How to overcome social media addiction and start living

Как преодолеть зависимость от социальных сетей и начать жить

Free access to information, the ability to communicate with interesting people from the most remote corners of the planet — this is cool. We can learn events in real time, follow the life of family and friends, buy things without leaving our comfortable armchair. On the other hand, many people get so carried away that they forget about reality. Addiction to social media consumes hours of life every day, and we don't even understand where they fail. Hence the problems at work and in family. How to deal with this?

Addiction to social media — what is this
Signs that you're having serious problems
7 steps to freeing bad habits
5 software time control social media apps
Highlights on fighting social media addiction

Addiction to social media — what is this

This phenomenon exists, it really poisons life, but in medicine, it is treated very ambiguously. Internet addiction is not officially considered a mental disorder. Its features were first described in 1995 by Ivan Goldberg in a near-scientific essay. He just joked about that the attitude of some users to the Internet is very similar to the relationship of addicts to bad habits. The joke was taken quite seriously. This is how the concept of Internet addiction appeared.

Today we are tied to social networks, and watching the feed often seems more interesting than real life. Employers cite social media addiction as the main cause of their employees' procrastination. According to the results of a survey conducted by Webtrate, more than 50% of 2.5 thousand people admitted that they can concentrate on work because they check feeds and mail.

36% of those surveyed by Webtrate spend about an hour on social networks, and 16% — more than three hours a day. And this is just working time! How much human resources are social media actually devouring? Responding to the messages of Internet friends, people forget their thoughts, ideas. They don remember exactly what they planned to do.

Although mainstream medicine is skeptical of addiction to social media and does consider it a disorder, this phenomenon doesn just exist. It brings colossal losses to the addicts themselves and their employers, interferes with live communication.

Signs that you're having serious problems

Worth noticing if you:

turn on your computer and check your social media feeds before you wash your face and bring yourself up;
sacrifice when something interesting appears on the web;
procrastinate, aimlessly refresh your feed, although you understand that you have long since closed the tab and get to work;
sit on social media not only all day, but midnight
have a burning desire to check in updates, even when something important is happening in your reality.

If all of this is about you, then it's time to deal with the painful craving. It's possible, but not easy. Activity in social networks is accompanied by the release of hormones of pleasure and by its mechanism of influence on the body is in many ways similar to real addiction.

7 steps to free bad habit

Your ultimate goal — get rid of attachment to social networks. You should start by limiting the time spent aimlessly on the Internet. This process can be divided into 7 consecutive steps:

Recognize the problem. Admit that you have lost control of your behavior.
Chat with a psychologist. It will help you figure out the reasons real life has become so insipid that you left virtual.
Keep a record of how much time spent on the computer. You will need to keep a diary. Indicate in it the time when you started work and when you finished. Be sure to mark which sites you have visited.
At work, ask your admin to restrict your access to social media.
At home, seek help from your loved ones. Let them remind you that it's time to get off the internet and into real life.
Think about how you reward yourself for your success when you can off social media. Reward yourself even for small accomplishments.
Find a fun hobby in real life.

These simple tips will help you deal with chronic procrastination, which in turn will increase your productivity at work and, consequently, your income level. Getting rid of bad habits, you get an improvement in your financial situation, the attention of your loved ones and many other nice things.

5 software time control social media apps

Software developers have been aware of the problem for a long time. They have released several types of programs and applications that help to cope with the addiction to social networks. Best of them:

Webtrate — a program that blocks access to the Internet for a certain time;
Focus — another useful internet blocker;
FocusLock — website blocker for android;
WorkBurst — application that controls work and rest times;
Motivation — an extension for the Google Chrome browser that visually shows the clock on the Internet.

Choose the right apps and apply to fight your addiction. They will become reliable assistants and incorruptible guards, protecting you from aimless wandering in virtual world.

Highlights on fighting addiction social media

Look for yourself in reality, embody the most daring ideas and live richly. This is possible if:

become aware of the addiction problem;
make a firm decision to get rid of bad habit;
restrict your access to the Internet with the help of employees, loved ones, special programs and applications;
rejoice in successes and reward yourself for them;
spend more time with friends and family;
set ambitious goals and achieve them.