Reduce Social Media Time: Your Mental Health is at Stake

Though social media was initially meant to be a way to connect with people, it has become a source of mental stress and anxiety for many. Nowadays, people spend much of their time on their smartphones when they can use that time to meet their friends and be happier people. This makes it important for us to reduce social media usage.

Benefits of Reducing Social Media Use

While technology has become an important part of our lives, reducing its usage can help you prevent several problems. Here are some benefits of cutting back on social media.

Allow You to Sleep

Watching Social Media videos at bedtime is no bueno for your sleep.

Do you get in bed with your smartphone and scroll for hours before sleeping? Well, this is pretty common, but it can impact your sleeping habits. Your mobile phone’s artificial light can influence melatonin‘s function, a hormone that helps you get into a deep sleep. Therefore, using a brightly lit screen before you shut your eyes will prevent you from falling asleep.

That being said, you’re not doing yourself any favors when you start checking Instagram or scrolling Facebook before falling asleep. Controlling your urge to use social media when you go to bed will help you get to sleep faster and prevent insomnia.

Helps to Curb FOMO

Another great advantage of staying away from social media is that it will help you avoid FOMO. It’s the fear of missing out, and it’s described as a pervasive fear that other people are having more rewarding experiences than you. Fear of missing out has become a great problem for many people (and the younger you are the more you seem to be affected!). This forces them to stick to their smartphones to avoid missing any exciting news about their favorite celebrity or missing out on their friends’ major life announcements.

Cutting down usage of social media will help you curb your FOMO. It might seem a bit challenging initially, but you will soon get used to it. Remember that you can’t do everything. There’s always something that you will miss out on. It’s important to focus more on important things in your life, like connecting with your friends and family or reaching your career goals.

Less Social Media Reduces Stress

Go meet with a friend and leave your smartphone at home or in the car.

Excessive social media use can lead to increased stress. We often get impressed with the world we see on social media. This attracts most of us and compels us to live a lavish and exciting life as other people on Instagram and Facebook are living. But little do we know that most people live normal lives. On social media, they just pretend to have unique lives. Moreover, this leads to endless stress that impacts people’s quality of life.

By limiting your social media usage, you can save yourself from getting stressed and ruining your life. This will also help you feel gratitude for everything you already have and focus on the thing that you actually believe in instead of turning into a person that shows off on Instagram.

Prevents Anxiety, Depression, and Psychological Distress

Some of the common social media-related behaviors, like checking messages frequently and excessive use of social media platforms, are risk factors for depression, anxiety, and psychological distress. Research also indicates that people who use social media throughout the day can develop self-reported depression symptoms.

These mental illnesses can occur due to feeling the stress of being less privileged than others. Also, seeing people living a quality life while you are facing trouble fulfilling everyday needs can cause distress. By simply reducing social media use, you can save yourself from experiencing anxiety and focus on your own goals instead.

Signs that You Need to Reduce Social Media Time

Less time scrolling social media means more time doing things you want to be doing.

Here are signs that you need to reduce social media usage.

• You get easily annoyed with people’s comments, posts, or trending topics on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms.
• You check social media immediately after you open your eyes in the morning.
• You notice a feeling of depression and anxiety.
• You spend most of your time on social media instead of connecting with your friends and family.
• You aren’t focusing on important things and missing your deadlines.
• You feel tempted to compete with others on social media.
• You feel overwhelmed by pictures, videos, and other content on social media.

Bottom Line on Reducing Social Media

In a nutshell, reducing social media can help you improve your life. So, if you have noticed any signs, then start avoiding social media starting right now!