As people who grew up influenced by modern technology, we are all deeply embedded in social media practises. Social media is great for many reasons such as self-expression, keeping up with world news, and staying connected to friends and family; however, it can simultaneously be highly detrimental if not approached with appropriate caution. Here are some benefits of moderation and reasons why you may consider limiting your own social media usage:
Written by Rohan Kumar
Benefits of Moderation
The average person uses any social media platform for about 144 minutes per day — this is almost 2.5 hours that could be spent on anything besides glueing your eyes to a screen.
By limiting your social media usage, you give yourself more time to pursue other passions which you didn’t realize you had time for. Consequently, this leads to greater self-awareness, as the extra time you have makes you privy to the amount of time you truly spend on social media. While taking a short break to scroll through your feed is not holistically detrimental, it always lingers as a distraction that can lop hours off your already-valuable 24-hour schedule.
Another benefit of moderation is an improved sense of self-esteem. Most of us have gone through the experience of comparing our lives to others: this process can negatively impact our confidence and sense of pride. Gaining ‘likes’ may provide a temporary boost of ‘happy hormones’ but this is not a long-term solution to self-fulfillment. By cutting out such comparison and restricting social media usage, you may feel alleviated of the stress that such processes consciously and subconsciously weigh on us. This leads to the simple truth that restricting social media usage improves mental health as a whole.
According to a study by Dr. Pantic, “a statistically significant positive correlation between depressive symptoms and time spent on [social networking sites]” (2014, p. 653). Additionally, according to a study done at the University of Pennsylvania, limiting social media usage leads to significant decreases in depression and loneliness (Hunt et al., 2018). It is clear that social media correlates with mental health, and by restricting usage, you subsequently improve it.
Strategies to Decrease Social Media Usage
There are several methods you can employ to decrease your time spent on social media platforms. The first step is to monitor your time spent on social media. Becoming more aware of social media usage by this method is the first step in actively restricting social media usage. One of the most straightforward mobile tools to use is the ‘screen time’ feature in your mobile settings. By simply setting time limits on social media applications, you can restrict the time spent on those platforms. Alternatively, applications such as Instagram allow you to set usage reminders in-app.
Another strategy for any device is to turn off social media notifications. Notifications tempt us to constantly check for updates, which leads to more time spent on social media. By turning them off, you can tame this temptation better. Additionally, during the time that should be spent studying, working, or completing any other non-leisure activity, try to set your phone away in another room. Similar to turning off notifications, this reduces the temptation to spend time on your phone and social media platforms.
While this was simply a short introduction to online time management, the list of positive and negative effects and relevant strategies revolving around social media use is vast. By following and using the noted tools and methods, hopefully you can come to a meaningful decision of how often you access your social media platforms, and for how long.
Works Cited
Hunt, M.G., Marx, R., Lipson, C., & Young, J. (2018). No more FOMO: Limiting social media decreases loneliness and depression. Guilford Press Periodicals, 37(10), 751-768. https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751
Pantic, I. (2014). Online social networking and mental health. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw, 17(10), 652-657. doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0070
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