Social media has become a part of our
daily lives to the extent that it has
even become part of a daily routine.
However people have taken it a step
further by becoming obsessed with it.
This obsession comes across as normal
for people who have it because half
the time they don’t even realise that
they have fallen into a habit that is
now an addiction. It could happen to
anyone with enough time on their
hands, but if you’re not sure yet,
here’s a list that should shed some
light.
1. You feel incomplete without your phone in hand
You have FOMO and if you know FOMO
means you probably are addicted to
social media. The fear of missing out is
what causes people to constantly feel
the need to check their news feed to
make sure they aren’t missing out on
the latest trending topic on twitter or
are the read a blog post like a pic.
2. If your photo, post, or tweet doesn’t have at least 10 likes within 30 minutes of posting it, you feel pretty bad about yourself.
This is entirely dependent on what you
use social media for. Whereas there
are some people who use social media
for business purposes others use it to
boast about their lives or show how
smart they are by the quotes and
controversial topics they post. The
success of their posts are d=therefore
dependant on how many likes and
retweets they get. The less the likes the
more depressed they get. Sadly there is
more to life though.
3. The hardest days of your life include days when you lost your phone.
There are worse things that happen
every day. Not that losing a phone is a
pleasant thing but it shouldn’t
resemble the end of your happiness. If
it can be replaced, then it’s not the
end of the world, sure you’ll miss a
few calls and messages but life does go
on.
4. You sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to check your
notifications.
Unless you’re waiting for a notification
confirming a major event in your life
resembling life or death, you should
not lose any sleep over it. We also use
social media for communication
purposes but a reasonable person
should know that people sleep at night
and conversations are held during the
day.
5. Your phone sleeps with you like a teddy or in place of a partner.
The fact that you phone sleeps next to
you is another sign FOMO. This is
caused by the need to have it close to
you so that you feel it vibrate. Normal
people put their phone on their
bedside or even switch it off because
nothing important happens on social
networks in the wee hours of the
morning worthy of keeping them up.
6. You speak in hash tags
You know you’re social media obsessed
when you no longer speak like a
normal person. If every sentence you
say is followed by a verbal hash tag,
you need to re-evaluate your life and
re-evaluate your English as well.
Imagine what your Matric English
teacher would feel like if she heard you
speak like that.
7. Your day is ruined if you don’t have enough data for the day
Phones were initially invented to make
and receive calls, everything else is an
extra. Therefore, the fact that you
don’t have data, wifi or BIS should not
signal the end of the world. Trust me,
you won’t miss much.
8. It’s the first thing you do in the morning
We grew up being taught that the first
thing you do in the morning is pray or
brush your teeth. This has however
changed over time as the trend is that
the first thing you do after you open
your eyes is to find your phone and
scroll through your social networks to
see what you missed out on while the
world was sleeping, but then again, if
the world was sleeping, what’s to miss
out on?!
9. You feel the need to.check-in everywhere you go
This is another function for people
who use social networks for bragging
purposes. Such people feel the need to
constantly check-in every single place
they go. Even in bed. The function was
created so people can know where you
are and what you’re doing but most
people have gone too far with it by
checking into 5 places in a day. It
might be informative the first two
times but after that, it gets annoying
because we don’t care.
10. You believe social media is more realer than life
As much as social media is informative,
not everything a person posts is true.
Addicts would rather believe a person’s
posts rather than making real
conversation. Or you occasionally get
the people who think they know you all
based on the fact that they’ve been
your friend on Facebook or following
you on twitter for a year.
