There was a time when a child used to be born in one world and grow old, experiencing the same world. But now the scenario is different. Nowadays, especially after the advent of Social Media, a child is born in one world but rarely lives in the same world.
One soul, One Brain, One Heart, One body, but living in two different worlds at the same time. The first world is Earth, and the second is Social Media; and as a result, it is not only ruining the focus of each and every individual but also their lifestyle and way of thinking.
Social Media has become not just an internet utility for passing the leisure time but has turned into a separate planet. This planet is different than natural planets as this man-made planet has unlimited land, but nobody can live there physically, but more than half of their mind.
Here is an interesting example…
Imagine that you don’t have any idea what social media is. Imagine that social media had never been invented. What would be happening in your daily life?
You would wake up early in the morning and greet with ” good morning instead of opening the social media app.
You would be reading the newspaper instead of reading a mixture of abundant news; you don’t even know whether they are fake or real. Instead of weakening your eyesight with that man-made bright screen, you would bathe your eyes with the natural early sunshine.
During the meal, you would be eating, focusing on food instead of watching reels, stories, memes, and the unnecessary thoughts of people. You would be giving some time to your spouse, parents, friends, society, and kids.
Overall, life without social media would make your life real and genuine. No unnecessary news, events, and incidents on the head, nor worry about the leak of your private life.
Now think for a while, how you could concentrate if you are living life on land and half in the world of Social Media.
All your productive thoughts and ideas are replaced by Social Media.
How Social Media is Ruining Your Focus
1. Here is a funny but real story as an example;
In the Social Media like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, and many others, you can share whatever you want without breaking the policy. So, there are millions of IDs, pages, and groups where people share different thoughts. Some say “Never Give up” while other “Sometimes it is better not to continue; Give up and switch the plan”. Isn’t it funny?
Now imagine you are preparing for something and you read that positive motivation, you may work harder, but when you read that negative motivation, you think for a while Shall I go on or stop? Both statements are true, but the admins posted that stuff according to their point of view, not yours. But your thought surely alters.
Moreover,
You planned for a trip, but a day ago you saw a news on social media that somewhere accident occured. Your whole good mood turned worrisome. It is not your fault, the human mind can be influenced easily, and social media knows it very well how.
There you read thousands of relationship advice, thousands of business plans, success and failure stories, mentally disturbing scenes, and many other stuff in 24 hours. All these social media contents are subtly ruining the focus of your real-life schedule, study and goal.
2. Your Become Dreamy and try to run blindly.
Social Media fills your soul with a comparison mindset, which is why you are unable to concentrate properly. Every day, you see stories of others, celebrating, enjoying, laughing, purchasing luxuries, and even being successful with shortcuts. Now, you start to compare their life with your own.
You wish that your relationship would be like what you see on TikTok, and your success celebration would be like that of celebrities. You may wish they had enough, but I am unlucky. Due to this, all your concentration power shifts toward your weakness and their strength; you start to feel weak, and the rest are happy and satisfied. You become totally dreamy, who always says I wish I were like him or her.
3. The Stories on Social Media May Turn off Your Mood
Most of the stories, reels, and posts you watch on social media are personal opinions. Some content is motivational, some are discouraging and criticizing, while the rest are heart-touching and may relate to personal life. So, these negative stories are the biggest factors that create self-doubt in your heart. You may take them lightly, but these negative social media contents subtly work like slow poison, creating mood swings and disrupting your focus. Although your brain ignores them, your heart captures the content.
4. An incomplete situation makes a day off.
Social Media is seriously ruining the productive focus of the young generation. Let me tell you how.
Incomplete communication creates a toxic environment. Communication and relationships feel different when you are standing face to face and doing a video/text chat. In real life, hanging out solves all the unfulfilled emotions, while virtual chatting increases obsession.
Nowadays, most of the youth seek love through social media. They invest most of their time chatting with the partner, and still, they feel it is incomplete. And the whole day they think about the partner. Sometimes, due to a misunderstanding, there is a conflict that takes weeks to solve. Until then, the brain and heart are stuck in those toxic situations. It may sound normal, but deep down, the trend of using social media to seek love, a partner, and a relationship makes the person fail to pay attention to his/her daily routine, goals, and real-life circumstances.
Body language, gestures, emotions, and understanding matter in healthy communication. Online chatting doesn’t send these intangible vibes to your partner, colleague, or classmate.
5. What are people thinking about me?
For example, you are a highly respected person in society. You understand everything and never criticize others. You live a simple life. Overall, everyone loves you. But one day, you posted something unusual on social media, beyond your personality. The post was normal for you, but not for those people who are on your friend list. So, you get mixed responses. Now, imagine a person who always gets appreciation from others, first time gets slammed. Now, your entire concentration moves toward people’s inner opinion. The self-doubt arose, and you mentally turned weak.
Posting on social media is good until you are getting likes, shares, and positive comments. Once your content starts to get a negative response, your brain’s 100% focus shifts towards the people’s reaction. There is emotional fluctuation, and you become mentally weak. Even though you are just a user(not a content creator), the same thing happens.
Also Read: How to stop Procrastination, slow poison
Now Tell Me?
I am sitting in my room. Nobody is here, I am alone. It is really peaceful because no factor is influencing me right now. I can think productively because I am living in one world. If I feel too lonely, I sit beside my family and have a conversation and continue my work. I have deleted my Facebook account because I don’t want to see anyone’s story, as I know this will affect my lifestyle. Also, I don’t want to pressure my brain by forcing it to share its power in another world, which is virtual and useless. I use YouTube and Google to keep me up to date, but I don’t want to fill my mind with the stories of other people.
By doing this, I feel peace because all the power of my brain is centralized. Yes, I used to have social media, but later I realized that it was disturbing my focus and ruining my life like a slow poison.
When I used to be a user, I used to share a lot: my daily stories, photos, thoughts, and texts. This habit used to give me a negative feeling, like I have too much responsibility for everything.
Later, I decided not to watch or share information. Not to share because no one is going to give me a gold medal because I am happy or successful. Not to watch because I already have my information to process, so I don’t want extra. And I think this is the best decision I have ever made. The best decision to live in the world where I was born. I want to invest my focus on productive things, and I know social media posts will only take my precious time and in return I will give me stress, anxiety, responsibility burden, and overthinking. Besides that, I am not going to get any reward.
So,
You are human. You have only one brain, which functions well only if you are in a healthy environment. But, in this generation, you are forcefully living in two worlds. You are maintaining your personality in two different environments. It has become a compulsion to make a balance in both worlds. If the balance of one world is disturbed, your whole mood is gone. Your brain doesn’t want to process unnecessary information, but you forcefully want it to do so. Then tell me how you can focus properly?
What you should do Then?
Immediately waking up early in the morning, what do you do first? Surely, you would open your social media account to check what is going on. You might watch at least 20 reels/stories, 10-15 text posts, and 30-50 photos.
And the interesting thing is that all the content you see is random. Mixture of comedy, spiritual, crime scenes, relationship, sentimental, motivational, etc. Even your brain feel confusion about what is real and what is fake, what to follow up what to forget. And the whole day, in the corner, your mind plays with the information of those contents.
And before going to bed, what do you do? Yes, you do the same thing, but with double the rate, because this gives you relaxation from your stressful day. After watching hundreds of hours of content, you fall asleep.
Remember that Social Media can destroy all your concentration power, making you a procrastinating person. So, try to do this:
1. Follow the channel according to your goal and hobby.
You may see thousands of random contents, ranging from sentimental to detective. It is time to make some changes. Try to follow the page and group, matching your goal and hobbies. For example, if you are a student and preparing for something, then follow the content that makes your path easier. Don’t follow everything and watch everything. Do not let your brain intreprate deep about futile topics.
2. Don’t welcome everyone in your friend list if you are just a user.
Having thousands of Facebook friends won’t make you a celebrity. Most of the people send you friend requests not because they like you, but because they want to sneak your personal life. If you are a content creator, then it is okay, but if you use social media only to get connected with close people, then don’t accept everyone’s request.
3. Don’t do self-promotion
Self-promotion on social media doesn’t enhance your worth; instead, it may contribute to ruining your focus in the long run. Most people want attention and post their daily lives with family members, minor achievements, and views. This is the worst habit in reality. This habit gives you pressure to maintain the same kind of lifestyle that you display in the social media newsfeed. Your intention shifts to hiding reality rather than concentrating on building self-worth and esteem.
4. Make a routine for browsing and use it for fun
It is hard to establish discipline, but it is necessary for your mental health and long-term happiness. Try to use social media as much as you can. Make a schedule for when you will open it; for example, at 12PM for 15 minutes, 3 times per day, and so on.
Then, do take the contents seriously. Stop comparing your life with others; fish are born to swim, and bird to fly. You have your own life speed, accept it and invest your time in productive work.
5. Don’t seek a healthy relationship there
There are many examples out there, people find true love on social media, but after a couple of month break up happned. Although a couple gets married, divorce happens. However, the majority of youth and teens are stuck in a toxic relationship, thanks to their expectations and social media. The whole day, they chat and think about their partner, creating unrealistic expectations and imagination in their hearts. All the focus goes on the dream that they create for the person with whom they get connected in that virtual world.
Overall, I want to say,
Social Media is the biggest factor that ruins your concentration on study, daily routine, work, and domestic life. A social media addicted person shows less engagement in profitable works because half of their mind is lost in that second world.
But I want to say that that is just a virtual world which doesn’t exist in reality. Being viral there, but in reality, you are depressed, then there is meaning.
Again, a person is born with many responsibilities. Maintaining the balance between the two worlds is difficult. On one hand, you have to live a real life and fulfill all your responsibilities, and on the other hand, you have to take care of people’s opinions about you. It is challenging. That is why, try to live in the single world. Give all the brain energy to real scenarios rather than handling +1k people. The real fame is earned with work, not going viral. And another thing, to earn real fame, it is necessary to have a healthy mentality, which is only possible if you devote your life to one Earth.