Is Social Media a Time Sink? Unraveling the Myths and Realities of Online Engagement

“Will start my studies in next 5 minutes, just one more reel” and without realizing you had spent another two hours scrolling your instagram feed followed by facebook posts and snapchat stories. Covid introduced permissible usage of mobile phones for students of all age groups due to the online classes and non restricted usage to the adults ascribed to work from home. 

Unassisted use and accessibility of the internet is consuming a lot of productive work hours from everyone’s lives. Not to forget, many health and mental issues have seen a raise pertaining to non-monitored social media utility.

One big problem with social media is that it can be addictive. And almost all addictions are destructive. Once addicted to it, you are very unlikely to live without it. Not having access to social media for a couple of days will make you feel you are missing something very important in your life. There are people who cannot afford to work a couple of hours without glancing at their phone screen. And this, in turn, leads to another big problem: Distraction and Time Waste.

Another issue, often heard as FOMO, is also a product of unaccounted internet usage. Wikipedia states Fear Of Missing Out, FOMO is anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on social media. It involves a deep sense of envy and affects self-esteem involving a sense of helplessness.

Unknowingly, Social media may endanger life in many ways we might not have realized. Thousands of people and companies around the world can monitor your Facebook, WhatsApp or Instagram activities with permission from the owners of those social media platforms.  People are getting harmed, duped, and illegally targeted by individuals, groups, or government agencies around the world. A lot have fallen victims to scams, physical assault, and government or corporate blanket surveillance.

Excess of anything is harmful. From undermining productivity to unnecessary wastage of resources both time and money, social media has trapped the youth of the country. Need of the hour requires self introspection and assimilation of discipline in decision making. 

To keep students busy throughout a good part of the day, Lords University, Alwar runs its classes from 8.30 in the morning to 2.30 in the noon and involves extra curricular projects, time-to-time events and other fun engaging activities. Parents must consider extra grooming activities for their wards while deciding their future course of studies in the university.