Social Media Rehab

I am on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and I have De.Li.Cious, Ping as well as Tumblr accounts among others. As long as my computer is on you can be sure two or all of these social media sites are open.  I have apps for some of these social media sites on my BlackBerry and use every spare minute I have to check up on their timelines.

 It got so bad that I had to get Hootsuite and TweetDeck apps to keep track of all my timelinesand manage all of my many social media and internet activities.

Sounds crazy doesn’t it. I am very possibly addicted to social media. Some people add to this social media addiction the need to read EVERY gossip blog or entertainment site known to the web.

Now while nothing is inherently wrong with using social media, there is a point when it becomes such an addiction that you stop living other aspects of your life and interacting with others that lets you know there is a problem and you just may be addicted to the internet.

Don't let social media take over your life

How do we manage our use of the internet so that we don’t sacrifice the other areas of our lives?

1.       First examine your activities online. Measure the time you spent, what you do, what you enjoy doing and how these add to your quality of life. See which sites duplicate each other’s content so that you can spend less time reading the same stuff on different websites and cut some of the sites that replicate each other’s content from your list of sites to visit.

2.      Set a time limit for yourself on the internet and social media sites. Work on using these sites after your work/schoolwork is complete or during down time.

3.      Stop trying to amass a truckload of “friends” who you do not know or care about offline or have any real interaction with online either.

4.      Cut your networks in half. Don’t sign up for two or more social networks that do the same thing. So choose Facebook or MySpace, Digg or StumbleUpon; don’t do all. Hopefully this will cut the time that you spend online.

5.      Go outside! Get involved in non-social media related activities and go interact with real life people in offline social situations. Play a sport; go to the beach, a concert or restaurant.

It is time to take your life back. I sometimes wonder what I did before the social explosion and then that’s just what I do. I call up a friend and we go to a movie. Sometime I have a bit of quality time with family or just read a good book. Consider these things as great ways to break your online addiction and enjoy life to its fullest.