8 Reasons Why You Must Delete Your Social Networking Accounts At This Very Moment
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No slow introduction, let’s straightaway get to the hardcore reasons why you should delete all your social networking profiles straightaway.
1. Firstly, I am not even going to talk about the new breed of social networking websites like Pininterest because a) I never bothered using them and b) comparatively lesser people use these new sites. I am talking about the two biggies here that have inflicted 3/4th of the globe by now – Facebook and Twitter. You have probably been using either of the two or even worse both of them by now. The average user spends at least 4+ hours a day on these sites. So tell me for the previous six months, how brilliantly useful were the 180 days X 4 hours = 720 hours you spent on these sites. I will answer it for you – Nothing! You haven’t done one single productive thing on these sites which couldn’t have been achieved without them. Think how usefully those 720 hours could have been for better purposes. And those 720 hours account for JUST the past six months for an average user. Calculate your own time you wasted on these sites over the years.
2. Let’s keep productive use aside and get to personal use. None of us go on these sites to do productive work. We go to these sites because we feel lonely to such an extent that we just need someone to connect to immediately. But here comes the Paradox Of Social Networking.
The Paradox Of Social Networking Sites is that: when you talk and connect to someone, you are supposed to feel better. But on social networking sites, the more time you spend trying to connect and talk with people, the more lonelier you feel.
Don’t tell me it’s not true because you have experienced the same yourself. And this happens because words on the screen are no way a match to meeting people in the real world. Even if you do happen to have a great conversation online, you forget it once you log-out. Landing you are back to square one loneliness. Whereas real life conversations and meet-ups are a memory for lifetime. When was the last time you had a good loud laugh when you wrote LOL ?
3. When you are not chatting, you are scrolling down the infinite newsfeed that keeps generating similar boring content over and over again. I have already written a post on how the twitter feed becomes a mess once your ‘followers’ increase and the same applies to the Facebook newsfeed too. Don’t waste hours scrolling down a newsfeed so boring that it makes your eyes bleed.
4. If you are a more elite social media user, then you are amongst those who never turn on the chat or comment on other users’ updates. Instead you just post whatever you want to and wait for the likes, shares and comments to pour in. Since you are wasting less time than the average user and have probably by now understood that a lot of social networking is simply a waste of time, let me ask this to you. Are you and your life experiences that you post online just worth a few likes and shares? That’s it? All the wisdom, emotion and experience you gained throughout your life that you share on these sites is worth that less? I ask this to you because you are closer than most users on the notion of giving up social networking. Start carefully evaluating your usage of social media and your intentions behind the use. If you are looking for validation, stop. Few likes and shares won’t fulfil your need for validation. This applies only on Facebook because on Facebook, your updates at least stay on the timeline for a while. On twitter, your brilliant 140 character wisdom has only about 15 seconds on your follower’s timeline before it gets gushed by other tweets down the infinite scroll pit. Don’t you think your life and what you have to say about it should have slightly more value than this?
5. How these sites work and make you come back is that, whenever someone clicks the Like button beneath your photos or someone re-tweets you or you get a friend request, a bright notification shows up on your screen. The moment you see a notification, your brain releases Dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released by your brain which gives you pleasure and hence you want it more and more. This is the same reason why you get a rush during the first couple of minutes after logging in your account because that is when all the notifications have piled up and are waiting for you to open. It necessary to understand this mechanism to know why you feel like logging in your social media accounts over and over again.
6. One more common peeve shared by social networking users is stalking profiles. Checking your ex’s profile is always going to make you feel worse irrespective of whether his or her life is getting better or worse. Checking profiles of anyone who is better than you in even a single area of life of life is going to make you feel worse. Plus the more you know about someone from his or her profile, the less authentic your conversation will be with that person, provided you even talk to people as you used to talk to them before using these sites.
7. One more frequent question people ask when told to delete their social media accounts is that, “What will I do with so much free time?” I am not even answering this question. If you happened to ask this question to yourself, you are living your life much-much below your potential.
8. Few more already known side effects of Social Networking (probably experienced by you yourself are), messed up sleep-wake cycle, loneliness, spending good amount of money on cell phone Internet, gaining weight – especially in the mid-section, wastage of time, bent shoulders and back, decreased productivity, tired and puffy eyes, depreciating social skills and overall life quality going down.
Are You Using Social Networking At The Cost Of Your Life?
You have already wasted a good chunk of your life on these sites. Don’t waste some more. Even if you make it till the age of 80, its only about 30,000 days in total. Divide it in half i.e 15000 and that is the age you will start having back pains, arthritis and grey hair. Subtract the time you already lived from 15,000 days. I am 20 years old as I write this. So that leaves around 7500-8000 days for me to live my dream life before I turn into a grey-haired 40 year old reminiscing-the-past man. You are somewhere close to the 7500 days mark too just like me. My job is not to scare you, but to tell you to use your youth wisely. Delete your social networking account.