Save yourself from yourself

Social media addiction is not limited to teenagers only.

A large number of Adults also are strongly crippling their life because of Social Media/Smart phone Obsession. (However they won’t agree at all with this)

In many cases though not all, It may be a serious psychological disorder when the person feels restless if he does not see any updates in social media platforms. You will find large number of people simply scrolling their phones all over the time. If you inquire you will find that they may not be doing anything meaningful. Because of aloofness and lack of social activities, they want to gratify themselves by the no. of likes or updates of their pictures, status messages, notifications etc.

On a dangerous note below are some of the examples of misusing social media to harm and impair your life-

- One girl was replying on Whats App while riding on a scooter with one hand and she did not see an open flowing sewer and fell into it. Though she was saved from any serious injuries, the gory experience of taking a dip in the cesspool will not fade away ever from her memories

- One boy was an obsessive listener of songs on his phone. he would always cross roads with loud music. He almost killed himself in an accident while crossing the road


- People pretend to talk on the phone or fiddle with apps to avoid eye contact or other interactions in company of others. When you express displeasure they will try to explain the concept of priority. If they are hooked to that stuff in your physical presence, you are of low priority to them

- People are not able to focus on their jobs in office, because of distraction from these devices. Many times they may access all the banned sites, search jobs and what not. This leads to decrease in productivity and increase in stress as work may be of low quality and deadlines are not respected. Banning smartphones and tablets will help both the employees as well as the employers

- More and more no. of young working people are getting addicted to alcohol. Martin ( name changed ) recalls that for him not even a single weekend has passed in last 2 years without having alcohol. Erratic work life and traffic snarls are the justification he gives for embracing this habit. Earlier people use to drink in a company of at-least one person. Now Social media allows them to go solo and extract the pleasure by chatting with friends/strangers through different applications like Skype, Facebook, whats app etc

- Self-induced Insomnia is another major problem faced by social media junkies. they will go down to increase the data plans, even though it will be unwise to do so going by the rising trends in inflation


- For an ambitious person, who want to become a VP, CEO or CFO, these devices are equally helpful in sabotaging his/her ambition. There was one guy who was very ambitious and Goal oriented person, he wanted to be the VP in the bank he was working by the age of 35 years. But that was some 4 years back. Now he only does only one thing on weekends and in his spare time - Facebook, watching cat videos, Whats app and numerous other such fruitless (he won’t agree though) applications. Interestingly he does not even believes that there is any problem in such things. when asked about his plans of VP, he told that he does not get enough time now a days to keep himself updated. Though deep down he knows that he is deviating from the path which will give him real and long lasting happiness. If you close your eyes and try to imagine the best moments from your life, chances are bleak that those will be from your virtual life indulgence.


- Recently in a first ever disciplinary action of its kind, Three Indian navy officers are to be dismissed from service over their Facebook updates which reportedly included details about where their vessels were docked

- Ironically writing articles on topics like this may also classify as non-constructive use of social media as it will burn up some minutes, which could have been invested somewhere in a more worthwhile cause

So the bottom line is that though there are some very good uses of smartphones and applications, one should be able to balance/limit/discontinue their use if it seems to be intruding into other responsibilities or plans of his/her life

Finally as actor Kay Kay Menon says, " Time spent on these social media platforms is the worst form of communication. I agree under communication is bad but this type of over communication is worst. If I really need to talk to someone, then I pick up the phone and call that person or pay him or her a visit. This constant need to communicate makes people lose their integrity”