Checking Twitter updates before getting out of bed, scrolling through the latest pics on Instagram while watching a movie or thinking about your next Facebook status during a date. If all this sounds familiar to you, you might want to ask yourself the following question: Am I a social media addict?
Popular opinion dictates that social media is taking over our personal life. However, as the career focused women we all are, we have to use social media from time to time in order to communicate with our clients, create successful marketing strategies, stay on top of business and keep up-to-date on the latest news and trends. But when we bring our iPhone and/or laptop into the kitchen or even the bedroom, we have to think twice before getting addicted to our technical device.
While the term “addiction” might seem a bit harsh, we have come across some shocking stories that make us reconsider the gravity of being connected 24/7.
Addictions are based on feeding human needs and one of the most important human needs is to feel connected. And while it’s such an efficient way to reach out to clients, colleagues, friends and family we slowly become obsessed with social media.
Furthermore, given the quick and easy-access to a variety of social media tools it’s easy to understand why we tend to lose control so quickly and give in to checking Twitter updates while on date night or watching a movie.
Here at Your Coffee Break, we put together a list of symptoms so that we all can diagnose our level of social media addiction:
– Having more friends on Facebook and Twitter than in real life
– Spending more time on social media than going out to see a movie or practice sports
– Knowing more details about your Facebook and Twitter friends than real life friends
– Finding yourself writing in 140 characters using #hashtags or searching for a contact using @
– Hearing direct message pings during sleep
– Getting frantic when one of your favorite social media sites is down
– Checking social network emails first thing in the morning, at lunch, and before bedtime
– Lying about the amount of time you spend on social media
– Forming first impressions about someone based on his or her social media profiles
– Feeling anxious when you are at a place where you can’t check your smp’s
– Taking holiday pictures only so you could use them as cover pictures
– Tweeting about how beautiful your bff’s wedding is during the vowel exchange ceremony
Here are our 5 tips for a positive way to treat your social media addiction.
– Use your social media knowledge to land a new job. Companies are constantly looking for people who know all the ins and outs of the latest and hottest social media tools.
– Stop stalking your ex on Facebook! Instead of constantly checking your ex or even your friends updates, research your favorite brands and see what they are doing atm. Why not steal some of their community building tips, tricks and strategies?
– Enter a contest, you never know when those fab earring might be yours.
– Find and connect with childhood friends or family members.
