Do you sometimes feel like the time is leaking through your fingers? That you should’ve done much more throughout the day but you didn’t and now you have no idea how this happened. One of the most likely answers is – distractions. You distract yourself from doing the thing you ought to be doing because different possibilities occupy your mind and draw your attention.
This may be the latest episode of your favorite series, a YouTube video, an interesting article, or some notifications on your smartphone. Now, if you think of it, what’s sending these notifications? Mostly social media. And whenever you hear that Messenger’s BLIP or Snapchat’s CLYCK doesn’t it attract you in the same way a bowl attracts a dog? 😀 That’s simple behaviorism – your brain wants to choose the simpler, more entertaining activity. But is it good for you? Definitely not.
Social Media Addiction
Do you know people who seem like they’ve glued the tip of their nose to their phone? Walking down the street not watching their surroundings but checking what’s new on Instagram/answering the Facebook messages/swiping the photos on Snapchat. It’s not very healthy but most of all it is very dangerous. Statistics tell the horrible truth:
The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year. Nearly 330,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving. 1 out of every 4 car accidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving. – Source
Thus, if you think that you may we spending too much time on your Facebook profile for no particular reason, just because you can. If you feel like the other aspects of your life become irrelevant, then it is the high time you thought about taking a break from your social media. If you give it a try, you may, after some time, notice the improvement in your wellbeing, relationships, and, of course, a huge boost of productivity.
The fact is, we feel quite horrible when Facebook pulls us away from the tasks at hand that should be done as soon as possible. This leads to self-loathing, working overnights, anxiety, and can even be the cause of depression if not properly treated. Have you ever caught yourself browsing through a gallery of people with whom, for example, you used to go the same class years ago? Now you have nothing in common, you probably wouldn’t recognize each other on the street. Yet, you just spent 30 minutes watching photos. Worse if you are struggling to achieve any success in your professional life, and this person has a great job, family, and is going places – you just wasted half an hour and in the result, you feel worse about yourself.
Most of the people who waste too much time on social media wish they could stop. However, it often requires more effort than they expect. You see, the behavioral addictions are as dangerous as the chemical ones. What’s the difference?
- A chemical addiction is the one when your body requires a certain substance – most popular in this case is nicotine, but there’s also caffeine, alcohol, hard drugs. You get the idea. You may be familiar with some documentaries about people addicted to drugs, or heavy smokers. You see them and you think “oh my, I’m glad I have nothing to do with that.”
- And then you check your mobile phone for the fiftieth time this day. Is this any different? After all, it destroys both your physical and mental health. This is a behavioral addiction – though you don’t feel a physical pain, and your body doesn’t desperately yearn for the drug, there’s still this intrusive need in your head.
How can you tell that you have a problem? There are certain symptoms:
- It conflicts with other activities, drawing your attention from the tasks you were performing and that had to be done.
- It becomes your first thought whenever you lose your focus.
- If you have problems or too much on your shoulders, you use it to forget.
- You visit it unconsciously, it becomes a mechanical activity, and its frequency is increasing.
Is It That Bad?
Honestly, it is not. Facebook offers so many opportunities if we know where to look. It’s easy to chat with friends, call them, share with them anything you want. You can join hundreds of groups full of people who share your interests. Lastly, it has a gigantic marketing potential – you can practically set up a well-functioning online business with the Facebook alone, provided that you know how to use it 😉 Fortunately, there are many courses and tutorials that can help you with that.
Check out this link if you’d like to become a Facebook Certified Professional.
Used in a healthy way, Facebook can be your shortcut to the career. Or it can become a quicksand if you abuse it.
How Can I Learn To Use Facebook in a Proper Way?
First of all, you have to determine whether you are abusing it. If you think like you are matching most of the suggestions from the previous paragraph, then it is time to reduce the usage:
- Delete social media apps from your phone – do you really have to check them every now and then? (meaning every 1-10minutes;) Of course not. Try to disturb the connection between you and your social media as much as possible. If you require it for work, give yourself about 30-60 minutes each day to work with it, no more.
- Pro tip: don’t let your browser save and remember the passwords to your social media profiles. Use those valuable seconds that you spend logging in, to think it through and decide whether you really need it.
- Use Time Tracking Software to monitor and analyze your daily performance. With our app, TimeCamp, you can track the time spent on your device, and see which computer activities you performed were productive, and which ones weren’t. TimeCamp automatically switches between tasks using keywords, so you don’t have to worry whenever you decide to do a different thing. It divides the tracked activities between productive and unproductive, marking the first in green, and the second in red. You can check it every day and plan your next day more efficiently. After some time you will notice the improvement.
You can try TimeCamp for free. – no cost, no complications, no effort 😉
Summing Up
Well, we managed to describe a few positive sites of using Facebook – it’s a powerful tool and can be used to do a lot of good! 😉 However, we can’t lie (please, Mr. Zuckerberg, don’t take it personally! ;p) Facebook and the words ‘hazard risk’ go hand in hand. It can become a perfect time killer, and trust us, killing your time is the worst thing to do. Better track it 😀