The question which is asked by many but sought by less. The use of technology in recent times has paved the way for a facile environment. With use of technology everything is just at the click of a button. It is therefore quite natural to spend a major part of the day on social media and cell phones.
The terms like ‘Social MediaHolic’ or a ‘Social media freak’ that are recently coined by experts is a true representation of our society as the use of social media has gained a boom in recent times.
According to the latest stats collected by statista, the number of social media users are nearly 3.6 billion worldwide in the year 2020. This number will be increasing in the next few years.
Through this blog we will try to hop on ways as to how we balance digital media use in our lives. And we will also be discussing issues that will help us in understanding that instagram is not real life.
Table of Contents
Reasons Why Digital Media Use is Increasing?
But let us have a quick overview as to why the use of social media has gained popularity in recent times? What are the main reasons behind the issue?
FOMO
The term pronounced as the” fear of missing out” can be considered as the major reason behind the excessive use of social media.
There are many attractive and dynamic happenings in real life that compel a person to stay on social media for an extended duration of time.
The sentiment that others are having more fun and living a better life or experiencing better things in life can lead to restlessness issues in the life of a social media user.
The question of how do we balance our digital media use in our lives?
Is often asked by the people who are experiencing the fear of missing out.
Social Anxiety
Social media has served as a pavement to prevent social anxiety and stress. You find yourself in a difficult situation and you take out your cell phone quite often.
This issue resulted in excessive use of social media apps that has removed the discrimination between social media or digital life and the real life.
The need of the hour is to understand that instagram is not real life and the things that are being shared there do not necessarily have to inspire you or in simple words bother you.
Ways to Balance Digital Media Use in Our Lives
So that’s all about the things that have perturbed the balance between the digital life and the real life. Now let us talk about the things that you can adopt to balance the digital media use in our lives:
1. Meet People in Person
With the advancements in the field of digital media, the apps like instagram have changed the outlook of mankind. We got to see the pics of people we are following on social media. What will be our next reaction? We are most likely to give the pic a like and that’s it. That’s the whole thing we will prefer to do.
We should learn that instagram is not real life and so it cannot replace real life interactions as well. Interactions that are meant to be physically done should be done physically.
This will help to develop a positive attitude and will also help in balancing the digital media use in our lives.
2. Make Yourself Accountable
Making the digital media use for a longer duration of time will impede the activities of real life.
Once you are spending a lot of time using social media platforms, you will hook into it. Opening an app for a mere 5 minutes will turn into a use of half an hour. This will surely disturb your other scheduled and routine work.
The call for action is to make yourself accountable over the delay. Set a schedule with incorporated use of digital media be it instagram or youtube or any other social media app of your choice.
3. Spend Time in Outdoor Activities
Another way to balance the digital media use in our life is to find time for outdoor activities and these activities should aim at not using smartphones at that time.
More often the apps that are available in smartphones nowadays make them effective in managing calories but you should not use them while you are outdoor doing activities.
Any healthy activity can be made a part of daily life. There are plenty of options that can be opted for like:
- Swimming
- Walking
- Cycling.
Side note : read this to know more about the benefits of walking in everyday life.
4. Manage Use of Smartphones
Smartphones do accompany us everywhere and they are now an essential part of our lives.
This is therefore natural to keep using smartphones for a longer period of time. But smartphones not only affect the overall health, they are deteriorating for the mental health in particular. Using smartphones will severely affect vision as well.
To put it more technically, the use of a smartphone for watching your favourite video or playing games will release the hormone called dopamine in your body.
This hormone called dopamine is also referred to as the happy hormone. It means that you will have dopamine released in your body in these conditions. These dopamine shots make you addicted over a period of time.
Dopamine will not be released under normal circumstances. This means that you will be engaging in real life but you are not enjoying that because you have made yourself addicted to that dopamine shot.
5. Set Priorities
It is essential to set priorities in life. You can’t just go on spending life this way. Social And digital media use are no doubt necessary for your well being but as they say that excess of everything is bad.
So balanced use of digital media should be encouraged.
Set a proper time for everything. Be it using social media or going out for physical activities, everything should be done at a proper and scheduled time.
The Final Takeaway
The use of social media is inevitable but more importantly the need is to balance real life as well. Real life has its own significance. Always know that whenever you are in terrible condition or you are facing lows of life, the people who are coming to your help will not come from social media.
To get the best schedule plan for yourself, consult the best psychiatrist in the area. Also to get yourself updated over the issues of health care, visit our website healthwire.pk.
