Do you know the dark side of social media and How it'll destroy your brain and make you a digital slave? Plus, ruining your life and relationship, Sounds crazy right?
We believe, Social Media connects us with our friends and family. Yeah, that's true. But the reality is something else. Now the question is, how does it? Let me explain it step by step.
In this article, you'll discover the dark truth behind social media platform and how it affects your brain.
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The dark side of social media
Hijack your dopamine
Social media platforms are designed to keep you hooked. They use features like infinite scrolling, push notifications, and personalized content to keep you engaged for as long as possible.
When you get likes, comments, or messages on social media, your brains release a chemical called dopamine, which makes you feel good. With the help of dopamine, they want to keep you engaged on social media.
Over time, it becomes an addiction and makes you a zombie for the sake of happiness.
Comparison illusion
We always loved to compare ourselves to others.
What do you see on social media?
People madly compete with each other to show, how happy they are and attractive they are. But are they really happy or attractive?
What you see on social media that's not real because no one wants to show their painful life, even you and me that's the reality.
By comparing yourself to others, you indirectly drain your positive energy, which negatively affects your mental health.
So please stop it. No one is perfect nor their lives. Everyone has a problem, but they don't want to show us. It's just an illusion of social media.
Killing your Thinking Ability
The social platform encourages you to consume information quickly without much thought.
When you scroll social media news feeds, they show you a lot of random content such as funny clips, memes, movie clips, gaming clips, etc.
This type of content gives you instant pleasure, which means your brain continuously releases dopamine without doing anything. And it'll badly affect your brain.
As a result, whenever you're trying to do any task, you find yourself stuck and can’t think clearly as well as you feel blank and procrastinate because it kills your thinking ability.
Damage Your Focus Ability
As I mentioned earlier, how do they kill your thinking ability? In the same process, they also damage your focus ability.
Social Media is designed to grab our attention via notifications, likes, comments, shares, etc. They want to make you addicted to spending as much time as possible on their platform.
Whenever a notification comes from social media, you are busy to check it.
No matter how important tasks you are doing at that time. Our brains can't focus on multiple tasks at a time.
When you check notifications on social media, you are just switching your focus from one task to another. This way, your brain is confused, and can't understand which task should give priority. As a result, you can't fully focus on any task.
That's why many experts say that, when you are doing any important task, Stay away from social media platforms.
Waste your Time and Energy
Research shows that, on average, people spend their time on social media at least 3 hours per day. It's a minimum amount of time and just an average number. In some areas, people spend much more time on social media. If I calculate this number, how much time do you spend on social media per year?
The number is (spending time per day × 1 year)=(3 hours × 365 days)= 1095 hours.
You spend 1,095 hours per year on social media. If I convert this number to days, it equals (1,095 ÷ 24) = 45.62 days. Can you believe it, you spend almost 46 days per year on social media platforms? I calculate the minimum amount of time and imagine the maximum number. Just Unbelievable
So, I suggest minimizing your social media usage as much as possible and saving your valuable time.
Negatively affects your Mental Health
If you deeply observe social media, you will see that many people spend their time criticizing others. Some of them are jealous of others, and others are harassed by someone.
The main thing is it's a toxic place with a lot of negativity, and it'll badly affect your mental health and disturb your peace of mind condition.
Disrupt your sleep patterns
Using social media at late night will affect your sleep patterns. Because your phone produces blue light, which blocks your sleep hormones to release. As a result, you’ll face difficulty in asleep. As well as It’ll negatively affect your cognitive function and mental health.
A Former Facebook Employee Interview
“I feel tremendous guilt, The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works”
Now the question is, How can you save yourself from this?
Here is a solution for you1. Don't use social media early in the morning
Your brain processes information faster than you think.
What's the problem with scrolling social media in the morning?
Because your subconscious mind is highly activated in the morning. So fill it with positive thoughts rather than negativity.
2. Limiting your social media use time
First, remove social media apps from your main screen and place them slightly away. This way, you will not access those apps easily." This trick is simple, but it works, trust me.
You can also use social media tracker apps to monitor your daily usage and track how much time you're spending.
I prefer to use social media at a specific time, rather than using it randomly.
3. Don't compare yourself with others
Everyone has a uniqueness nobody is perfect. Comparing yourself with others means you aren't accepting yourself, and it makes you feel weak.
Remember one thing "If you don't believe in yourself, No one will believe you".
So be confident you are enough for yourself and stop the comparison.
4. Kick Out negative people
There are a lot of negative people on social media, who have one goal to criticize or insult others and make fun of them. They make social media a toxic place, So always stay away from them.
5. Feed your mind good thoughts
Just like our body needs good food every day, as our mind needs good thoughts every day.
Because when you eat so much junk food, you'll get sick. Similarly, if you feed your mind continuously negative thoughts, it'll affect your brain. That's why it's important to feed your mind with positive thoughts.
Conclusion
Everything has a good side and a bad side. Spending too much time on social media will affect your mental health and reduce your focus and thinking ability. So try to limit your social media usage time.
Because "If you control this, it'll make your life easier, But if you can't, then it'll destroy you".
So, I hope you understand the dark side of social media and how it'll affect your brain.
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FAQs
What is the negative side of social media?
Spending too much time on social media negatively affects your mental health. It reduces your focus and thinking ability. Over time, you may experience difficulties in remembering things, which can badly impact your everyday life.
What are the Dark Facts about social media?
Social media platforms are designed to keep you hooked and consume information quickly without much thought. In a short time, your brain doesn't process such a large amount of information. As a result, you are losing your focus and thinking ability.
Why you are stuck after browsing social media?
Using social media gives you instant gratification because of dopamine releases. Continuous dopamine release changes your brain function and makes it a habit. That's why, it becomes difficult to concentrate effectively on daily tasks without instant gratification.