AT modern society a major epidemic is growing – social media. She is the most dangerous this moment, even the plague in the Middle Ages or the flu epidemic cannot be compared with its contagiousness.
The fact is that the disease proceeds imperceptibly, capturing more territories. On the problems with him, mankind look through their fingers. Even schoolchildren have accounts on VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Instagram, which adults infected them with. Only a few pay attention to this and begin to act.
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How to get rid of traction?
Whoever realized that he was infected has already taken the first step towards a cure. This shows that the problem is now recognized.
And the beginning of the treatment of any psychological disease is the awareness of what is happening in the head, and the understanding of the sources of motives that force one or another unpleasant action to be performed.
The second step is reading this article.
The third is to choose one of the methods and strictly adhere to it.
1. Turn off the Internet. Perhaps the most radical method, if constantly after abandoning one social network, there is a slow transition to another. This option is suitable for those who have willpower is not the strongest side. This idea is also good for the strong in spirit, just to see how life will change without the virtual world. In any case, the changes will be for the better. Many people often have an interest in old hobbies or new interests arise in the real world that fill their free minutes, and there is no time to update VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Instagram.
2. Delete accounts. Also one of the hardest options for dealing with attraction. If only social networks are drawn into the World Wide Web, and other resources are not addictive, then it is enough to get rid of pages on networks that are constantly used. This may cause criticism of the "friends" that are added to the resource, but real friends will understand and there is a connection with them, at least by phone numbers. That's quite enough
3. Remove extra people, extra groups. If there is no desire to leave, an account on the network is needed for some reason (earnings, communication with distant relatives, downloading music, etc.), it is worth removing the excess. Everything that can distract and unconsciously drag you into surfing through the pages of users, groups, comments, and so on. The main thing is to enter with an awareness of the goal, why the site is open, as soon as the task is completed, immediately exit.
4. Programs that restrict access to the network. Another way not to lose the user page and not turn off the Internet. There are programs that control the time visiting resources. There you can specify the links and the allowed time of the event. As soon as the time is exceeded, the program will block access until the next day, week, depending on the settings.
5. Limit yourself at will. The method is suitable for strong-willed people, but who managed to become addicted. You just need to give yourself a setting, for example, use social networks from 21:00-22:00. Suitable minutes can be chosen by everyone. A sticker on the monitor will help you remember this.
Important to remember
It helps to remove applications from smartphones. Most people are addicted to social media out of boredom. And often, when the brain feels that it has nothing to do, it automatically goes to the usual resources, sometimes saving from idleness. This is just a habit, visiting daily pages, so the constant work of consciousness is important. In order not to “accidentally” open and “kill” half an hour of time in Odnoklassniki. It is good to find an activity that will keep you occupied and entertained during your free time. Since after the deprivation of addiction there will be a lot of time and if you do not find a replacement for the occupation (preferably developing and useful), you can return to a degrading lifestyle.
The best substitute is reading books. Buying a "reader" without access to the Internet and downloading books there is priceless!
This disease is not in the official registry of the World Health Organization. However, hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer from this disease, which only at first glance seems like a safe hobby, but in fact leads to stress and serious mental disorders. We're talking about social media addiction.
Until recently, the world wide web was considered a real boon for humanity. The Internet was positioned as a world library, as the richest storehouse of knowledge, thanks to which you can easily find a job, find out the news, read an interesting book, prepare an essay or find other necessary information. And even scientists spoke out about the fact that thanks to the Internet, humanity will reach new level knowledge.
No more than 20 years have passed since then, and what do we see? Social networks have become more than just popular. They caused massive addiction among the population, which today simply cannot imagine life without visiting their account, without constantly viewing the news feed, without studying photos and “posts” of virtual friends. Moreover, if initially, social networks were created to search for real people with whom life brought us together in the past, today most owners of pages on a social network have 90% virtual friends whom they have never met before and are unlikely to ever meet.
Such an unhealthy attraction to the Internet and communication with virtual interlocutors has led to a whole tangle of problems, which modern psychologists call addiction to social networks. What is fraught with such dependence and can it be resisted? Let's talk about it in this article.
Who is addicted to social media
It cannot be said that absolutely all people are addicted to the Internet and social networks. Some individuals visit their page no more than once or twice a week and only in order to respond to an important message, find out the right address, phone number, or transfer information. Such individuals have other priorities in life and are not subject to the addiction in question.
There is a transitional personality type, i.e. people who do not feel cravings for communication on the Internet, but go to their page 3-4 times a week to view friends' news and thereby dispel boredom. Such behavior can be considered the norm, however, according to psychologists, such an attempt to take up free time ends in failure. After 4-5 months, a person “gets hooked” on social networks and a real addiction begins to develop in him.
The third group of personalities is the most numerous and it is this group that is the subject of discussion in this article, because the people included in it visit their account at least once every 20 minutes! They are in constant expectation of messages, and the ensuing correspondence, which carries absolutely no useful information, stretch for several hours, forgetting about work, household chores and other responsibilities.
As a rule, lonely and shy people who experience a lack of communication with real interlocutors are subject to social media addiction. This also includes teenagers who do not find mutual understanding with their peers and young mothers who sit online all their free time while the baby is sleeping. All of them do not even notice when they cross the line, beyond which the passion for social networks ends and addiction begins.
What does social media addiction lead to?
1. Social degradation
First of all, enthusiastic communication with virtual interlocutors leads to the fact that a person spends more and more time “online” and communicates less and less with real people. Many justify this by loneliness, although psychologists have long noticed that for the most part this loneliness is false, because these people live in society, visit educational establishments and go to work, which means they could make friends. It is addiction that pushes them into virtual life. Moreover, communication and flirting in social networks are so addictive that a person sacrifices everything - work, family and other responsibilities, just to stay longer in his fictional world.
People who become addicted to such communication are at risk of losing their jobs, although large companies have long blocked access to the Internet for their employees and closely monitor employees' visits to specific sites. However, this does not save you from addiction. At home, it is even more difficult to protect yourself from the craving for virtual communication and viewing the news of virtual friends. That is why nowadays 70% couples get divorced due to hobbies of one of the partners in social networks.
All this invariably leads to the degradation of the individual. An addicted person is so carried away by this quasi-communication that he completely “turns off” from the outside world, not noticing how interesting, lively and colorful life is going on around him. All that this person craves is to get to the Internet faster and go to his favorite page. This condition refers to behavioral disorders and is treated exclusively by specialists, since a sick person cannot help himself on his own.
2. Problems with memory and attention
With prolonged communication on the Internet, the human brain begins to absorb information quickly, in small, metered portions. Because of this, a person simply unlearns how to concentrate his attention on something for a long time. Moreover, against the background of deep immersion in social networks, a person develops a hyperactivity syndrome, in which there is a craving to do several things at the same time (communicate, take notes, make appointments, study documents).
The consequence of these processes is the banal inability to concentrate on the plot of the book or the task, because the brain constantly focuses on extraneous things. Doctors in this case speak of "floating" attention. This is especially dangerous for children and adolescents, whose thinking is plastic and not yet sufficiently formed, and therefore runs the risk of absorbing harmful standards.
3. Decreased intelligence
It is impossible not to say that sitting for 8-10 hours on VKontakte, Twitter and other social networks, our brain is only engaged in aimless and completely meaningless digestion of information. But in order to maintain brain activity in good shape, it is important to constantly set intellectual tasks for the brain - to read literature, solve crossword puzzles, engage in scientific activities, that is, to be enriched with knowledge.
But what is even more dangerous, the flow of meaningless information not only does not contribute to the training of the intellect, it leads to the fact that the addicted person loses interest and enthusiasm for other people, empathy and compassion disappear. Such a person begins to experience alienation from others, which in the future will necessarily affect his mental state.
4. Information addiction
This addiction is a real addiction, not much different from nicotine, alcohol or drugs. Communicating with virtual interlocutors or looking at other people's photos, a person gets his dose of pleasure, and having lost this communication for at least a day, he begins to experience a real “withdrawal”. He becomes irritated, aggressive, cannot relax and fall asleep, in general, he experiences all the "charms" of the withdrawal syndrome.
5. Fatigue and stress
A series of constantly changing monotonous impressions that a person who has become addicted to social networks experiences inevitably leads to the development of stress. But this is the most dangerous - imperceptible, sluggish chronic stress, which is accompanied by apathy, constant fatigue for no apparent reason, and problems with sleep. If you do not detect and treat it in time, you can fall into a deep depression, from which the patient will have to be saved already in a hospital.
Let us add here that under the guise of understanding and sympathetic interlocutors in social networks, scammers, swindlers and all kinds of sectarians are often hiding, whose goal is to break the psyche of a person dependent on virtual communication and impose their ideals on him in order to recruit him into a terrorist group or force him to engage in prostitution. And every person who is addicted to social networks should understand that he is at risk.
How to deal with social media addiction
First of all, it should be understood that getting rid of addiction and starting to live a real, fulfilling life can only be realized by realizing the perniciousness of your addiction. If you are mentally prepared to fight addiction, you need to:
Completely stop visiting social networks
If it is difficult to immediately abandon the Internet, you can come to this step by step, starting to limit visits to your account to 1 hour, and then 30 minutes a day. If you do not have enough exposure, you can use special programs, which after a certain time on the network simply block the selected site.
Be prepared for the fact that for some time you will be unbearably drawn to go to your own page
To combat this desire, find yourself an activity that will help you take your mind off the Internet. Any work or hobby will be useful: drawing, designing, knitting or reading books. These monotonous activities are akin to meditation, as they allow you to get rid of oppressive thoughts, feeling peace and tranquility.
Clean up your social media page
Remove from it unnecessary groups that do not bring you any actual benefit, but only take up precious time. Less groups - less meaningless news in the feed. You can leave only cognitive groups that really carry knowledge.
Thoroughly thin out your friends list
Remove unnecessary people from it, whom you have never seen in your life, and who simply occupy your time with chatter.
Spend more time with real friends and acquaintances
Go on a visit, go out with friends for picnics, arrange joint shopping trips or just walks around the city. Literally in a week of real communication, your brain will be cleared, and you will see that the real world is full of bright colors and real emotions.
Go in for sports
Physical exercise is an excellent way to tone up the body and improve mood, which is important in terms of combating stress. In addition, sports help to usefully spend the free time that you used to spend on social networks. And if you play sports together with friends, you will not only improve your health, but also get a dose of good mood from live communication.
Contact a psychologist
If all the above methods do not help you fight your existing addiction, contact a specialist who will definitely find a way to bring you back to real life! The main thing is to really want to get rid of addiction, because not only you, but also your loved ones suffer from it. Health to you!
For several years now, there have been clinics in China and the United States where they treat those who have been caught on the World Wide Web.
How does a simple interest turn into a pathological addiction?
Addiction to social networks - is the "hell" so terrible?
Internet addiction, namely the so-called dependence on the Internet, is not officially considered a mental disorder in medicine.
However, this phenomenon has been studied since 1995, when the American psychiatrist Ivan Kenneth Goldberg described human behavior in which there is a threat of complete crowding out by the Internet.
At first it seemed like a joke, but the problem began to grow and spread around the world.
Attachment to the World Wide Web can be called the main disease of our timeResearch and consultation centers began to be created, psychiatrists, psychologists and sociologists began to understand the nature of this phenomenon.
And in 2009, at a congress of psychiatrists, it was proposed to consider dependence on social networks and the Internet a chronic disease that needs to be treated.
Five types of users have been identified:
- Independent- no comment.
- Weakly dependent- people who visit their account from time to time or out of necessity. They live a normal life in which social networks do not play a special role.
- transitional type- they can “out of nothing to do” go online a couple of times a day to have fun, see photos of friends or exchange a couple of phrases. As a rule, a person does not stay long in this phase and gradually migrates to the next one.
- Highly addicted- practically do not let go of a tablet or smartphone. Such people try to keep abreast of all the news of their many "friends" and all the groups they belong to.
- Absolutely dependent- people who already need treatment, as they cannot imagine life without the Internet.
Most often, people who are deprived of normal communication in real life suffer from this.
Here you can just have a good time, have fun, find a job or even earn money.
Why do more and more people fall into this trap, turning their lives into a surrogate?
Social media addiction - statistics
The person who lives next to you will immediately notice that you spend too much time on social networks.
Few people admit that he has such a problem - what's the big deal, I'm not a drug addict or an alcoholic?
But any addiction damages mental health, and if you do not change your behavior, then physical health problems will follow.
In addition to troubles with vision, spine and sleep, the ability to concentrate on real things is impaired. Attention jumps from one to another, not dwelling on anything for a long time.
According to statistics, a quarter of addict users developed the habit of checking accounts within six months. Nearly 60% did so within the next six months.
Social media has become a modern drugYoung people in large cities almost completely belong to the intermediate type of Internet addicts.
If a person has a hobby, then his chances of becoming an Internet addict are significantly reduced.
Compared to the brilliance of virtuality, real life can become uninteresting and faded for a teenager, so they may even attempt suicide.
Young people are more dependent on the opinions of other people. They need attention and approval, which can lead to very unhappy consequences.
Fortunately, today schools have begun to pay more attention to this problem. Workshops are held, children do research projects about social media addiction, write essays and essays about internet addiction.
Tip: in order to get only the best from the global web, you need to learn to choose from a huge flow of information only what helps development - articles, educational games, videos.
Do not use the computer as a babysitter while you go about your business; spend more time together, become friends so that a teenager can trust you and share his experiences without fear of being punished.
Social media addiction - test
I want to invite you to answer adapted questions from a test by Canadian psychologist Brent Conrad that help you understand how dependent you are on Facebook, just like any other social network.
- I often spend more time on Facebook than planned.
- I don't get enough sleep because I stay up late on FB
- Relatives and friends notice that I spend a lot of time on FB
- For more than two hours a day, I “hang out” on Facebook for pleasure, and not for work or study.
- Despite the prohibitions, I communicate on FB during working hours (or in class)
- Not being able to log into my account during the day makes me feel uncomfortable
- A lot of effort and time was spent on acquiring a huge number of friends on FB
- Most of them are not my real friends.
- My performance at work (in school) suffers from the fact that I spend a lot of time on Facebook
- For the same reason, I do not develop personal relationships.
- I spend hours playing different games on FB
- Very frustrating lack of comments on my posts
- I like virtual communication more than real
- All attempts to reduce the time spent in FB ended in a fiasco
- This is the network I spend most of my time on the internet.
- Often FB crowds out my day to day responsibilities
- Due to being online, I communicate less with friends, do little hobbies, sports
- I'm lonely, despite the huge number of friends on FB
- Even chatting with friends, I'm online
- When I wake up, I immediately log into my account
- I check my account before bed
- To cheer up, I go to Facebook
- When I'm on FB, I'm often late for something.
- I get offended if someone does not add me as a friend
- My account is set up so that I can always see what my friends have done or what comments they have left.
- More friends for someone will make me very upset
- A whole month without social networks is impossible for me
- I can’t remember where I heard an interesting phrase - in real communication or in virtual
- Social networks are my cure for boredom or idleness
If most of your answers are positive, then it is worth trying to bring yourself back to reality.
How to get rid of social media addiction
Having determined the number of wasted hours, try to imagine how many necessary and useful things could have been done during this time.
By admitting there is a problem, you will do the most difficult thing, and then you should try to adhere to some rules:
- Limit your online stay to clear time frames - for example, log into your account only for half an hour in the evening
- Make a plan of things that you need to have time to do and try to complete it without distractions
- Keep virtual communication to a minimum - clean up your friends list, leave groups that you are not interested in
- Do what you love, find a new hobby, learn a foreign language
- Don't eat in front of the computer
- Do sports every day
Remember that the computer is just a tool to help us in our work. Odnoklassniki, VKontakte, etc. will not be able to replace you, the warm participation of relatives and friends.
Don't let virtual reality get in the way of your normal life and work by pushing real feelings and real friends out of your life.
With the development of the Internet, the spread of gadgets and the general immersion in social networks, it is quite difficult to refuse to constantly check Facebook, Vkontakte, Instagram and other accounts. We have selected for you some tips from the book "Jedi Techniques" that will help you get rid of your addiction to social networks.
Strength of will
Checking social networks stimulates the neurotransmitter dopamine produced by our brain. That is why it is very difficult to stop doing it. However, many try to “endure” a certain amount of time without social media, but this does not help. The fact is that with the help of willpower, it’s enough to defeat addiction - it’s like hanging on a horizontal bar, trying to defeat gravity with the power of your hands. Gravity will still take over - it's just a matter of time. And the longer you hang, the closer this moment is.
So you need a different approach.
Addiction
The first thing you need to do is deal with yourself. If you find yourself diving into your smartphone a lot in public places, getting angry when people tell you about it, and hiding behind hastily made up excuses like urgent work, don't panic. It's just an addiction. People stop drinking and smoking, you are also quite capable of coping. But first, admit it to yourself - it's an addiction!
To do this is not as easy as it seems at first glance. However, once you acknowledge that there is a problem, it will be much easier for you to deal with it.
Turn off notifications
It is also important to get rid of any reason to check social networks. Turn off notifications on your computer and phone that urge you to read a new message or interact with your gadget in some way. Otherwise, all your work will go down the drain - after all, constant notifications will distract you from real life and you will again “stick” on social networks.
Take it step by step
No need to demand from yourself once and for all to stop visiting social networks. This is the reason for the main failures. Try adding daily repetitive tasks like "spend fifteen minutes reading the news" to your list.
If one such task is not enough for you - breakdowns occur - try to perform two such tasks a day. When doing these tasks, keep track of time with a timer so you don't get stuck on social media for hours.
The next time you feel like you really, really want to see what's going on in the world, or what the population of Thailand was like during the Sukhothai era, just say sweetly, “Of course, we'll do it. You remember - we have it planned.
