Destructive Addiction

One particular friend I have, has a regular habit of hopping on Facebook and liking the inspirational and motivational photo quotes that I post my profile each day. He's been battling with depression, and was very appreciative of some of the messages I would post to help him think positive, focus on his happiness, and improve his mindset. Over the past week or so though, I noticed that he had stopped doing so, plus I also noticed that he stopped posting anything on his own profile also, so I became a little concerned. I took the opportunity to direct message him, just to check in on him and make sure he was okay. Thankfully, all was good with him, and he's actually away enjoying himself on a holiday, which is great news. He did mention to me though, that he had indeed stopped posting content, and liking my quotes, because he has taken it upon himself to withdraw from engaging in social media, in a bid to protect his mental health. He had been the subject of constant judgement, criticism, and harassment, from many of his so called friends and associates, whilst also being tired with the lack of support, care, compassion, and understanding, of his current health situation. Upon hearing this, I could totally resonate with what he was saying. I, myself, once posted opinions, beliefs, views, and personal feelings on my Facebook profile, and I too, would get criticized, judged, and harassed, also by my friends and even family members. A couple of years ago, I realized just how toxic social media really can be. Whilst everybody is entitled to an opinion, and also entitled to share it on social media, no one has the right to criticize, belittle, harass, bully, and demean, anyone else for their opinion, whether it may be right or wrong! It's why I made the decision to not post opinions, beliefs, or even anything with no substance or purpose, any longer, and instead, I have just been sharing uplifting and beneficial quotes.

The inception of social media was actually a wonderful idea. A platform to connect with friends, family, loved ones, and even strangers, all around the world, with the benefit of being able to share photos, proved to be a master stroke to enhance communication. The problem with social media, is what the founders have allowed their relative projects to become. Now let's not dismiss the positives, as there are indeed some. From a business perspective, it has been a revelation. The ability to advertise their respective products and services, courtesy of an advertisement that appears in people's feeds, right before their eyes, makes it a marketer's dream. For someone like me also, I have the benefit of being able to share motivational and inspirational quotes and content, for people all around the world, to view, like, and share, which also makes social media a brilliant concept, because the world needs a lot more positivity and uplifting. And of course, we can't go past praising social media's original purpose, as I mentioned above, in having the convenience of being able to connect with family, friends, other loved ones, and even being able to meet new friends from around the world, adds another positive to social media. Sadly though, that's where the positives end, and this is where the founders have allowed their dollars to become more important than people's mental health and safety. They have allowed their platform to become a hub of bullying, harassment, negativity, abuse, criticism, judgement, and hatred, yet they don't seem to care. They have their respective guidelines, terms, conditions, and all, but they don't do anywhere near enough to prevent all this blatant nastiness from going on, nor do they protect their users from being exposed to it! The result; we see many people suffering depression, anxiety, and other mental health illnesses, to the point where the bullying, abuse, and harassment, has led many people to take their own lives.

Let's be honest here, social media has basically now become the number one outlet for people to release their anger, frustration, bitterness, hurt, and hatred. Because most people are living their life void of ongoing happiness, satisfaction, fulfillment, success, and prosperity, they become angry and frustrated. If something isn't going their way, they will whinge and complain to others on social media, all in the attempt to gain attention, sympathy, and compassion. They yearn for others to resonate with them, so they are made to feel important, accepted, liked, and respected. The more likes, comments, and shares, they can get, the more important they begin to feel, giving them a boost to their ego. Sadly, it takes them to resort to negativity, in order to feel acknowledged, and that's only because most other people worldwide operate from the same negative mindset. The ongoing frustration and unhappiness that these people experience often leads to anger and resentment. It only takes someone to make a comment, or to state an opinion, and rather than be accepting of a difference in opinion, these people pounce on the opportunity to release some of their anger and frustration, which sadly is then taken out on the person who made the comment. They seek to incite a heated debate, so they then have reason to explode in anger, but the worst part is, the exchange of words fast turns from a debate into becoming a personal attack. What's often said can be extremely hurtful, and considering they don't know what personal issues and circumstances the other person is dealing with in their life, the nastiness and hurtful comments may just become that final trigger that leads that person to depression, or even worse, suicide.

It's bad enough that social media has become a platform for bullying, harassment, anger, criticism, judgement, and hatred, but what's even worse is the number of people who are addicted to social media. You only need to walk around a shopping mall, past a bus stop, or even just from a simple look around the dinner table, and you will quickly see the ridiculous number of people who are surgically attached to their mobile phone, browsing through the various social media platforms. Whether they are taking selfies for Snapchat or Instagram, or searching for gossip on Facebook, or airing their political views and opinions on Twitter, or whatever it may be, the stark reality is that social media has officially become an addiction for so many people. We all know that most addictions are not a good thing! I personally know someone who is obsessed with social media, and spends every second minute on their phone browsing for gossip, or seeking posts they can comment on, or taking pointless photos of nothing just for the purpose of sending a Snapchat. The saddest part of all, they love to portray themselves in a totally different light to what's really going on behind the scenes in their life, in a bid to keep up appearances. I have witnessed this person do this for many years on end, and I have even expressed my concerns to them about it, which they just shrugged off. They unfortunately do not understand the amount of time they are wasting indulging in social media, which is producing zero results in their life, when they could be using this precious time to be enjoying more quality time with their family, or to be using the time productively to be working towards their goals, or to be reading and engaging in some personal development content. Sadly, they are far from the only person in the world to have become a victim of social media addiction.

We don't need to be sharing our personal lives on social media for the world to see. We don't need to be posting photos of what we are having for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. We don't need to be expressing our emotions and feelings with the world. We certainly don't need to be hateful, nasty, spiteful, and bitter, towards others either, be that in person or on social media. If the founders of these social media platforms aren't being serious or proactive in ridding of the bullying, harassment, and negativity, that is taking place on their respective sites, then the onus is on us to do something about it ourselves. There is enough negativity and hatred in the world as it is, that we don't need to expose our mindset to more of it. We want to be operating from a positive mindset, we want to be helping others, we want to be uplifting others, we want to be inspiring others, we want to be encouraging others, not be taken our frustrations and anger out on others. What we display on our social media page impacts our brand and reputation. If we are sharing something negative, perhaps an opinion of something we are totally against, or a negative emotion, all we are doing by sharing it, is spreading that negativity. Positive results and emotions, such as happiness, success, fulfillment, and satisfaction, aren't ever generated from a negative mindset. If we want positive results in our life, we need to disengage from the negativity. That may mean deleting some negative, pessimistic, and toxic people from your social media friends list. It may mean you have to add more motivational speakers and positive content to your list. Fill your feed up with positivity, so you are exposing yourself to more positivity. Post content that is inspirational, uplifting, motivational, and beneficial to others. Don't be tempted into posting or sharing negativity. Above all, do away with your addiction to social media. By all means, take a break a couple of times during the day to get on social media and gain some inspiration from some of the wonderful positive content that can be found on there, but otherwise, use the time you normally would spend on there, pointlessly taking photos, or searching for gossip, or expressing your frustrations and anger, to instead be using the time productively, like working on your goals' actions. Unless used effectively, social media is a destructive addiction that eats into valuable time of your life, whilst negatively influencing your mindset. Don't become a statistic of this addiction!

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