Social media is an alluring oasis, which entertains the mind with endless information. Feeding the basic human desire for connection. Social media is sweet satisfaction, that allows a user to communicate with people around the world. Amusing an individual while they become updated on both private and global events, social media is communicative candy. With so many different flavors, it is hard to not to sacrifice productivity in exchange for scrolling through a news feed or browsing some tweets, after simply trying to respond to a message in your inbox. Unfortunately, social media has become too sweet, it is too good of a distraction. Eventually a child will become sick, if they spend too much time in a candy shop. Social media is both powerful and entertaining but too much of it can become both a physical and psychological distraction, perhaps even an addiction.
Logging off facebook may be easier said than accomplished. The needless amount of time spent on social media can be a challenge to even realize. The allure of social media can be explained by the effect it has on the brain, which is similar to a drug or sugar itself. Dr. Billi Gordon, a famous actor and psychologist explains how the Ventral Tegmental Area of the brain releases dopamine when social needs are met(Psychology Today). Social media triggers this release through its features. Research suggests social media has a profound effect on the brain. Similar to a chemical substance, like sugar, it has the ability to trigger chemical reactions in the mind. By becoming more mindful of social media’s allure, a person can limit over consumption.
1. Turn off your notifications
This is the first step. If notifications from social media or even news apps are popping up on your computer or phone’s screen, it will remind you to log on. This is the purpose of being notified, but more often or not these notifications are irrelevant to your personal life. Therefore by turning off unnecessary notifications to sites that are not necessary to remember, such as acquaintances birthdays, of whom you do not need to be reminded for all 200+ of your friends, then simply turn off your notifications. This way social media will not interrupt your day by reminding you to log on. 
2. Give your social media pages a “spring cleaning”
Having extra friends, subscriptions, or liked pages are going to make more posts and cause more alerts to be sent to your phone. By simply unfriending some people who you may not even remember adding, or unsubscribing to a few different sites will reduce the quantity of needless posts. Make sure to also log off of any game subscriptions or other possible distractions that may also interrupt your attention and lure you to log back on
3. Fight fire with fire
There are actually apps, that are available on both androids and Iphones which can help you reduce the amount of time spent on social media. These apps are designed to help manage and control your social media usage. The iphone app “Quality Time “ and “Moment” available on Android 4.0 + are free apps which allow the user to see how much time they spend on specific apps and sends alerts.
4 . Set your screen to a gray scale
The visual and emotional responses, that the brain has toward social media can be compared to gambling. The bright light and colors attract a user to a computer screen, directing their attention to multiple posts. These pictures and graphics are the frosting on the cake for the most popular social media sites if not all social media, even ads that we do not want to pay attention to.
By setting the screen on your phone to a grayscale, those alluring photographs, red alert numbers, and blue or green messages become less eye catching. This limits the amount of distraction a smartphone screen has. Which will help reduce the urge to open up or continue scrolling.
How to do it ?
This is very simple to do..
On an Iphone simply go into the settings and the click the following
1.Settings – General- Accessibility-
- Display Accommodations-
- Color Filters ( Invert Colors and Grayscale)
On an Android Pixel or Nexus..
- Go to “About phone” in “Settings” , then scroll down and tap the “Build number”
- Select “ Developer options” scroll down to hardware,
- Then select “simulate color space”, then select “monochromacy”.
- Enjoy your liberty!
Enjoy you social media and feel redeemed. There is no reason why social media cannot be used as a fantastic business and social tool. Yet when it becomes a distraction which gets in the way of productivity, sleep, happiness, and prosperity. Then intervention needs to happen, by taking steps to manage our consumption of social media, we learn to appreciate human connection and technology in a practical manner.
