Social Media - Yes Or No?

[Paul Thomas]

Hey, I'm confused if I should quit social media such as Facebook or Whatsapp cause I feel like many of my time goes away by hanging out there and just doing crap stuff. What would you do to fix this issue? Any suggestions?

[Mouldtooth]

I quit social media when I became a father. I had just started studing chinese and and when my son was born there was really no time anymore to sit down and study on my spare time (kids takes alot of time =)). So, to keep up with my studies I used all the time I spend browsing the net, instagram, facebook, news etc. and replaced it with using Skritter (an app for learning chinese characters and words). Basically replacing one habit, with another more valuable habit (at least for me personally). 

My tip for you is to find something you would like to start with, or do more of, and dedicate all the social media time with that. This change of habit bought me  258 hours of chinese charatcter training last year. What would you like to do for 258 hours? 

[Dangirdas]

There is no reason to quit social media, it's a platform to help you connect and socialize with people. Social media can help you grow as a person if used right. Social media is not the problem, the problem is the addiction people get from it if they are weak minded. There is a lot you can learn from social media, if it's about people, or ideas that people share and reshare.

[Rosie]

2 minutes ago, Dangirdas said:

There is no reason to quit social media, it's a platform to help you connect and socialize with people. Social media can help you grow as a person if used right. Social media is not the problem, the problem is the addiction people get from it if they are weak minded. There is a lot you can learn from social media, if it's about people, or ideas that people share and reshare.

I could not agree more on that. The problem is not having a computer, a smartphone or a TV, just like the problem is not when you have a Collection of spirits or wine in your home. The problem starts when you can't stop yourself using these things. There is a thing what you need to work on. You have to choose using social media, not the other way around. It can become an obsession, so slowly but surely you have to get off from it.
 

[Dangirdas]

3 minutes ago, Rosie said:

I could not agree more on that. The problem is not having a computer, a smartphone or a TV, just like the problem is not when you have a Collection of spirits or wine in your home. The problem starts when you can't stop yourself using these things. There is a thing what you need to work on. You have to choose using social media, not the other way around. It can become an obsession, so slowly but surely you have to get off from it.
 

I myself have been addicted to social media. The way i stopped this addiction, is by taking radical action. I simply started taking breaks from 1 week to 4 weeks away from the social media. I have also gotten the strength enough, to start fresh a couple of times by deleting EVERYTHING i have on the media. Even if i had a attachment to all of the likes, comments, etc.

Edited February 8, 2016 by Dangirdas

[WhyteSeal]

Yes or no is quite wrong. I would say yes and no. You choose. Even a yes would mean to try to stay lesser so that you get time for other things that you value more.

[JessW]

It's definitely up to you. If it's something that's hindering you from being the person you want to be then I would say yes quit. I became very addicted to social media. I was constantly on. I became obsessed. I tried to tell myself I was using it for useful purposes but realized I was only using it to see what others were doing with their lives or seeing how many likes I could get. My partner told me he felt like I was always absent when I was on social media around him. It really hurt him. I had no idea. So I deleted it. And it felt so good! I honestly can say I don't miss it! And I'm thankful I did delete it because for me, it was only holding me back. But then again, that is my story. Not yours. You will know if it's something you need to rid yourself of! 

Jess

Edited February 9, 2016 by JessW

[Jasmine]

Hi Paul,

I have felt the same for awhile now, especially since I started watching Leo. I have not deleted my social media accounts completely yet, but I have found that committing to a routine which involves more reading, exercise and meditation has limited the spare time I have and hence I do not tend to use social media as much as I used to.   

[Argue]

Quit social media? Yes. People are going to disagree with me. Social media is useless unless it's making money for you. 

Social media gives you ZERO progress towards self-development. If you're serious about self-development, you'd give it up. 

Social media distracts you from your true purpose in life. Feeds about Kim Kardashian, kittens dressing up as Santa, and food photos from chipotle are useless. 

Social media is only viable as a means to communicate with like minded people, who want to meet up or plan events/seminars. 

Edited February 9, 2016 by Argue

[MIARIVEL]

If I didn't have a business, I probably wouldn't have a reason to go on social media much. 

Although, I am on Facebook to stay in touch with friends and family overseas but I don't feel the need to see what everyone is doing on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter every day, takes us too much unnecessary time when I could be working on my business or studying or working on my personal development. 

Plus I find that social media can cause a lot of problems, especially in relationships.

We have turned into a world where everything is becoming social media and we have forgotten how to connect and develop interpersonal relationships. 

[ElenaO]

I totally agree with Mia. In fact, I use Facebook just because a lot of people whom I know use it and we use it as a channel for communication.

However, I notice that every time I go to FB I get sucked in into browsing through it. This doesn't last long, but maybe 10 minutes max. Even though this doesn't take long, I really feel strange after doing it (more negative thoughts). I guess it's related to being less conscious while doing the browsing.

[Eddy]

I find Social Media as a way to  easily communicate with others who you otherwise wouldn't have the chance to meet in person, and it is a great platform to do so, but if you're using it to communicate and interact with those near you, you're missing out on the qualities that make you have physical expression and the ones that give you confidence to express yourself in public. 

It is also superficial, with the memes, "love" posts, seemingly "happy" relationships, and propaganda, you'll find yourself out of it in no time

[bbrennan1986]

I deleted all social media apps and have begun limiting consumption of television. Not right for everyone but it's what I'm trying to do I.

[Study]

For me I realized that my Facebook's newsfeed is trashed by posts from people I don't even know well, useless posts, statuses, pictures of foods, selfies (low consciousness). So I got rid of some people and unfollowed most of them which is almost everyone. I used to care about how many likes I get, so I passively liked their pictures to get likes back. I now realized that this was all stupid and not helping me much at all expect increase my invisible social status. 

It basically depends on how you use it, what kind of people are on FB. A friend of mine recommended that I should build a new network of high quality social circle with smart, intelligent, wise people so that I can connect and learn from them. (But now that I have this community I don't think Facebook is even necessary.) 

I am currently logining in to Facebook for few times a week, to get some news, read posts and articles from knowledgeable pages and learn something new.

Edited February 10, 2016 by Thiri

[dmc3dante]

What I noticed is that social media sometimes can amplify your ego, we need be aware of that.

[Myke]

Just turn it off and see. It definitely won't kill you. It also won't completely disconnect you from the entire world.  There is a shift that happens in the focus of your creative energy when you close an outlet which releases it and is not without a sense of gratification.(we all love when people love our pictures) This is where ego starts to separate itself from literally all of reality, but you can actually pay attention to the isolating feeling that resonates underneath an emotion like pride.  It's that "I am better than, or I am worse than" mentality that reinforces the perceived boundary between us and it. 

There is a lot of comparing and contrasting that I would get stuck in when I was cruising around on facebook.  Not that it was destroying my day to day sense of peace, but there was a sense of freedom in feeling ambivalent.  Try 2 weeks without social media to interrupt that behavior for a bit, see if it adds or detracts.  You will at least have a clearer idea of how much or little social media affects your sense of peace.   

[Avi]

I've noticed that every time I go on Facebook I become extremely frustrated, agitated, and annoyed by everything that is on my feed. I'm trying to delve into why this is so. Does anyone else feel like that?

[Rosie]

I do feel the same. i started to delete everyone who annoys me even slightly. now i only have food and few people....

[Locomike]

I truly believe the majority of the content on social media is a distraction from self actualization. 

[bazera]

I agree that the idea of being the fault in yourself is true. We all can have a social media, the other thing is, if we are addicted on it or not. I, myself, am hugely addicted on it :\ I have my Facebook account deactivated for like a month now and, sometimes my hands are literally shaking from the need of scrolling Facebook. That is no fault of Mark Zuckerberg, the core reason is in me, and in my addictive nature. That is what I should work on, If that even takes full elimination of social media from my life.

But the fact is, there are couple of nice things that you can get from social media like Facebook. I have attended couple of events, about which I wouldn't know without Facebook. I have made couple of great friends with it, and I was communicating my friends via fb. Friends, which I am not able to meet daily, but have something to say everyday. But the negative side was so huge, that I had to sacrifice the positive side, because it's negativeness was killing my energy, and I was wasting a lot of my time in scrolling. 

So, the best solution for me would be having a Facebook account just for communicating with my friends.

Edited February 14, 2016 by bazera