In this modern era, social media is the only platform for making friends and getting closer to friends and relatives. It allows us to know what’s going on in another part of the world. But social media has many disadvantages that are more bad than good. Social media is also the only platform that is distracting us nowadays.

How it’s distracting. 

Scroll news feed.

Wherever we go we can see most people scrolling their social media news feed aimlessly without any reason. You may check your phone to see your homework or talk to friends about notes but you end up scrolling the newsfeed for 2 hours. Sounds familiar? Yes, because social media is designed to engage you in it as much as possible.

What other people are up to.

You may wonder what my friends up to if your favorite celebrities posted something new. How they are wearing dresses, where they are eating. That’s all irrelevant. That can’t do anything with your work or with your study. Still, you are curious to know about their life. A study shows that stalking other people’s lives, their happy social media posts can make others depressed. Because it makes them feel like except him/her everyone is happy in their life. But the truth is the face you can see on social media may not be the real face. people tend to share and show how happy they are in their life. But not the sad part.

Post and comment.

Every time you post something new you are aiming to get more likes and comments on that. For that reason every minute you check your phone for any new likes or comments you get. If any new followers have.Even though you have something more important to Do.

Check messages.

A study revealed that most Americans 160 times check their phones every day. If they get any new messages, any new follower or friend request. You tend to do the same check your phone every minute to check if you get any message from your friends. If your friend’s group sends you any new funny videos. That’s what we all do.

Watching videos.

Social media recently explored a new feature where you can watch videos. You may start watching one because you find it interesting. Then another one, then another one. In this way, you end up watching videos for two or three hours you probably don’t notice.

Stalking other people’s profiles.

We tend to stalk other people’s profiles whom we even know. We watch their profile to know about them more, to know about their life. It’s distracting you from doing some important thing.

Social media is ruining our lives, destroying our relationship with our beloved, our family. That’s not the only problem of social media.it’s distracting you from your work, studies, even from the most important that needs to be done urgently. So what should we do about that? should we stop using social media? How to get relieved of these bad habits. I am not going to tell you to stop using social media .that’s impossible. But at least you can beat the distraction.

Here are some ways to beat social media distractions.

Turn off your notifications.

Turn off your notifications while you are in class or doing some work. Every time your phone notifications budge you get distracted by it. The best way to avoid it is to turn off all notifications.

Set your time.

Set your time for using social media. You can use an app for that. There are different apps available for that. From that, you can simply set your time using social media for 10 to 20mins.

Make morning habits.

We usually wake up in the morning by checking our phones if we get any notifications from Instagram or Facebook. That’s a real distraction. You wake up in the morning with a fresh mind which can be very productive and creative, but you ruin it by distracting yourself using the screen.

Switch off your phone.

Switch off your phone for some hours. Use it for doing something productive. It could be simply completing your homework or reading books. Sometimes your brain needs to relax. Using social media for long hours can cause brain damage.

 Keep your phone away.

Keep your phone out of your reach for some time. Leave it on your work or far from the workplace that can help you to start away for some time.

Pick up a hobby.

You may have no job or no study because of this pandemic. This lockdown period got us more addicted to social media. Because of not having any job or study you probably think using social media is normal for me. But that’s not true there could be something more useful than social media. Pick up a hobby based on your interest. It could be gardening, cooking, learning something new. It helps you to be productive.

Talk to others.

The time you are consuming by using social media uses it for something good. Meet your friends, spend some time with your family members, or you can check on your neighbors. That’s a good habit for keeping social engagement. Because social media is making us loner.

Stick to plan.

When you plan to do something for the day. Stick to it. Take it important and work on it. It’s okay not to be on social media all day long.

Use screen time.

If you are an iPhone user you should know there are new features available in iPhone from ios12. where you can set your screen time limit and app limit. I highly recommend you use this. If you are not apple users, no biggie, there are lots of outta there available for you.

Focus on your aim.

What do you want for your future? if you are a student. You must have an aim. I still can vividly remember I used to write an essay about aim in life when I was in middle school. I always remember that essay where we read “ A life without an aim like a ship with rudder”.I always remember that. Focus on your aim and what you want to be. You must not end your life scrolling social media. You must want to be something. Work on it. Give it your priority. Social media can’t be your priority.

Distraction destroys your actions. If something doesn’t help you to grow, if it has nothing to do with your purpose. Leave it behind. Switch off your phone, close social media for a while. Think about what you wanna be after 5 years. What is your aim? Scrolling social media can’t be your aim. Don’t squander your time in some useless thing. Social media don’t feed you, you have to work hard to feed yourself.