Due to the explosion of information on the internet and the increasing number of social media apps, there is a term to safeguard users from spending too much on social media and gadgets, and that is digital well-being i.e if you want to sleep early, stay off your WhatsApp and laptop by a certain time let’s say 10 pm. The blue lights from electronics affect the quality of your sleep, it makes it hard for you to get sleep at night as it delays the release of sleep-inducing melatonin. You might think you have insomnia but it is just the long hours you are spending on gadgets that are affecting you. On the other hand, if you want to get anything done during the day stay off social media, YouTube, and websites at the beginning of your day to get more work done.
There is too much on the internet on various topics and you can’t consume it all and still maintain sanity, it is impossible. You will go crazy consuming all the propaganda, new research, and paranoia from the scary news websites out there, it is thus healthy for you to watch how much you get in from the internet. There is a lot of junk in your browser history, check your history and see which sites you have been visiting that you don’t need like porn sites.
Choose specific websites for your needs; there are quality websites for certain information be it healthline.com for health, or girlschase.com for dating or tmz for entertainment news. Not all websites are created equal, some are full of half-baked information that if you consume, you end up with junk in your head so stay away from useless websites. I would suggest research journals if you want something serious, and if you are a student you can use Google Scholar for your assignment instead of the regular Google.
When it comes to social media, just limit the amount of time you spend there, I like Instagram and Facebook, but it is possible to go for some hours without checking your posts, nothing will happen to you I swear. When I am out of town, I can take days without login into my social media and I don’t feel like I am missing out, even when I am busy, it is just automatic that I won’t check my social media for a long time. The only thing that should be making you glued to social media the whole day is work, if you are posting on company pages and promoting posts then it is just part of work. You are allowed to stay there all day watching trends.
The negative side of social media is usually the comparison to other users that many people on those platforms are prone to. When you see guys boarding flights to cool destinations all over the world and you are stuck in Kinoo or wherever, you can start feeling type of way. You don’t need that, they might be on a sponsored trip so just don’t start comparing yourself to the cool social media guys. It will steal your joy if you don’t realize, you start feeling left behind by your social media friends whom you don’t even know in real life.
As I am writing this I can tell you that Instagram has a feature that you can use to set how many hours you will be spending on their site per day. When your time runs out, it sends you a notification that you can’t be able to look at live stories and news feeds and whatever else you like on IG for that day, your time is out. I won’t advise you to time yourself like that as if you are a college kid, what if you have an important message to check out, what is advisable here is to just limit, let’s say throughout the day you will only spend an hour on IG if it is necessary. You can be selling clothes or watches there not just liking socialites’ behinds.
Another aspect of digital wellbeing is that it is not just about preventing information overload and the misguidance from deep fake videos that are viral all over the internet, it is about how you can use the digital world to sharpen your skills. There is a positive to the internet, you can get jobs, or learn things that can radically change your life if you follow the right channels or subscribe to informative YouTube videos. Don’t look at the internet as a place full of scammers and online haters, there are a few good people there who genuinely want to change the digital world by helping people get some good skills or buy nice products.
It is hard getting addicted to the internet if you just have different things going on for you in the outside world. The only time you will log in is when sending out some information or conducting online meetings. All you have to do is keep your real-life packed with awesome things to do so that social media doesn’t become your fun thing. If you are on a holiday, enjoy it, you don’t have to post it, don’t let social media limit your holiday because you are looking for the best photos to post. If you are at a party, have fun, don’t struggle to capture videos to post.
Above all, technology is a good thing, all that matters is the adoption, don’t indulge too much in the virtual world, stay in the real-life too. The yin and yang.
Nice week ahead!
