Many of us spend way too much time on social media. We’re on it before we go to bed, check for updates when we wake up, use it to pass time whenever we’re alone or waiting for someone, and even take it to the toilet sometimes. Staying connected with loved ones—friends, family members, elders—has proven to be one of the biggest positives of social media. You could scroll down to surprisingly find yourself tagged in a school photo, or see Garima didi’s shaadi pictures which you missed, or even send birthday wishes to your Tauji (thanks for the reminder, Facebook).
If you’re spending hours editing your selfie, or keep opening your posts to check for the number of likes and views on your stories, you are obsessing. Don’t let it take over your mind and time. Your need to be liked and followed in the digital world to feel good about yourself will hurt your self-esteem. Your self-worth needs to come from your friends, family, and ‘real’ life instead of social media, which often isn’t a kind place.
You don’t have to accept every friend request (especially people you don’t know), and you don’t have to follow everyone who follows you. Just because bua ji ki friend sent you a Facebook request, doesn’t mean you have to add her; especially if you feel she would judge and gossip about the guys in your pictures.
If you’re on a holiday, enjoy the moment instead of spending all your time taking pictures of it for Insta likes. Stop bringing your Tik Tok videos to the dinner table and talk to your family instead. Also, stop taking your real-life experiences ‘Live’ all the time. Enjoy that concert, that ice cream, that girl’s night out, and just keep your phone away.
Trigger Warning: It’s common to come across stories on social media that have images and videos depicting animal abuse, domestic violence, rape, gore, and mob lynching. Resist the urge to view such content. Whether you’re curious or you feel you can consume it without getting affected, such content tends to stay with you at a subconscious level. You may begin to lose positivity, feel anger, depression, hopelessness, and a whole host of negative feelings without even realizing why.
YouTube versus Tik Tok; Roast followed by an Unroast; Kusha Kapila versus Elvish Yadav and Lakshay Chaudhary—it’s only June, and we’ve already seen some headline-making social media fights. And we’ve all done it. Someone says or posts something you disagree with, you start expressing your opinion in comments/stories, and then, before you know it, YOU’RE TYPING LIKE THIS. Don’t let people on social media get to you on an emotional level.