Have a Digital Detox.

Technology is the boon to humankind. Humans landed on Moon & Mars. Nowadays herculean tasks are done with so much ease. Technology has brought the two poles so near that it made distance disappear. Sometimes people feel their life is impossible without technology.

So, why is the title contradictory to the facts mentioned above? If technology is beneficial then why to get rid of it?

During my graduation, I was looking for the platform where I can express my perspectives with likeminded people. Later I got acquainted with LinkedIn. This is the same place where I got to know about toastmasters also. I started using LinkedIn. Initially it was all normal. I was used to blog every fortnight. After two and half month, one of the article received overwhelming response. The content was appealing to the people and they started appreciating.

This is the point where game had changed. I became obsessed with it. The first thing I do when I woke up was to check my phone for the likes and comments on my feed. Till now, I haven’t realized the harm it had caused. Due to this I developed unhealthy diet habits which lead to lack of appetite and my mental & physical health was at stake. So I ended up quitting LinkedIn in order to regain my health.

Anything beyond necessity is harmful.

Why this has happened?

Social affirmation is something each of us takes joy or I would rather say human beings enjoy being liked. When a person is praised by someone, the brain releases a chemical called ‘Dopamine’. It mostly promotes desire, satiety and an urge to more. It works as incentives. This means that each time we get a like or comment on social media we receive a surge of chemicals to our brain that makes us feel super good. This kind of repeated chemical response can be considered as Addiction.

This is just cautionary tale of what could happen. Excessive use of social media may lead to social isolation, lack of sense of belonging, failing to maintain personal relationships, affect the ability to think properly, low self control, depression, disrupted sleeping patterns and so on. So ask yourself what is at risk?

Once a man said, “Life is too beautiful to waste your time being angry and sad, when you could enjoy what life has to offer”. I must rephrase this phrase as, “Life is too beautiful to obsess about the things we don’t have control over, when you could enjoy what you have control over”.  

Prevention is always better than cure.

In order to curtail these habits cum addiction, one can do yoga, pranayam and listen to music to release stress. Reading books will help you develop your personality, travelling and interacting with new people will enhance your interpersonal abilities and healthy diet will keep your body & mind sound.

We all are aware that social media is nowhere near as dangerous as cocaine but it can easily turn into same kind of addiction. Simply putting our phones down and shutting our laptops more often can change the entire way our brain reacts to social media.

Our mind is the most vulnerable asset. Don’t let others to take control of it. 

-AVI