To begin, I will start by illuminating the antithesis that social media is. Social media is a solution and a problem. To me social media has been a great way to keep people connected. There are no excuses nowadays when it comes to networking or staying in touch because everyone is easily accessible thanks to social media. Unfortunately, social media can be super addictive. The way news feeds and timelines are set up, folks can get stuck scrolling on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. for hours everyday. Do not get me wrong, there are opportunities to read some good information on social media, but to my experience the things that should be avoided most are the things that pop up the most. Countless ignorant yet entertaining post are unavoidable at this point on social media sites.
Exibit A:
I have not even mentioned the possibility of cyber gangsters, cyber bullying... Is cyber domestic violence a term yet? To me this is collectively the reason why I find it necessary to remove myself from these social media sites.
Since I was introduced to the internet I can admit that I have had continuos addictions to social media. If you name it then more than likely I have had some type of an account on the website, and whatever the hot site was at the time was the one that got my attention. Shoot it all started with chat rooms.
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| Source: socialmediaexaminer.com |
That being said, my biggest, most recent addiction has been Instagram. At my university, events are typically promoted through Instagram. If someone does not have an Instagram, then more than likely they do not know about events going on around campus. The way that my generation uses Instagram to promote events today makes me wonder how campus events were advertised prior to the creation of Instagram. Being as involved as I am, Instagram was a necessity for me when it came to promoting events, so I had to have it, BUT for me Instagram was also an addiction. I found myself on Instagram when I did not need to be, pointlessly scrolling down the timeline and I only would get off to reach the bottom of the Instagram timeline. It was if I had some unofficial obligation to see what was happening on Instagram everyday, constantly checking on what other people post in hopes that someone else's life may be more interesting than my own.
If social media is not be moderated then it will become a problem, so I removed myself from it. Greatly enough, since I removed myself from Instagram I am now reading books again in my free time! Instead of damaging my brain with pointless social media post I am enriching my brain with free knowledge from books!
I share this story to say life is truly short and the things we do and decisions we make today directly effect where we end up in the future. I actually saw a social media post that said something similar, but from a different angle (not all social media is bad), and because I cannot find it I will paraphrase it. The decisions you make today will effect how your children live in the future. Someone reading this may have a similar issue or maybe even might be addicted to something else, but whatever the case may be I encourage any and everyone reading this article to reflect on what you do on a daily and make sure that it is will help you be the person that you want to be in the future. If not then you need to change something.
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