Imama
Social media is becoming an invisible powerthat has complete control over us. It means we are being trapped like someone is constantly keeping an eye on us. “We are not consuming social media, Social media is consuming us”. In today’s date,the most expensive thing is attention. Earlier you used to go out with yourfriends and have fun, now you give thattime to mobile. A person’s attention is where they create memories.Justlike when you get old, you won’t even have your memories. These trends on Twitter and Instagram reels will be the memories.In 2023,the overall market size of social media was about 230 billion. Whatthey did was give free social networking through their app, gave entertainmentforfree and gather people’s data. By collecting these data, some sites make patterns and observe your habits.The image that you post on social media using its EXIF data, your GPS coordinates are known, which camera was used, file size, date and everything. These, like share buttons, work like trackers, which continuously give your behavior yourinformation to social media sites. If you don’t give thatto them, you are of no use to them. In that case,these social networking sites will not allow you to use them. In 2018, Facebook’s CEO said in an interview thatif a user wants their data notto be used,then in that case they have to pay to use this platform. Before making an account on social media, you click yes on the terms and conditions. After that,they get eligible to take your data. That’s why terms and conditions are made in a very boring manner. Many legalterms are used in it, which requires a lawyerto understand it. Itis very difficultto read by a normal person.That’s why most ofthe people click yes withoutreading it. Buttheir platforms are very simple to use so you get stuck to it. Even though social media platforms help us to connect with our loved ones virtually yet,they also detach us from each otherin real life. Research shows that spending too much time on social media can increase feelings of sadness and loneliness. It has developed a world of unrealistic expectations in ourselves. When we scrollthrough ourfeed, we only see perfect pictures and happy moments from other’s lives. Even though we know no human being is perfectin this world. Everyone is unique in its way. Butthat one-sided picture hypnotized our minds that we are notready to acceptthatit’s ok to have flaws and thatit’s okay to make mistakes, and in accepting this,there is no shame. This can make us feel like we’re not good enough, and this causes individuals to question theirrelationships. This leads to a desire fortheirrelationships to become perfect, as shown on social media. The otherissue is thatinstead of physical interactions and heartfelt conversations, we prefer virtual interaction. The lack of non-verbal cues, such as voice tone and body language, in online communication leads to misunderstanding. Instead of having heartfelt conversations, we might settle for quick messages or likes. This makes relationships less genuine. When people hold back theirtrue emotions or opinions to fitin or avoid being judged especially on social media. They might post only happy or acceptable thoughts instead of sharing how they feel. This can create a gap between theirtrue emotions and whatthey are shown online, making it harderforthem to connect with themselves and others genuinely. It can lead to emotional isolation and strained relationships. Itresults in increased stress, ultimately impacting an individual’s mental well-being and overall quality of life. Overexposure to a certain contentis also a major problem. People often see many emotional posts like sad news, stories, personal struggles or dramatic events. If someone sees this kind of content allthe time,they become desensitized. They start to feel less orless affected by the situation. For example, if someone sees heartbreaking stories and see regularly others being attacked. They might stop feeling sad aboutthem even ifthey would have felt upset before. This can lead to a lack of emotionalresponse, making it harderto connect with theirfeelings or be empathetic towards real life. As we all know social media use algorithms to decide what you see. This means you will mostly see opinions that you already agree with. And it can lead to limited exposure as you’re not seeing different points of view. You might startto believe that everyone thinks like you. This makes you extremist and your opinions stronger. And when people express extreme opinions without accountability it can contribute to polarization. This makes people more divided. This also makes it harderto have respectful discussions or understand different perspectives. It creates us vs them. Social media addiction can be compared to addiction to drugs. Traditionally, we have always wanted to explore things on our own. Meet new people, go to new places, learn new hobbies, and gain new knowledge, butto explore something we require patience. And it’s time consuming. The question here is why don’t we get addicted to otherthings? The answeris that there are two main factors behind it. The firstis ease of access, and the second one is speedy reward. When you see a notification on your phone that someone likes your photo or someone left a nice comment on your photo it makes you happy. Here, you get an instantreward, and dopamine is released. But slowly the excitement keeps decreasing. But social media companies also have a solution. They have conducted a detailed study to find out what attracts people more psychologically. Things which make people more addicted,things that would encourage people to use their apps more. These companies saw us as prey and laid brillianttraps for us.From the color scheme to the layout of buttons in the app,they have paid attention to all of it. The addiction to social media is very dangerous for yourlife, for a host ofreasons. The firstreason is that you will be wasting yourtime. Butthis is only a surface-level reason. Apartfrom this,there is an increase in radicalization. If algorithms keep showing you things that you like then your point of views are developed in an echo chamber. If you wantto stop any addiction you have to reduce ease of access. And you’ll have to eliminate the speedy rewards. A simple solution is to delete all social media apps from your phone. If you then wish to access social media you can do so with your phone browser. It will help by reducing the ease of access. It would be not be as easy as itis now to open these apps. Thus, your behavior would change. Anotherthing is to turn offthe notifications. With this, your mind will not be expecting a reward every minute or every hour. You will open the apps only when you wantto. The simple logic is the more difficultthe action would be for you,the easierit would be to eliminate your addiction.The effective way to overcome all these is to establish boundaries around social media use. Taking regular breaks from social media can help individuals reconnect with their surroundings and the people in theirlives. Encouraging a digital detox, even for a short period, can reduce feelings of comparison and improve mental health. Instead of scrolling through endless feeds, we should spend time with family and friends. We all need to pay attention to how social media is drowning ourselves in it.
