“I studied for an hour, let me scroll through Instagram for 5 mins”,
”I gave a mock test. Let me go through facebook for 10 minutes”.
How many of us go through these situations again and again in our lives? And How many of us waste 45 mins to an hour on Social media catching up on the updates of your friends or forwarding the “so-relatable” memes?
I think most of us do this, I am guilty of being in this situation again and again in my life for an infinite number of times. We scroll through social media for an hour and then keep our phones aside and think to ourselves,”I will not pick up my phone now” and yet again, you scroll through your insta(or fb) after 5 minutes. You know you have an addiction but you don’t want to confirm it.
Sometimes it happens because you face certain anxiety (we all have it, especially as aspirants) and you want to relax and distract yourself. Its ok and its fine. So a controlled use of social media is fine (which implies 5 mins being 5 mins) is allowed. But when 5 mins turn into hours of Youtubing and Facebook-ing and showing off your Instafam how hard you are studying, we have a problem to discuss and an additction to detox.
Now if you are someone who uses various groups of CAT on Facebook to study -keep aside 30 minutes for that. With that being said, just quit rest of it till November 25
th or till the last exam of your MBA entrance. I don’t need to go into the statistics and analytics of how much time you have wasted till now on SM, you know you have, so now you have to tackle the helpless addiction you are facing.
Now if you don’t fall into the first category,i.e. you don’t refer to the FB groups for your studies,
DELETE the apps. Delete your Facebook, your Twitter and your Instagram. You will face some withdrawal symptoms (Trust me,I have faced them), there will be anxiety and you will absentmindedly pick up your phone and search for the deleted insta app. In that moment, you have to make yourself understand that its ok and you can do this(don’t reinstall the app, you will hamper your progress –even if it is only one day of your withdrawal). You have to understand that you have done something good for yourself and though it is hard, you will get something good out of it.
For those who study from youtube or refer FB CAT pages, take aside the time you need and use it for that time only. If you are vulnerable of being errant then there are a lot of apps and Chrome extensions. Just search social media blockers on google or playstore. I personally use “Stay-focused”. You can block the apps for the time you are not using them and you can even set the timer for your usage (after that, it blocks the app again).
What you can do in those 15-20 mins (or 30 mins)of break:
- Take a nap: Take a power nap or just close your eyes.if you cant sleep just close your eyes and listen to some calming music(ASMR music).
- Watch TV: You don’t tend to watch tv again and again every 5 minutes as you do with social media(don’t start watching a 3 hour long movie).
- Take a walk: Believe it or not, It helps. You just feel light after taking a brisk walk.
- Talk to someone: Tell them about your SM detox, ask them how they are, talk to your mom, dad, your sibling or your pet.
- Do your chores like eating, bathing, sip a cup of tea or coffee.
You will face difficulty for the first 2-3 days but then you will get used to it.
DO IT. QUIT IT. Do it for yourself; you will feel proud of yourself and you will detox from the ever pressurising world of Social media. Do it for the picture you want to upload when you finally attend your dream college (I know you already have a caption in your mind)
ALL THE BEST .