After this, identify the activities or hobbies which have been the source of entertainment, were pleasurable in the past and connect to the real-time social groups in which you can actively participate. List out all your friends whom you can meet in person. Also, specify the time you will spend with your family and if your family members are also using social media then on mutual understanding fix a common time when everyone in the family access it. Then, make a tentative schedule for entertaining activities, talking with friends, participating in the activities of social groups at least one day in a month.
After all of this, execute your self management approach for overcoming social media dependency, follow the schedule for all other activities both inside and outside your home. Maintain a journal of adherence to keep a of record the hits and misses of your endeavor. Also, have a regular and frequent review to make the necessary changes. Reward yourself with your favorite activities/objects for your constant hits to the schedule and analyse each fail for amendments in your plan. Adhering to this program might be difficult initially, but it’s essential because the damage it can cause to your physical/ psychological health, social and personal life are unimaginable, disastrous, irreversible and the paceat which it is spreading all over the world virtually is something undreamed of.
However, if you are finding it difficult to maintain the consistency or experience unavoidable restlessness, frustration, irritation, emotional turmoil or if you have difficulty in building and maintaining social/personal/formal relationships while implementing this approach; consult a qualified psychologist for professional assistance or trained intervention. Dialectic behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, aversion therapy as a part of behavior modification therapy and social skills training are found to be effective intervention techniques which to manage social media addiction.
It is commonly seen that the people who are originally creative and imaginative in their ideas/approaches or the ones who try to maintain ethical standards, orderliness, integrity etc are at much safer position; even though they regularly use social media but mostly for more productive purposes. So, if someone recognizes the onset of these tendencies in themselves; they must be very cautious while they tread in to social media. Also, it would be helpful to inform parents, teachers and other well wishers before- hand as they can alert that individual each time the individual overuse social media before it’s too late.
Identifying the subtle indicators of the probability of stepping into detrimental use of social media is easy in the beginning. The initial symptoms include the emergence of the of the negative thoughts in the individual who further start being isolated or leave their group conversations, show absence from the social media sites or when they don’t respond to other’s social media updates on par with their previous rate of responding whenever they face any criticism or negative comments from anyone. It is the potential source of inflation to participation in social media. Sometimes it creates a compulsion to respond, specially according to other’s expectations in order to avoid negative views from their fellow users.
Initial sign which indicates that someone is getting deviated from the adequate use of social media is when you find that you are straying into social media even when you enter the internet browser for any productive purpose or yo can calculate the difference between the average time which is spent on the computer/smart-phone for the productive objectives which it is intended for in comparison with the time spent on social media on the same gadget or if the you find yourself communicating with others more through social media even when they are around you or easily accessible either in person or over phone. Checking the social media updates habitually whenever you are engaged in important/casual daily activities or other situations when it is not necessary to check the notification provides an evidence of lack of self control on the compulsive desire to use social media.
The impulsiveness to download different social media apps and being a part of multiple networking sites is another important indicator. Psychological craving to check for the social media update immediately after waking up and during every break even when there is a surety that there are no notifications, getting irritated if there is no notification and checking if the internet connection is working properly are the alarming signs for the identification of the predisposition or the vulnerability to social media addiction.
The actual problem arises when a person starts reacting emotionally to the information shared on such social media platforms and start expressing their opinions and emotions. By this time when they have started getting involved in uninhibited update of all of their personal details/status frequently, using social media to ventilate their personal problems and emotional turmoil’s in an expectation to get support and sympathetic responses, losing their control over the amount of time they spend on these platforms due to their preoccupation with ritualistic checking and responding which leads to a constant engagement in the activity. They start losing the ability to make judgments and start responding without ascertaining the necessity to respond or verifying the appropriateness of the content they post. They repeatedly fail to take a break from the social media and find themselves very soon by convincing themselves with some or the other reason. The person tries to satisfy all his social need through it and start isolating himself/herself which clearly points out their dependency. The symptoms beyond this stage require professional support to come out of it.
The loss of control over social media usage can be managed at personal level but only if the individual is determined enough to overcome it. The first and the best step is total abstinence from the usage till the craving ends. However, if it seems to be a difficult goal then one can start by putting rigorous and conscious limitations in the social media usage. If you are planning to cut unnecessary social media usage then some preliminary work is essential before you start implementing your decision.
Firstly, fix a specific time of the day, the time which is usually not suitable for face to face interactions; it is going to be the only time you will be accessing social media. Also, finalize the total time you are going to spend on a social media each day which should not be more than one hour in a day. Keep the smart phones away from yourself especially while doing important work and communicating with others. You can also avoid using smart-phones and use ordinary mobile phones instead and use it only for all communication purposes especially during the important hours of the day. Try to sidestep yourself from using the messaging services even in the ordinary mobiles and involve in face to face conversation wherever and whenever there is a need. Use social media only on your personal WIFI connection at home it enables a curbs the social media usage while being outside. Opt out of all other WIFI connections you have access to. Even if you access social media only at home with smart-phones or computer; restrict yourself with a fixed time and place. For transferring the essential documents and media files use email insted of social networking apps.
After this, identify the activities or hobbies which have been the source of entertainment, were pleasurable in the past and connect to the real-time social groups in which you can actively participate. List out all your friends whom you can meet in person. Also, specify the time you will spend with your family and if your family members are also using social media then on mutual understanding fix a common time when everyone in the family access it. Then, make a tentative schedule for entertaining activities, talking with friends, participating in the activities of social groups at least one day in a month.
After all of this, execute your self management approach for overcoming social media dependency, follow the schedule for all other activities both inside and outside your home. Maintain a journal of adherence to keep a of record the hits and misses of your endeavor. Also, have a regular and frequent review to make the necessary changes. Reward yourself with your favorite activities/objects for your constant hits to the schedule and analyse each fail for amendments in your plan. Adhering to this program might be difficult initially, but it’s essential because the damage it can cause to your physical/ psychological health, social and personal life are unimaginable, disastrous, irreversible and the paceat which it is spreading all over the world virtually is something undreamed of.
However, if you are finding it difficult to maintain the consistency or experience unavoidable restlessness, frustration, irritation, emotional turmoil or if you have difficulty in building and maintaining social/personal/formal relationships while implementing this approach; consult a qualified psychologist for professional assistance or trained intervention. Dialectic behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, aversion therapy as a part of behavior modification therapy and social skills training are found to be effective intervention techniques which to manage social media addiction.
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