Stop Social Media from Manipulating You

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There is no doubt that social media has its good elements. You have Instagram for some wonderful pictures, Twitter for some great insights and fascinating stories and then you have Facebook to catch up with friends, join groups for various interests, job etc.

But social media has its disadvantages too and especially when someone becomes addicted to it. We think we will just scroll through the newsfeed and get back to work, but eventually, end up perpetually scrolling or commenting and getting responses which keep you occupied and wastes your time.

This is unhealthy, for your eyes, brain and sometimes for your soul. We have become habitual to check our social media accounts, without even wondering what are we doing there, is there a real cause? No, we are just checking social media because that’s what we do.

In the bargain, social media starts to manipulate you.

Have you ever envied the great life of a person you are following on social media? Perhaps felt jealous of a friend who is always partying, or has a handsome boyfriend/ girlfriend or has a cute pet or of their apartment pictures. Indeed we live a puny life, don’t we? Social media surely shouts that, making us feel even more inferior.

Everyone seems to be so happy and living their life to the fullest, doing what they want in the hour, except us.

But you are definitely smart enough to know that they show the good stuff on their social media accounts leaving out all the bad ones. The social media life that they are living is just a snapshot of their complete life. This makes them feel better, not necessarily to make us feel jealous. These people include the celebrities, businessmen, and YouTube stars.

It is not fair to compare our lives to theirs only to keep feeling gloomy.

Another thing that social media does is trap us into the community. We want to get the latest updates and news which is why we keep checking our news feed.

Here is how to stop social media from manipulating you.

Eliminate anything that upsets you

Hide the posts from your newsfeed of the people who make you feel bad about your own life. These people are not necessarily trying to make anybody jealous but let’s face it, you are feeling inferior which is why you should avoid yourself to come across their “great life” posts.

The truth is the fault is in you. It is you who cannot handle your friends or other people’s awesome life and compare your own life with theirs. Instead, it is the fact that you waste your time looking at the pictures they upload and not pay attention to your work and own life.

You don’t have to delete someone’s contact but just disable their posts to appear in your newsfeed. If there is a celebrity or a public figure you can just unfollow them.

Mute the notifications

We turn the notifications on just to receive the latest updates. Any new update can wait; any new comment or message can wait. You don’t have to distract yourself from work and check the updates. You don’t have to be the slave to your social media account notifications trying to lure back into the trap of checking what’s new.

Find better ways to fill up your time

The reason why we are so attracted towards social media is that we do not have anything better than it. Whenever we procrastinate is the best time we jump on to check our newsfeed.

The better option is that when we are procrastinating try doing something productive that will help us overcome procrastination. For instance, going for a jog, hitting the gym, taking a warm shower, reading, involve in arts and creativity etc.