There are definitely some problems inherent with social\nmedia. However, like everything in life, social media use is all about balance.\nMost of the perceived problems of social media that were mentioned seem to be\nextreme views. I\u2019d like to address a few of them using both my personal experience\nand the experiences of Paul Miller, who left the Internet for a year in hopes\nof finding his \u2018best self.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s begin with the idea that social media pulls our focus\naway from daily living and being present in the moment. There is truth to this,\nas you can see when you look around a restaurant and see many of the diners looking\nat their phones rather than talking to each other. You might also see it or\nhave experienced it at the dinner table, in the car, or anytime you find\nyourself drawn to your phone, whether to check Facebook, Instagram or Twitter,\nwhile you are spending time with others. It can be very frustrating to feel\nlike your companion is paying more attention to what\u2019s going on online instead\nof you. Paul Miller said that his sister felt exactly that way when she tried\nto have a conversation with him, which is part of what prompted him to step\naway from the Internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, social media can be used to help you find\nresources for meditation, breathing, or even words of wisdom to contemplate as\nyou begin your day. I personally subscribe to positive quotes and yoga-related\nfeeds to help ground me a little bit. I have the Calm app on my phone for daily\nmeditations and each meditation ends with a quote for the day. When I feel like\nthe quote is exceptionally useful, I share it with friends via Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is easy to get caught up in constantly checking on social media to see what is going on. It can become addictive, which is another very real, rather than just a perceived, problem. However, it is in our control how we use social media, just like any substance. Some people struggle more with addiction than others and we should all try to be cognizant of how much we are using social media and limit it appropriately, just like we might limit sweets, alcohol, or time in front of the television. If you are concerned about spending too much time on social media, you can set limits on your phone for specific social apps, take the apps off your phone to make them harder to access, or make an effort to change your habits just as you might if you wanted to eat less sweets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As to the argument that \u2018social media causes grief and anxiety when we compare our lives to those of our social acquaintances online,\u2019 I argue that our brain is wired for comparison with or without the Internet. I am currently taking the popular Yale University class entitled, \u201cThe Science of Well-Being,\u201d and in it, Laurie Santos discusses how our minds do not think in absolutes, but rather in terms of relatives. Illusions such as the Ebbinghaus illusion<\/a> prove this point. Although that particular illusion applies to vision, the course goes on to discuss how research shows that this also applies to our happiness as well. For example, you may be more or less happy with the same salary increase depending on whether your coworkers received the same, less, or more. There are things you can do to help limit this tendency though. The extreme one is to get off of social media, but that is not a realistic solution for many of us. So instead, consider focusing on the good in your own life, be grateful for what you have, and learn to appreciate other\u2019s good fortune. There is plenty of good fortune to go around. I personally prefer to see the happy things that people post rather than see them airing all of their dirty laundry and problems on the Internet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul Miller thought that he wasted too much time on social media so he gave up the Internet for a year to see what would happen. I found his year with no Internet fascinating. I really expected, as he did, that it would be an amazing self-improvement activity, but he pointed out some findings, which once you think about them, seem obvious. For example, even though, at first, he was able to use his time for more productive endeavors, he eventually found other time-wasters like offline video games. Isn\u2019t it human nature to follow the path of least resistance? I know, personally, that as much as I enjoy painting and drawing, I can usually find something pointless and easier to do instead. This isn\u2019t the fault of social media and does not mean that social media is always a waste of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think Paul\u2019s biggest discovery was the good that comes\nfrom social media. He found that social media brought him closer to family and\nfriends. Just like Paul, I have a large family across the country and social\nmedia helps me stay in touch with them. I am even closer to some of my cousins\nnow, than when I lived nearby. Social media can provide a support system from\nfar away. My father recently passed, and my sister and I in Colorado felt\nremoved from the rest of the family in Pennsylvania. However, Facebook has\nhelped us feel the love of our family and friends from afar. We even received\nsome photos via Facebook Messenger from our friends in Scotland of our families\nvisiting. It would\u2019ve taken so long to print copies of these photos and send\nthem via airmail halfway across the world, but instead, we were connected in\nmoments across Scotland, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, reminiscing about the\nwonderful times our families have shared over the years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the true power and the good that you can find within social media. So again, as with just about everything in life, there is the good and the bad, too much and too little. You just need to find your balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Miller, Paul. (2013, May 1). I’m still here: back online after a year without the internet.<\/em> The Verge. Available at: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2013\/5\/1\/4279674\/im-still-here-back-online-after-a-year-without-the-internet<\/a> [Accessed 7 Sept. 2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Santos, Laurie. The Science of Well-being by Yale University<\/em>. Available at: https:\/\/www.coursera.org\/learn\/the-science-of-well-being\/home\/welcome<\/a> [Accessed June-Sept. 2019]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are definitely some problems inherent with social media. However, like everything in life, social media use is all about balance. Most of the perceived problems of social media that were mentioned seem to be extreme views. I\u2019d like to address a few of them using both my personal experience and the experiences of Paul … Continue reading “It’s a Balancing Act with or without the (Inter)Net”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":985,"parent":81,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-984","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1116,"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/984\/revisions\/1116"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joannadunlap.com\/5665fall19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}