When it comes to Social Media, pretty much all of us participate in social networking, whether it be through websites or apps. The real question is how much of our time, energy and mental attention do we give to these much-loved social media services? And how might their obsessive and addictive use be affecting your life? With that in mind, here we’ll enlighten you with the top 15 signs that you may be addicted to social media.
You check your phone first thing in the morning/ when you wake up.
Checking your phone first thing in the morning can immediately take over your morning routine. Tristan Harris, Google’s former Design Ethicist, on Medium speaks about the effects in an article published by Business Insider UK saying:
“When we wake up in the morning and turn our phone over to see a list of notifications, it frames the experience of ‘waking up in the morning’ around a menu of ‘all the things I’ve missed since yesterday.'”
Tristan likens tech designers to magicians in the sense that they look for “blind spots, edges, vulnerabilities, and limits of people’s perception so they can influence what people do without them even realizing it.” Scary stuff…
You spend way too much time on your phone before bed/ sleeping.
Using your phone/ I pad in the dark before bed not only makes it harder to sleep but can impact how sleepy you are the next day. Research conducted from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts reveals:
“We know from previous work that light from screens in the evening alters sleepiness and alertness, and suppresses melatonin levels,” Dr Anne-Marie Chang, an associate neuroscientist in BWH’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders who was a co-author on the study, told The Huffington Post via email. “This study shows comprehensive results of a direct comparison between reading with a light-emitting device and reading a printed book and the consequences on sleep.”
You can’t have a meal without being on your phone/ taking a snap of your food.
You can never seem to get past your main course in a restaurant without having the burning desire to get your phone out and Instagram/ snap your food. What does this mean? According to top Chef and restaurateur David Bouley who runs two Manhattan eateries as quoted by The Daily Mail, taking snaps of your food has a lot of downsides, “it chills the food. That chef just painstakingly prepared a delicious hot meal that…neads to be eaten now”.
He also says it “totally disrupts the ambience”, and goes further by saying it can hinder the quality of a dining experience with someone special to you.
“Everybody wants to get their shot. They don’t care how it affects people around them. It’s a disaster in terms of momentum, settling into the meal, the great conversation that develops.
‘It’s hard to build a memorable evening when flashes are flying every six minutes.”
You’re always charging your phone.
Do you find yourself running around like a lunatic, looking for your charger as soon as you get the dreaded ‘low battery’ notification? Yeah, we thought so…
Or are you one of those people that will sit by their phones wherever it’s charging, just so that they can use it as it charges? Again – yeah, we thought so… This is a really obvious sign that you’re addicted to your phone – you’re literally side by side with it – even at times when you’re phone needs rest to recuperate and charge. Not cool.
You find something funny so instead of literally laughing out loud, you simply say the phrase ‘lol’. What a mug…
Some people actually use the phrase ‘LOL’ as part of a spoken sentence as well using it in a text, FB message or in an Instagram post. The entire point of ‘LOL’ is that it’s used when someone can’t hear you laughing. Don’t succumb to the foolish behaviour – don’t say ‘LOL’ out loud.
You can’t go to the bathroom/ toilet without having a quick check on Instagram.
Do you find those excuses at work to go to the toilet, just so you can get a couple of precious minutes to investigate how many people ‘liked’ your latest post? Or have you ever taken a selfie in the toilet cubical because of the lighting which is oh so perfect? If so, we’re afraid to tell you that you have stopped understanding essential, decent behaviour! Do what you need to do in the toilet, and then get outta there…
You’ve been on FB on your laptop and then go onto the app on your phone – at the same time.
You’ve done it…haven’t you?!
Your partner/ friends yell at you for senselessly scrolling through messages on your phone during a conversation, and you’re never without it.
Ugh, this is one of the rudest and most anti-social habits someone can have. Constantly being on your phone around loved ones or friends means you’re distancing yourself from what is actually going on around you – it means you’re not actually very present in the moment and you’re missing out on making memories with people close to you. That’s no good – put the phone down, it can wait…
You’re obsessed with Selfies.
Being a ‘Selfie Addict’ is pretty much a symptom/ side effect of a Social Media addict – the two tend to go hand in hand. You take Selfies at home, at work, with friends, without friends, when you’re out when you’re in bed – literally anywhere and everywhere. You’re consumed by the idea and action of taking pictures of yourself (some call this Narcissism, some call it confidence, you choose). Remember, life is for living, and if you’re constantly taking selfies, you’re not necessarily enjoying life’s moments as they happen.
Facebook stalking is one of the most adrenaline pumping activities for you.
You’re a pro when it comes to ‘stalking’ people on Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – whatever the platform may be, you’re stalking skills are next to none. Sometimes you end up on your ex – boyfriend’s brother’s best friend’s cousin page just before bed on a Sunday night – this benefits your life in no way whatsoever, yet you find this activity of searching for people extremely satisfying and beneficial. As much as you may love it, keep it in moderation otherwise it just becomes creepy.
If/ when you wake up in the middle of the night, you definitely have a quick peep at Instagram to see what’s new.
Whilst you’ve been sleeping, Instagram has still continued, and you can’t help but feel that you might have missed some Instagram juice whilst you were ‘away’. So if you do wake up in the middle of the night, you feel you have every right and need to check what’s been going out since you last looked – after all, you don’t always hear your phone “ping” notification when you’re asleep.
Your most visited sites are social media platforms – whether its Facebook, Instagram or both, you check these sites religiously and view them as if they were a News channel – a constant, real-time update on things happening in your area and around the world. After all, nobody wants to miss the Facebook live video of your friend’s friend feeding their pet dog dinner…
Whatever happened to people using their phones for their original purpose – to make phone calls?
This point is both hilarious yet seriously alarming. Many of us have experienced the imaginary phone vibration, causing you to quickly check our phone for a notification that never came…seriously, this is a real thing.
In the United States Dr Michael Rothberg officially declared this problem as ‘Phantom vibration syndrome’ and after some research at an American university, it was found that 9 out of 10 students experienced this at some point. Dear oh dear…
Now please, retweet, share and like this article with friends on all social media platforms – Thank you!
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