Last updated on March 16, 2016
By: Sara Keen, Editor-in-Chief
Anyone who has graduated since 2010, at least, can probably say they at least know what Facebook is. The social giant is used to “connect with friends” or as a distraction from literally everything.
On Sunday, February 21, I made the decision to quit Facebook indefinitely. My reasons were simple, it was stressing me out and distracting me from everything I did.
The first day was pretty normal. I was a busy so it was not terribly difficult. However, I did frequently find myself hovering over the empty space where the app once was on my phone. I started to notice it more and more as the day progressed and thought to myself, “have I really been checking my Facebook this much?”
On day two, Monday, I had my classes. During class it was not much of an issue, but I did notice how many other people stared intently at their own mobile devices. It makes you feel like the odd man out of the group when everyone else seems to be on Facebook or some other social media network.
I found that it made doing my homework at least a thousand times easier. I was not scrolling through Facebook every few minutes when I would get bored, and basically powered my way through. I had everything finished in no time at all.
I also noticed that my headaches were not as frequent, and my attention span improved a little bit. I could focus at least a little better on conversation, work, books, video games, and everything in general.
The best part about not being on Facebook, though, was that I was far happier with my own life. I was not constantly looking into the fun everyone else seemed to be having, but focusing on the fun I was having. After noticing all of this, I did a little bit of research into how social media affects the mind.
I only did a quick search, but the best short article I found was from degreed.com. It explains that social media can be addictive.
It has all that someone needs: a distraction and positive reinforcement (likes, for example) for using it. There is even a scale to the measure the addiction known as The Berge Facebook Addiction Scale.
The website also points out that it can cause us to be unhappy by comparing ourselves to others. If you are scrolling through the newsfeed and seeing nothing but vacation photos, engagement announcements or parties you weren’t invited to after a long and difficult day, then you will think your life is awful.
The same could even be said for physical appearance. How many of us see an attractive person online and think, “damn, why can’t I look like that?” It has probably happened at least once to any social media user.
It can even cause restlessness. This can be anything from a constant distraction to not being able to sleep because you are too busy scrolling. Maybe something happened and you just cannot stop following it, but you really need to.
That being said, Facebook really is not entirely bad. I did not completely delete my Facebook, although I know several people who have. I still use messenger app to talk to some friends, and I will probably give it the occasional check or update.
It is a great way to stay in touch with the people you do not see regularly. It simply needs to be used in moderation. I suggest everyone try at least deleting their app, you could have different results.
Comments are closed.