This was a week filled with more social media stupidity than usual. In a single day I read two disturbing stories that got me thinking about the dangers of our social media addiction.
In one, an excited baseball fan posted a picture of his World Series ticket (with the bar code visible) only to an observant thief take the bar code off his post and use it to steal his ticket and get into the game instead. In another, a couple fell to their deaths off a cliff in Yosemite National Park while trying to take a selfie.
Clearly we need help curbing our over reliance on mobile phones. This same week, author and startup advisor Sarah K. Peck wrote a fascinating article about four experiments she tried in order to overcome her own social media addiction. Her theories to test included avoiding social media for 30 days, limiting herself to a single “social media happy hour” for one hour a day, and using blocking apps like Freedom to control where she spent her time.
Her discovery, aside from the fact that avoiding social media is hard, is that self-discipline is key but that means something different for everyone. For some, this might mean removing social media apps from your phone altogether. For others, perhaps it’s using a time limiting app such as Freedom to limit your time on social media altogether.
Regardless of the tool or technique you use, finding ways to curb your addiction is not only possible today – it might just offer the side benefit of saving your life.
