from Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and so on, such kinds of people are making productive use of their social media accounts which is acceptable.

Despite all the disadvantages listed here, social media still has numerous advantages. It is still a place for communication, learning, and fun. However, whatsoever you doing on it make sure it is something that adds value to your life and wellbeing.

Thanks for reading today's publication.

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